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Painting the Eighties, one bit
at a time…
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| Painting the 80s One Bit At A Time! |
If you have ever wanted to
create interactive artworks or artworks from alternative mediums such as
electronic waste, this week’s article has you covered with tips, market
insights, and even a brief history of early eighties computing and how it
shaped digital art today! We will also be taking a glance at technology inspired artwork and you might just get a few previews of my next creations!
Technology is often sold with
built-in obsolescence and most people will probably have some old electronics
sitting around that they no longer have a use for. Technology has been
providing creatives with original ways to express themselves since, well,
technology first existed, but eventually, it stops working and all too often
ends up buried in the ground, left to leach toxins into the soil and
groundwater supplies.
Recycling old electronics is
an option, and the best option by far, but the facilities to do this in a safe
and sustainable way simply don’t exist everywhere. But there is also a certain
beauty that can be found in looking at something that previously had its very
own history. An internet router that communicated with millions of other
routers, a phone that would have been used for countless conversations, or a
camera that took thousands of pictures. So where electronics cannot be
recycled, they can be turned into very unique pieces of art.
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| Obsolescence by Mark Taylor – available now from my stores! |
Just a cursory glance around
the internet will demonstrate just how big the market is for this kind of work.
You can see everything from statues to posters, apparel to home appliances.
Sega – a company that created coin-operated amusement machines as far back as
the 60s before releasing major systems such as the Genesis (Megadrive elsewhere),
even set up a Kickstarter to create a Sonic the Hedgehog themed toaster which
would burn an image of the character into the toast.
Regular readers will know that
despite being known perhaps more for my traditional landscapes, for more than
thirty years I have been creating technology inspired artworks, video game
graphics, box art, and retro images for vintage gaming collectors. From 8-bit inspired pixel art prints to the artwork used on the side of arcade
machines, and more recently, the artwork for physical packaging used in special
edition collectors editions of modern retro-inspired works.
Wherever I can, I still use
the original hardware to create the most authentic visuals, it’s extremely
difficult to recreate say a Commodore 64s unique display in something like
Photoshop. If I don’t have access to a physical system I fall back to
emulation, a way of getting a modern PC to replicate whatever system from the
past.
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| One of my workbenches in the studio where I soak test systems and create e-waste art – oh, and also create props! Notice the Commodore 64 to the right of the image – one of a number of systems I use to create authentic retro-inspired art. |
My Eighties inspired
collection, Retro Revival, has become increasingly popular recently and it is a
series that continues to grow and evolve. Throughout this article, you can see
some of my more recent additions to the collection, all of which are deeply
rooted in the nostalgia that many collectors have for the true golden age of
home computing and video games.
As a niche, vintage and retro
gaming and computing have seen a recent resurgence and there are plenty of
collectors who you might never have even thought about previously, let alone
reached. This week, I have you covered so that you can at least step onto the
vintage technology ladder with a little confidence.
Not just prints and paintings…
Whilst you might not want to
extend your talents to manufacturing a Sonic inspired toaster, you might want
to consider extending your art portfolio by using electronic waste. In 2019,
some 53.6 million tonnes of electronic waste was produced and yet only 17% of
it was recycled sustainably.
What’s perhaps just as
concerning is that the raw materials in the e-waste stream from 2019 was valued
at some £44.8 million ($61,44,944 US). The real issue here is that the lost
resources are then having to be mined again, depleting the planet’s resources even further while the unrecovered waste is buried within landfills and left to
create toxins and health issues. Just £7.9 million ($10, 842,789 US) was
sustainably recovered through professional recycling and recovery facilities in
the same year.
Artists have always found use in things that others have thrown out. What might be perceived as junk
will have some value to someone, and this is almost always the case with
vintage technology, even if it is only ever reused to provide spare parts.
CRT TVs and monitors are
becoming increasingly difficult to find in working order, yet a serious retro
and vintage collector or owner of an original arcade game machine prefer the
glow of a CRT over the flat and sharp image produced from a modern screen and
they are happy to pay for that level of authenticity. Now that CRTs are no
longer produced, they are highly sought after by the purists, either for that
distinct original glow or simply because some vintage systems just won’t work
at all with a modern display.
New CRT production is in
demand, yet no one has started to reproduce them. Perhaps, because we have lost
many of the skills required, but more likely because we have lost the
technology and the production facilities to produce them, and of course,
environmentally, CRTs were much bigger and heavier than modern screens and they
were notoriously problematic to dispose of in later years.
Interestingly, cassette tapes
are something else that has seen a surge in demand of late, and whilst one
company continued to produce them in small numbers over the years, they were
very much inferior to the tapes of the past. That has recently changed as
another company have now begun production of high-quality tapes, for a premium
price of course.
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| Tools of the Trade by Mark Taylor – Now available in my store! |
This has been welcomed by the
retro gaming community who have had to transition to utilising after-market
add-ons that allow SD-Cards to replace the need to load programs from tape, but
a genuine retro lover would rather wait for a tape to load and listen to the
noise of data being transferred than have something modern that loads the
programs almost instantly. The retro purists prefer authenticity over
convenience and they’re very happy to pay for that authenticity. I think you
get the idea, the retro and vintage technology community are actively seeking
an anchor to the past, and in big numbers.
Art Projects using E-Waste…
Printed circuit boards can be
used as a unique canvas, repurposed into a sculpture or made into a clock, the
only limit for their use is your imagination. For a number of years, I have
reused old technologies in the props I created for TV and film, and more
recently I have been taking old technology, deconstructing it and turning it
into functional items such as clocks.
Old technology isn’t an overly
expensive medium to create with, so long as you have a constant supply of
components. Waste really is just a lack of imagination but when it is turned
into art, it can unsettle the viewer and make them think about their role in
adding to the overall problem of generating e-waste. E-Waste can be immensely
powerful at conveying some of the most poignant environmental issues that we
face today.
