Early Argentine Computer Art at the Victoria & Albert Museum Archives, Collections and Curatorship

The Victoria & Albert Museum holds over 700 objects from Latin America. Currently on display in the World Ceramics Galleries are 17th-century ceramic bucaro vases from Mexico, whilst the recently opened Europe Galleries 1600-1800 include a display devoted to material from Latin America. However, less well known are the V&A's holdings of early digital art made in the late 1960s by Argentine artists associated with the Centro de Arte y Comunicacion (CAyC). Research on early computer art practices, specifically art generated in the 1960s and 1970s on mainframe computers and transistor-operated minicomputers, has largely focused on Europe and North America. 1 This predominance partly reflects the fact that sites of artistic production were informed by the prohibitive costs of the emergent technologies. 2 Yet innovative art and technology networks developed beyond this geographical sphere. This article explores a small but intriguing number of digital artworks in the V&A's collection in relation to their cultural and historical context. The article considers the role of CAyC in facilitating the use of the computer as a creative tool and experimental medium, and sets out why this is of relevance to design historians.