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Computer Technology And The Military During The Cold War Era

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Early computer art stemmed from an unlikely place and as the computer technology advanced, minimized, and became affordable, the computer turned into the most important invention of the modern age and has been implemented in almost every aspect of human life. Like video art, computer art started small and progressed with the technology and now is a tool used for many digital mediums.
The origin of the computer resides with the military. The computer itself was created by the military during the Cold War era, when we were in a technological race with Russia. This race was the fuel for massive advancements in technology especially in the sector of computer intelligence. The first Computer’s were physically large enough to fill an entire room. They were used to manage large quantities of data in textual and numerical form. The government backed certain research facilities in the advancement of the computer and some investigated and experimented in computer technology with art and music. 1
Prior to the digital computer, some artists were using manual devices like the oscilloscope, which displayed the waves of an electric signal. Artists like Ben Laposky would record the waves moving by photographing them with long exposure. Because the waves were constantly moving the photographs would show the fluid shape of the wave and its motion.2 Moving forward to the 1960’s, Bell Laboratories, one of the research facilities funded by the government for computer intelligence research,

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