Much of what we see in the art
world today, be that the performing or visual arts, wouldn’t have been made
possible if technology and science had never found a parallel with creative
people.
Leonardo Da-Vinci was known
for his forays into the world of technology, Warhol wouldn’t have become quite
so well known without the Commodore Amiga computer, and the genre of new media
art, a term that had been coined in the 60s wouldn’t have had a hand in the
introduction of the internet.
Technology is as critical to
artists as a tube of paint, whether you currently use digital mediums or you
continue to only use more traditional mediums such as pen and ink. As a digital
artist, I’m not only interested in pushing pixels around a screen, I also push
paint around a canvas, something I would never have done in a professional
capacity if I hadn’t received a small microcomputer as a Christmas present from
my parents back in 1980.
My first steps in home
computing…
My passion for technology goes
back to me being a small ten-year-old boy growing up in one of England’s newly
built “new towns”. Towns that had been developed to ease the overspill
population from the major cities. The seventies had been a decade of innovation
and a hot summer in 1976, and by the 80s, the new town was thriving with new
technology companies providing much-needed employment for the grown-ups. Not
quite like Silicone Valley, think more like eccentric British inventors in a series
of large sheds.
By the early 1980s, life had
changed from the life I had known as an even younger child in the 70s. Accessible
technology seemed to suddenly appear around every corner, beeps, flashing
lights, shiny tech, I was suddenly sucked into a digital world before we humans
even realised what digital really meant.
It was an incredibly important
time in history, it was an era that
would define the tech we see today, and as the population of today reaches a
certain time in life, nostalgia for the period grows stronger by the day. In
part, maybe because back in the 80s we never had to wait for a Windows update
to do its thing, but in part, because for most kids of the eighties, technology
created a happy place that meant you could play games with friends on your
portable TV after school.
Today there is a sizable and
fast-growing market for vintage technology. There is also a market for artworks
depicting vintage tech, and there is a market for technology to be implemented
within art. The question that we need to ask ourselves as professional artists
who are looking to communicate our individual messages to the world, is why
wouldn’t we embrace any of that technology when we think about creating our
next masterpiece?
In life, change is the
default, not the exception. Evolution is baked into every aspect of our world,
from physical growth to scientific progress, it’s little wonder that people
long for stability. Maybe that’s why many of us choose a nostalgic anchor to
the past to remind us of simpler times.
My anchor, as many of my
regular readers will know, is a combination of the eighties and technology.
Having grown up during the dawn of the home computing age, I feel incredibly
lucky to have not just witnessed the beginning of something that has
significantly changed the world in which we live, but something that I have
been involved with right from the start.
Had it have not been for that
small microcomputer sitting waiting for me under a Christmas tree in 1980, I’m
not sure I would have ever had an art career at all. I had always loved drawing
and painting, just as every child does, but it wasn’t until I began to learn to
program a computer that I began to see the potential to create art on a screen.
At this time I had no idea
that anyone had already created artwork using a computer before, but the first
art created with a computer had already been created sometime in the sixties.
By the eighties, the process of using a computer to either create or assist
with creating a piece of art had become more prevalent and the term, digital
art was first spoken.
When I discovered that the not
very powerful device I found under the Christmas tree was capable of producing
some level of visual output, it was a game-changer that opened up a completely
new world of possibilities and it sparked a lifelong passion for the arts, not
just digital art, but traditional art too.
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| Storage Wars by Mark Taylor – now available in my Pixels and Fine Art America stores! |
It’s funny how technology has
changed since the days when I started out creating digital art back somewhere
around 1980. In the old days as they’re now known, you needed a small box that
contained extra memory (RAM) to be precariously connected to a not very
powerful home computer so that you could do anything remotely half productive
with it.
Those small boxes were
optional extras that were also kind of essential, and they would wobble and
crash the computer if they hadn’t been attached with the aid of Blue Tack or
Duct Tape to keep them in place. Excited fingers would vibrate a table just
enough so that you would lose all of the work you had already done, only for it
to be replaced with a blank screen and the need to cycle the power off and back
on.
Computer programs were
available on cassette tape, sometimes they would be available on
interchangeable cartridges, and the code to create programs would often be
listed, often incorrectly, in the computer magazines of the time. Those
listings were the reason I learnt to program a computer, after spending a good
few hours diligently typing the listing into the computer you would find out
that somewhere, there would be an error that you would then need to track down
and debug.
We had, by the eighties, just
about moved on past punch cards and paper tape, transitioning to either huge
floppy discs or compact cassette tape, but we hadn’t moved on when it came to the
public perception of computers. Most
people still equated computers with a science fiction future and geeks wearing
white lab coats huddled around a green screen display in a dimly lit lab. I
knew of no one who saw computers as a viable art medium.
My interest in art had been
piqued, the more I created on screen the more inspired I became to create art
using any medium I could get my hands on, eventually selling my very first
landscape work which was a watercolour painting of Westminster Bridge in London
with a big red double-decker bus driving across it in front of the houses of
parliament.
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| Glow Over A Dry Stone Wall by Mark Taylor – One of the hundreds of traditional landscapes I have created. This one is also available on my Pixels and Fine Art America Stores! |
Landscapes became my thing,
yet behind the scenes, I was still creating on any computer I could get my hands
on. That creativity even stretched to creating computer games on 8-bit
microcomputers, systems such as the Sinclair Spectrum, Atari 400 and 800, later
moving on to the Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga, and eventually the PC.
If I wasn’t creating games, I
was creating graphics for other people to use in their games or creating the
artwork for the box art and I was suddenly earning real money for doing the
things I loved. That Christmas Day in 1980 didn’t just present me with a
computer, it presented me with a lifelong career.
A brief history of computing
in the 80s…
If you plan on creating art
based on vintage technology or create art directly on vintage technology, then
knowing the history of that technology is extremely useful, especially if your
intention is to show your art at one of the many thousands of retro events held
around the world every year. Don’t worry, I have you covered with this, it’s my
other specialist subject having been a collector since I realised that I never
throw any technology away!
