London: Millenium Press, N.d.

Fold-out illustrated pamphlet. Light age-toning at left fold, but a very well preserved copy.

First edition.

In 1968 London's Institute of Contemporary Arts mounted Cybernetic Serendipity, a milestone exhibition of computer-generated art in the fields of music, film and graphic design. The show prompted Alan Sutcliffe, George Mallen and John Lansdown to found the Computer Arts Society the same year. CAS collaborated with artists across several disciplines, notably with the composer Peter Zinovieff and his Electronic Music Studios, whose synthesisers were central to the musical experimentation being conducted at the time by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Harrison Birtwhistle, Daphne Oram and Pink Floyd.

This pamphlet is a characteristically eclectic hybrid: part manifesto, part recruitment flyer, part art piece in its own right. Sardonic commentary on the rise of computers in the workplace jostles for space with (computer-generated) artwork featuring William Burroughs, and an appeal for subscribers doubling as a forum on the digital future: 'Who are computer people? Will we really have any influence? Do we even want it? Can we avoid becoming a new priesthood? What applications do we want to see? What is our dream? What is our present? Is any of it worth the effort?'

Undated, but an early CAS publication -- and very scarce: we can find no copy listed in institutional holdings.