8-Bit and beyond…
In the States, the 8-bit home
computer scene wasn’t quite as vibrant as it was over here in the UK. The
Commodore 64 did really well in the USA, but come 1983, the American video game
bubble burst, while over here in Britain, the scene was becoming busier with
more and more home computers becoming available and their popularity increasing
as more and more kids convinced their parents that computers could help with
school work.
Computers of the time never
really did help with school work, there were few teachers at the time who understood
computers quite as well as the kids did.
By now, many teenagers were turning into entrepreneurs and creating
games to sell from the comfort of their bedrooms through the power of mail
order and placing cheap ads on the back pages of one of the many home computing
publications at the time.
It was a lucrative time for
many bedroom coders. I remember a time when you could turn up to a computer
fair to sell your independently produced game and people would constantly be
six or seven deep at the table, literally throwing money at you in return for
the code recorded on a compact cassette tape.
I was earning more money for a
few days of work than both my parents earned in a month, just from creating a
program that would take a couple of days to code or maybe a week if it was
something special. Once I had created the code, I would visit a computer fair
twice a month to sell my wares. Amazing times, but it wasn’t a sustainable
business model in the long term.
Technology was evolving into
something new every week. No one could keep up with the pace and the choice of
technology available began to dilute the market for games. It was the original
print-on-demand model, but without the need for a middleman, but then came the
saturation as the industry grew ever larger.
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| The 80s Handheld by Mark Taylor – Available in the coming days on my store! I love, love, love, painting these! |
The problem with such market
saturation was that unless you developed for every system, it wasn’t viable,
and it also wasn’t viable to develop for every system. Here in the UK, there
were three original staples of the home computer market, The Sinclair ZX
Spectrum which sold phenomenally well in the UK. It was sold as the Timex
Sinclair 2068 in the USA where it didn’t do very well at all. Then there was
The Commodore 64 which did incredibly well everywhere, and the Amstrad CPC464
which I don’t believe made it anywhere outside of Europe in significant numbers.
There were plenty of other systems, Oric, Acorn, MSX, but none would really
find similar market sizes that the Spectrum, Commodore and Amstrad had found.
Those three systems were the
systems that you would develop for if you wanted to find an eager market, but
as 16-bit microcomputers and consoles began to gain popularity, the base of
available models exponentially increased consumer choice and the development of
software became exponentially more challenging. It would be an even greater
challenge when the 32-bit systems such as the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast
arrived.
Commodore introduced the
Amiga, again, a system that didn’t do overly well in the USA, but this was a
system that would go on to enable an artist by the name of Warhol to create
some of the most iconic pop art of all time, and I have to say, he was creating
on the Amiga much later than I was, he was simply better at marketing his work.
I still own my original Amiga and frequently still use it to create authentic
Amiga art.
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| 80s Pop Music Culture Artwork by Mark Taylor |
This is when everything
changed. Suddenly, the lone bedroom coder had to become a team of people and
today, that team has become in some cases, 500 or 600 people strong, often
more, in order to produce a modern video game. The other difference is that in
the eighties, the limitations of the devices became the mother of creativity,
today, we are blessed with plenty of resources to more or less build whatever
we can imagine and add some photorealistic images and a full orchestra in too.
In the 80s, you had to be an efficient coder, today, the software is nowhere near
as efficient as it once was, despite its visual greatness.
The other difference between
then and now is that not only could you create a title for very little outlay
back in the eighties, you could also work on graphics and sound without relying
on too many others. Today, you need the high side of a six-figure start-up fund
and at least eighteen months of development on specialist development hardware,
just to get close to getting your product to market. But, maybe the tide is
turning once again.
What we are beginning to see
today is a return of the indie developer.
Small teams, sometimes even lone coders going up against the big
players, writing smaller games that are then sold via a platforms online store
as a digital download, or, as is more increasingly the case, as a limited
physical edition release which is often targeted towards collectors.
We are also seeing more and
more retro remakes using modern hardware to replicate the look and feel of the
old-school equipment that we once owned, although some of the best remakes
still require huge teams and significant budgets to bring to market. As an
example, you would probably need something like $100,000 to stand any real
chance of success if you developed a title for the Nintendo Switch.
Fast forward to today and the
gaming market that sprung up as a direct result of those early home computer
innovations is now bigger than Hollywood. We’re talking about an industry that spans
the globe and is worth billions in revenue each year, and there’s no sign of it
slowing down. Recent predictions suggest that the video games market will be
worth $200 billion per year by 2023.
Much of the recent surge of
popularity around these old, now almost vintage systems rapidly increased
throughout the pandemic, although interest in them had been gaining traction
for a number of years pre-pandemic. Nostalgia has had a huge influence on the
market, and it has even spilt over into the art world with retro-inspired
vintage computer and gaming artworks becoming increasingly popular, especially
when you look at the number of works now appearing on platforms such as Etsy.
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| Data Corruption by Mark Taylor |
If you are looking for a niche
and have an interest or ideally a passion for all things vintage technology, it
is one of the few niches that you can dive into today that might very well
still be a viable niche in a decade, and there is no other art niches that I
can categorically say will grow quite as fast and still be popular so far in
the future.
There’s a lot of gaming-related artwork out there already and there are some great pieces to be found, equally, there is a lot of work out there already that is fairly generic and I have to
say, there is quite a bit that lacks any understanding of the technologies that
it portrays. The more specialist works are also commanding higher prices, and
if you can bring a new idea to the market, there are buyers who are willing to pay
a premium.
We might not be talking about
a Matisse original level of premium, but certainly, three or four-figure sums
instead of two. A decade ago, some of my retro-inspired original works would
hang around the studio for a few months, today they tend to go out of the door
almost immediately, and they are increasingly being requested as commissions.
As we have seen throughout my
recent blogs about creating retro-inspired works and looking at alternative
niches, your success in this will be determined by how well you stand out above
everything else that is already out there.
Before you embark on a voyage
throughout this niche as an artist, it has to be said that you ideally need to
have at least some knowledge of vintage technology and/or retro gaming, and
it’s even better if you have a genuine passion for the subject, as you should
as an artist in whatever you create.
The market for this kind of
artwork is very switched on to the many nuances of technology and if you ever
confuse your Mario’s with your Sonic’s, the community will let you know, often
quite brutally. It can be a difficult niche to enter if you aren’t currently
creating in the genre, at least until you begin to form relationships with the
community. Thankfully, the community, wherever they are around the world are
almost always willing to engage with you in return.
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| All of my work is created by hand using tools such as Procreate – each line on the board was drawn using an Apple Pencil in this piece. This was a WIP shot of my PCB artwork – more than 60-hours of drawing lines had been completed at this point! |
As I intimated earlier, buyers
pay a premium for technology and gaming-inspired art that isn’t generic, but
you also have to be mindful, especially if you chase the video games market,
that you don’t inadvertently stumble into an intellectual property fight with
the likes of Nintendo, or “Ninten-don’t” as they have become affectionately
known.
Companies like Nintendo are
fiercely protective of their IPR as are many others. It’s also worth noting
that companies have been set up with the specific intention of buying out the
intellectual property rights of long lost companies with the sole purpose of
scouting the internet for unauthorised and unpaid use of old IPR.
Some modern companies with
hugely popular back catalogues actually encourage fan art projects on a
non-commercial basis, but there is a fine line when it comes to making any kind
of profit from the work. There are a few who are perhaps a little more willing
to negotiate the rights to use older IPR in works, although you might find that
there is a curation process alongside a licensing fee that will need to be
paid. No company wants to see their 8-bit character shown in a bad light.
The good thing about vintage
technology is that, whilst you do have to respect the general principles, you
can also take some artistic licence. People tend to value the feeling of
nostalgia that the art brings over and above any precise technical detail, well,
mostly.
Creating technology inspired
artwork…
Throughout this article, you
might have noticed some of my more recent works inspired by vintage technology,
some of which is now being reproduced as mixed media pieces using original
components. One of the pieces I am working on at the moment is to create a
clock that uses an enterprise-grade Cisco router, a device that cost over $1000
( £728 UK) a few years ago, but since the model is now end of life and is no
longer upgradeable with security patches, there is no place for it in any
corporate or home network. By extracting value from turning it into a piece of
functional art, it becomes one less component destined for a landfill.
The paintings I have created
have all been hand-drawn and painted using Procreate on the iPad Pro before
being refined further in Photoshop/Illustrator and in some cases, using
original hardware from the period. Some of the works are more than 70inches in
size when printed out at full size, and they have been included in my Retro Revival
collection of artworks which has become increasingly popular with its focus on
the golden age of video games and home computers in the 1980s.
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| Together in Electric Dreams by Mark Taylor – available from my stores now! |
I’m not sure there is a
specific term that defines the entire home computing/retro-inspired art genre
that also encompasses e-waste art, so I prefer to call it collectively, E-Art,
perhaps it could make it as a new art movement. One thing I do know is that there’s
certainly not enough of it about right now!
Some of the most inspiring
works I have seen made out of e-waste recently have been themed around
Steampunk. It’s a popular genre that has a significant market share of upcycled
works in the art world. Take a look online and you will find artists who have
created everything from shoes to coffee tables out of e-waste, even 3D skyline
landscapes of famous cities, and they’re attracting collectors who are willing
to pay that all-important premium price. More importantly, buyers in this genre
tend to quickly turn into collectors.
Small printed circuit boards
are being turned into keyrings and jewellery, speakers are being transformed
into lamps, cables have been turned into paper towel holders and even an iMac
clone. You can find the projects and instructions to recreate these things
right here.
Adding Micro-controlled
interactivity into your artwork…
I kind of remember when any
computer would take up about the same floor space as a large house, although by
the time I started to use them they were by then, comparatively pocket-sized
until later in my career when I began working with data centre based
infrastructure. Fast forward to today and not only does the smartphone you are
reading this article on have more power than was used to launch a man into space,
you can now accommodate an entire computer on a single chip. A quick technical
note here, your phone might be more powerful than NASA’s space era technology,
but it still can’t launch a man into space!
Devices and computers on a
single chip are now increasingly common, there’s a good chance that something
you already own has an FPGA device within it. Field Programmable Gate Array
(FPGA) is a semiconductor device that is based around a matrix of logic blocks.
In non-geek speak, that means that you can essentially create almost whatever
device you want on a chip and then reprogram it later to become something else.
FPGA can be complicated for a
first-timer, it’s not something I would dabble with had I not have been using
FPGA technology in other projects for a few years, but there are easier options
if you want to embed technology within a piece of artwork.
If you have ever used an
emulator on a computer, and you might have done without realising it, for
example, if you have ever played an old video game on a modern system, then
emulation of some kind was probably involved, especially if any part of the
game relied on or used the original game file. That would have been software
emulation, or in short, not quite like the real thing. FPGA is full-on
hardware emulation and pretty much it becomes the real thing in a modern and
often tiny package.
Using a MiSTeR FPGA device, I
built an entire arcade machine that is capable of running over 70,000 video
games from a multitude of video and arcade game systems and home computers and
it all runs on a device that is barely bigger than the palm of your hand. FPGA
does have a downside right now when it comes to a device such as a MiSTeR, it’s
expensive, although it can be done much more cost-effectively when it is
focused on recreating a single device.
Slightly easier and cheap
enough to instil into an art project is the Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi is
a series of small single-board computers (SBCs) developed in
the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in
association with Broadcom. The Raspberry Pi project originally leaned
towards the promotion of teaching basic computer science in schools
and in developing countries.
The original model became more
popular than anticipated, selling outside its target market for
uses such as robotics. It is widely used in many areas, such as
for weather monitoring and because of its low cost, modularity, and
open design. It is typically used by computer and electronic hobbyists, due to
its adoption of HDMI and USB devices.
And that’s what makes the
Raspberry Pi such a great device to incorporate into art projects, and
especially devices such as the Raspberry Pi Zero or PICO which only cost around
twenty dollars for the most basic versions. The question I guess, is just how
much of a technology expert do you need to be to create an art project that
involves this kind of tech?
I think, for the most part, the
creative process is going to be the most problematic aspect. When you realise
just what the possibilities are, it can feel overwhelming to settle on the one
idea that will add some value to any particular piece of art to turn it into an
interactive work, or a work that has the added depth of working technology
embedded within it.
As far as the technology
itself goes, that is perhaps the easiest part because there is a huge community
both active and willing to provide help and support. I think it is one of the
best communities for knowledge sharing that I have ever come across. Virtually
anyone can learn how to use a Raspberry Pi just from watching 30-minutes of
tutorials on YouTube, and if you utilise pre-configured SD-Cards, anyone can have
a project completed and built within a very short space of time.
It would be awesome if you
understood the programming language they call Linux, but for the most part, you
are able to purchase those pre-configured SD-Cards I just mentioned with both the
operating system and the application pre-installed. Your role is to then
assemble a few simple components using the vast library of tutorials available
on the internet or from the hundreds of books that have been written on the
subject, slide in the pre-configured SD Card and turn the power on.
The versatility of the Pi is
unsurpassed. You can quite literally buy an accessory that will make the device
do almost anything you could imagine. From inexpensive high definition touch
screens to home automation and robotics, cameras, facial recognition, and if you
need a very cheap PC, you can even use a Pi as a fully-featured computer,
especially if you have the latest Raspberry Pi 4.
I have seen Windows 10 functioning
better on a Pi than one of my old laptops, so it is, without doubt, the cheapest
way to get into computing and many of these devices have been used throughout
the pandemic to allow children to access their schoolwork and participate in
remote lessons, this is especially useful when finances have been drained a
little too much and there’s a need to use a computer or access the internet.
Pi’s today are perfectly capable computers in their own right.
Generally, if you can think of it, there is a device that has been made to attach to the Pi that will allow
you to execute the idea, usually for pennies on the dollar compared to other
technologies. Who wouldn’t want to add artificial intelligence to an
abstract painting of the mind?
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| The Raspberry Pi is built within an official keyboard – Image copyright Pi and Pimoroni – the best place to buy Pi devices! |
There are some materials and
components that you definitely want to avoid in your e-waste art projects, used
batteries that can leak, any materials containing lead and mercury, and smoke
alarms that actually contain radioactive components are probably the most
obvious components to avoid. Always check that the materials you are using are
not only safe for you to handle, but they’re legal and safe for you to resell.
You will also want to take
some precautions when creating your projects, especially when using old PCBs
which can have very sharp edges, and using a soldering iron to deconstruct and
reconstruct projects is fraught with risks, not only are they hot, they can set
fire to anything they are resting on. That might sound obvious, but sadly it’s
not, I have known people who have picked up a hot soldering iron by the tip
rather than the handle.
Use a soldering mat to avoid
damage to surfaces and if you can, use a heat resistant silicone soldering mat
as this has the benefit of providing some additional grip to prevent components from slipping. Soldering irons should never be placed on a surface that doesn’t have
a heat resistant mat, instead, they should be stored when you are not using them
within a specialist soldering iron stand but these are inexpensive enough for
you to not have to worry too much about set-up costs.
If you are thinking about
deconstructing old electronics, it is worth researching the value of them
before you do. A sealed iPhone 1 in its original packaging is currently on sale
on eBay for £20,000 although an unsealed original boxed iPhone 1 is going to be
closer to £2,000.
You also need to be cautious
when comparing the prices of vintage computers and technology. Many eBay sellers
will describe their Commodore 64 home computers as being super-rare and will
inherently place a high value on the items. A person’s own nostalgia is worth
nothing at all to someone else, and as many as 30-million Commodore 64s may
have been manufactured, although some sources state it was closer to 22-million
units. With that in mind, the Commodore 64 isn’t actually rare at all, many of
them are packed in boxes in attics having been forgotten about, they’re not
rare, they’re just in hiding and that’s the same with most vintage
technologies. The tech that is perhaps genuinely worth more will be prototype
units or tech that only ever found a very limited market. Equally, you have to
be mindful that this too isn’t the bar to set a value against, I own some very
rare technology, but its value will be from nostalgia rather than being
monetary.
It’s the same with a lot of
vintage technology, although prices have gone even crazier recently after
the graded sealed copy of Super Mario for the Nintendo Entertainment System
sold for over a million dollars. There was though, a very specific set of
circumstances that led to that price.
According to some websites and
experts, the price the game sold for happened in a way that’s not too
dissimilar to the way the murky parts of the art world operate, allegedly, but
it did begin to drive retro prices up and up more widely for everything,
despite there being no real reason for prices to increase. What it did do was
to encourage more people to dig out lost treasures from their attics and list
them on sites such as eBay for exorbitant prices.
You can find the full story on
the Mario game and the auction online, and a number of conflicting views around
why the game reached such an eye-watering price. There is an explanatory video
on YouTube that may or may not present what really happened, of course, I’m not
convinced we will ever know for sure. If you read about it or watch the videos
that have been posted online and you are familiar with the stories from the
murkier parts of the art world, I’m sure you will see more than a few similarities!
Just Google the term, exposing fraud and deception in the retro video game
market and you will find videos that allege what might or might not have
happened.
We artists do love to research
our subjects before attempting our next masterpiece so you will be pleased to
find out that the internet generally has you covered with enough information to
provide you with sufficient knowledge that will more than get you started.
I’ve broken the links down
into sections so that you can pick the most relevant ones to gain a better
understanding of what you want to do, be that create 8-bit retro computer
art, find out the history of any specific computer, or listen to podcasts that
cover all things retro and vintage computing.
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| Turn It Up by Mark Taylor – available now from my store! |
Low End Mac:
If you are already into retro
and love your Mac, you might have already come across a website called, Low End
Mac where they guide you through keeping your Mac alive for as long as
possible. What you might have missed is a feature on the history of Commodore’s
8-bit computer range. You can find Low End Mac right here.
Gamasutra: More
of a general IT related website but with a decent history of Atari’s 8-bit era
for those who didn’t buy into the Commodore machines. Back in the day, there
were only two real choices outside of the UK, Atari and Commodore. You can find
the Atari article right here.
Old Computers: Old
Computers is by far one of the best resources to learn about old computers,
there are currently 1261 systems represented, most with information about the
devices, the peripherals, software and a copy of the original documentation in
some cases. I’m not convinced this site gets anywhere near as much love as
people ought to give it, but I can spend hours on it just browsing systems that
were only available in other countries. You know they still manufacture the
Sega Genesis in Brazil right? You can find the online museum right here.
Vintage Computing: Vintage
Computing and Gaming have a wealth of retro information and it’s not just about
computers. Toys are represented here too, specifically the kind of early
electronic toys that we would once see in Radio Shack, or Tandy as it was known
here in the UK.
I had completely forgotten
about the Radio Shack Armatron, The Takara My Robot Watch which was an
alternative to Transformers, and there are a number of 80s adverts scattered
around which, if nothing else, will either provide you with a healthy dose of
nostalgia or remind you that graphic design today can at times, be really dull
in comparison.
You can find Vintage Computing
and Gaming, right here.
Byte Cellar: I
stumbled across Byte Cellar while looking for Apple accessories online and
found a personalised cut wood Apple logo sign from 1984, sadly, I don’t as yet
have one of these in my collection.
There are a lot of systems
represented here, the iconic TRS-80 which I still need to get my hands on
because it was a great little development machine, and the early Woz and Jobs
era Apple machines seem to be well represented. You can find Byte Cellar right
here.
Stack Exchange – Retro
Computing: I have to admit, with such a need to consume
everything tech-related, I can often be found exploring Stack Exchange –
usually for answers to some strange coding issue I have come up against when
programming 8-bit artworks.
There is also a Retro Computing
Stack Exchange where questions get asked and answers are given. This is an
ideal site if you are researching older technologies for art projects, the
community are eager to support everyone with even the smallest of questions,
and they’re knowledgeable.
This is the site that also
touches on pre-8-bit computing, namely the times of punch cards, and mainframes
such as the Russian Strela from 1953, a system that played a pivotal role in
the Cold War. You can ask all of your retro technology and computing questions
right here.
The Centre for Computing
History: Based in Cambridge, here in the UK, the Centre for
Computing History is much more than a museum, it hosts hands-on exhibitions,
educational workshops and a wide range of activities and events. If you plan to
visit in person, it’s only open on weekends, and there is an on-site shop that
sells everything from a MyZ80 maker kit to floppy disk notepads, and icons of
beige computer poster prints.
Upcoming events which might be
useful for those in the UK who want to start developing skills to add
technology into art will find the Pico Clock event useful where you will learn
to build and program the Raspberry Pi Pico! You can find out more here.
Vintage Is The New Old: One of
the things I really like about Vintage is the New Old, are the news articles
that often showcase recent Kickstarter projects, often projects that are art-related and vintage technology focussed. Recently there was an article on a
Kickstarter to create a deck of 52 playing cards, each paying homage to a
classic video game, with each card promising some sweet 8-bit pixel art. You
can find the site right here.
Commodore News: I know
I have a lot of readers from the USA and I am always minded to research things
that will be suited to both US and UK audiences, and with that in mind,
Commodore News might be just the site that US and UK audiences will both love
given the popularity of the machine in both territories.
The Commodore 64 was huge over
here in the UK and Europe, but until the Nintendo Entertainment System arrived,
the C64 was the defacto 8-bit computer of choice in the USA, alongside the
TRS-80 (also lovingly referred to as the Trash 80!)
For those considering using
the Commodore as a source of artistic inspiration, it will be good to know that
the machine is still huge today and there is an avid army of retro-heads,
myself included, who still continue to both use and develop for the machine
even today.
Visit retro fairs and there
will still be deep queues forming around anything related to the breadbin of
computers, so-called because of its distinct breadbin-like shape. The modern
C64 scene is perhaps the most vibrant of all of the retro communities.
If you want to find out the
latest developments and news, then head over to Commodore News, right here.
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| Raspberry Pi 4 from Pimoroni – This is a fantastic computer that can do almost anything you can imagine! |
The Commodore Amiga wasn’t an
immediate follow up to the Commodore 64, there was also the Commodore Plus 4
and Commodore 16 along with a couple of other variants and we almost got to the
point of seeing the Commodore 65 land in the wild before Commodore fell into
bankruptcy, although a few prototypes did make it out into the wild and the
machine is finally being released as a recreation. An original C65 prototype
will set you back around $20,000 – $25,000 today. The Commodore Amiga was
hugely successful in Europe, not so much in the USA, but it has become the Holy
Grail for some US-based collectors of late.
The Amiga was an incredibly
important computer in the digital art scene. Programs such as Delux Paint
predated Photoshop and gave users an incredible amount of power over digital
imaging, it was also the preferred tool for Warhol who used the Commodore Amiga
to produce some of the most iconic pop art of our time.
The Amiga was also legendary
for its music power, with chip-tunes created by demo groups of the time that
are now highly sought after by collectors of the early demo scene floppies, discs
that would often also contain cracked versions of commercial software with a
musical intro created by hacking collectives of the day. I can neither confirm
nor deny that I was involved in the demo scene for obvious reasons that would
probably implicate me in the grey art of breaking disc copy protection.
The Atari ST (and later the
Atari Falcon which didn’t do anywhere near as well) would be utilised alongside
the Amiga for its incredible, for the time, ability to act as a MIDI
controller, and between both machines, the digital arts and music scene was to
become well established.
I still use both my Commodore
64 and my Commodore Amiga for creating original digital art and a little games
development whenever I have the time. They are incredibly important machines
and anyone who is into digital art should definitely understand where digital
art and music really originated. The scene today is arguably just as vibrant as
it once was, and collectors and fans of the machines provide a ready-made
market for artists who utilise the systems in art projects.
You can find out more right
here.
Atariage: In the
USA, it was all about Atari. Youngsters would never admit to playing video
games, instead, they would play Atari. Atari was also one of the most
influential companies in the history of computing and video games releasing the
Atari 2600 Video Computer System on the 11th September 1977.
The company ran into trouble
just ahead of the video game bubble burst of 1984 in the States, having
manufactured more ET game cartridges for the 2600 than there were 2600 consoles
in existence. They then buried those that were never sold in the desert. Some
were dug up relatively recently and some even still played the game without any
issues when inserted into a working console, despite having been buried in sand
for decades. ET as a game it has to be said was pretty bad and it disappointed
a lot of folk including me.
Atariage is perhaps the best
known Atari website of the modern-day, and you can find it here. It’s
also worth noting that the Atari VCS has recently been re-released, and the
verdict, it’s nowhere near the same as it was, and fans who bought into it are
firmly split into two camps, lovers, and haters. It looks really cool though.
Lemon 64
I mentioned emulators earlier,
C64 forever is one such emulator that focuses on the Commodore 64 (others are
available) and it comes complete with a library of original games and it is
available through the Lemon 64 site. If your research extends to the history of
the C64, then Lemon 64 is perhaps one of the finest C64 resources out there.
You can find it right here.
Raspberry Pi and Raspberry Pi
Art Projects…
If you have ever considered
creating a truly interactive art project that utilises technology, the
complexity might very well have put you off from even trying. Enter the
Raspberry Pi.
Raspberry Pi on Toms Hardware:
There
are some great ideas on this site here, that
will get your creative minds thinking about how you might want to incorporate a
Raspberry Pi type device into your next art project.
The Raspberry Pi scary picture
frame would be an ideal addition for Halloween, albeit probably a little too
late to get something produced for this year, although there is a simpler
Turning Jack-O-Lantern. Perhaps you might want to create a George Orwell
inspired 1984 style facial recognition artwork, although be mindful of any data
protection issues that might arise if you display the work in public!
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| Inky 7 colour screen available from Pimoroni – what a great art project this would make! |
Pimoroni: This
is one site that is frequently recommended to me as a brilliant single source
of Pi-related devices and components, so much so that my next Pi order will be
heading over to them. Pimoroni offer worldwide shipping and prices are some of
the lowest I have come across, even if you have to factor in import taxes,
although they do have a network of global distributors.
This is also where the
potential to utilise a Pi and technology in your art projects becomes financially
possible. The HyperPixel high-resolution screens come either in a traditional
rectangular format, or as a circular display, and they are touch-sensitive,
making them perfect for interactive projects, or to utilise at art shows and
exhibitions. The colours really pop on the screens and I can think of a hundred
and one ways to bring an artwork to life with a Pi and one of these screens, or
even multiple screens.
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| Hyper Pixel Touch Screen available from Pimoroni |
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| Available from Pimoroni – Hyper Pixel Touch Screen – traditional shape |
There are other devices, so
many other devices that you will only get a sense of the number and variety of
them if you visit Pimoroni’s website, but of all of them, the most obvious to
include in art projects for me would be the audio amplifiers and air quality
monitors which would be a fantastic addition to artworks focussing on issues
such as global warming.
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| Audio Amp for Raspberry Pi – available from Pimoroni – I have found Pimoroni to have the best range of Pi Products on the planet! |
Retro Podcasts…
If you prefer to listen to
history rather than reading about it, there are a number of retro podcasts,
although all are not created equal. I listen to a lot of retro podcasts and
have probably listened to at least a couple of episodes of most of them that
have been created over the years, so I have picked the best of the best that
are currently on my daily podcast playlist to share with you!
Retronauts: Retronauts
is described by the hosts as America’s favourite games podcast… probably. The
website to accompany the show is full of articles and includes videos so you
can not only listen to the show but visit the site to get even more context
around whatever they’re discussing. The shows are around 90-minutes long as
many of the shorter shows are and podcasts are released a couple of times a
week.
You can find the website and
links to the podcast to play in your podcast player of choice, right here.
The Retro Hour: One of
my most listened to podcasts is The Retro Hour, a British podcast with hosts
who record the shows every week, and not too far away in Nottingham. Dan, Ravi,
and Joe bring exclusive interviews with some of the greatest names in the
industry, from Atari veterans to modern-day developers who have worked on some
of the latest retro remakes. The Retro Hour Podcast is a founding member of
‘The Videogame Heritage Society’ alongside BFI, National Science and Media
Museum, Museum of London, C64 Audio, Centre for Computing History, Bath Spa
University and the British Library.
If you want a definitive
history of vintage computing, then you can find it right here.
Maximum
Powerup: Another great podcast, especially for collectors of vintage
computer and gaming magazines and publications. Some of the past episodes have
bought interviews from some of the early video game journalists, reviewers, and
editors who shaped computer and videogame journalism in a pre-internet era. It
is an incredibly important and historic look back at an industry that didn’t
document its own progress very well, if at all, during the early years.
You
can find Maximum Power Up right here.
Retro
Asylum: If you are looking for a nostalgia hit, Retro Asylum is
another podcast that reflects on times past and also provides useful tips for
retro collectors and enthusiasts. Covering computers and games consoles from
all over the world, although, with a heavy hint of the popular systems available
in Britain, the team have extensive knowledge of all-things-retro.
This
is perhaps one of the most authoritative podcasts on the subject and there are
plenty of past episodes to listen to. It’s a little like having a conversation
about retro with friends in a pub on a Friday night! You can find the Retro Asylum right here.
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| This is one of my latest works in progress – massively popular in the 80s, the CB Radio! Who remembers the astounding K40 antenna? My handle was Mr Wimpy! Based on the character from the British fast-food chain that is still selling fast food in a few remaining restaurants today! Stay Tuned for More on this one!! |
Arcade Attack: Covering
a range of arcade games and retro consoles, Arcade Attack is another podcast
that reflects on the history of video games and home consoles, PC and even the
retro scene on the Nintendo Switch.
There are also a number of
celebrity interviews from the likes of Al Acorn (of Atari and Pong fame), Rob
Hubbard, who has to be one of the most prolific and most revered video game
musicians ever, and there is a great interview from Tom Kalinske, one of the
main driving forces who were behind Sega in the 1990s.
You can find Arcade Attack
right here.
RGDS: Retro Gaming Discussion
Show: RGDS began as a podcast back in 2014 and has since covered
thousands of historic video arcade games from developers all around the world.
Discussing platforms such as the Panasonic 3DO, Gameboy, classic Nintendo
consoles, Atari, PlayStation 1, right the way through to modern remakes of
classic games, the show is chock full of information. You can find RGDS right
here.
Ten Pence Arcade:
Focussing on video games culture between the 70s to the mid-90s, the Ten Pence
arcade also covers some of the lesser-known systems from the time. There are
also features around the restoration of video games cabinets and arcade PCBs, so if
you are one of the growing numbers of people who are jumping on the recent surge
to have an arcade machine in your own home, then this is probably one of the
best sources of information you will find. They also cover emulation, a method
with which you can emulate many of the systems on today’s modern PCs and Macs.
You can find the site and the podcast right here.
The Ted Dabney Experience: In
association with The American Classic Arcade Museum, the Ted Dabney Experience
is a serious conversation about the golden age video arcade greats. With some
of the most iconic interviews, often with the original people involved in the
birth of games and systems back in the 70s and 80s, this is another definitive
history that is being documented in a professional way.
The hosts, Paul Drury, Tony
Temple, and Richard May, all have a deep connection to the industry. Paul
writes for Retro Gamer Magazine, a British magazine that is also popular in the
USA, Tony holds the Guinness Book of Records for his high score on Atari’s
Missile Command, and Richard was co-founder of the popular geek-culture ‘design
portal’ website, Pixelsurgeon.
Since 1998, Richard has been a
freelance illustrator with clients such as WIRED, Edge, Computer Arts,
Waitrose, Nordstrom, New Scientist and The Guardian. His long-term relationship
with British rock band Echobelly has seen him design the covers for the
majority of their post-Britpop era releases, so if you are still in any doubt
that this is a history that is also steeped in art, Richard is probably all the
proof that you need.
You can find the Ted Dabney
Experience right here.
Retro Magazines: I
collect vintage computing, gaming and technology magazines and now have a
collection that is in the high three digits and growing. From both a design and
technology perspective, they represent a stark contrast to the technology
available today and because the magazines are for the most part, in a physical
format from the pre-internet era, there is a sense of nostalgia every time I
pick one up.
Today, it’s rare to see a
computer magazine, though back in the 80s and 90s there were at least two or
three magazines on the shelves for each of the many systems. What often stands
out is the design and publishing standards of the time, not forgetting the copy
contained within each magazine, they’re sometimes also representative of the
time when there were very few editorial standards around political correctness
and I find that it can be a fascinating insight into just how much the world
has changed.
Retro Gamer: Talking
of magazines, if I didn’t let you in on the retro world’s best-kept secret, I
wouldn’t be doing any justice to the history of gaming. I mentioned Retro Gamer
earlier, and this is a magazine that I am lucky enough to own every issue of.
Published monthly in a
physical and digital format, Retro Gamer since 2004, is a publication that
looks back at the entire history of retro through reviews, interviews, and
features and the publishing standards are outstanding. The magazine itself has
become a bit of a collector’s item of late, and it’s also one of the few
remaining physical gaming magazines available on the shelves in news stores.
There is a no-nonsense
approach that feels down to earth and familiar and often there is a humorous
writing style that doesn’t take itself too seriously. The copy is always very well
written and edited and the production values, especially with the subscriber-only cover editions are in themselves an art gallery of gaming’s greatest
moments.
Covering every major computer
and system, the magazine provides plenty of information every month, and it
provides the inspiration to go out and search for some of the lost gems from a
previous age that we might not have played, or played a lot and then forgot
about. You can subscribe wherever you are in the world and the link to the
subscription can be found on the Retro Gamer website here, or you
can purchase a physical copy from all good newsagents in the UK.
The Importance of Computing in
the Digital Art World…
The history of computing and
video games is fascinating and it’s not something that is reserved purely for
gaming enthusiasts, there is enough history throughout the above websites for
you to get at least a small idea of just how incredibly important early
computers and video games systems are to the modern age.
Without the likes of Delux
Paint on the Amiga, a precursor to Photoshop, it’s fair to say that early
computers defined the way that we create digital art today. It’s also
surprising to find out things like the Sega Genesis (Megadrive outside of the
USA) is still being manufactured and supported in Brazil, despite being last
manufactured by Sega in 1997. The podcasts are always full of information that
will sometimes make you say wow, and other times make you say oh dear. They are
though, performing an incredibly important role in their quests to document
and retain the information that is quickly becoming lost.
Most of the podcasts also
reflect back on the decades between the 70s and 90s, often covering popular
culture of the time and not just computers and video game consoles, if you have
fond memories of any of those decades then you’re likely to find something of
interest beyond the subjects of computing and gaming.
Happy Creating!
Hopefully, you will have found
this week’s article at least a little useful if you plan on utilising
technology in your artwork. Being a long-time collector of technology, gaming
platforms and video games, I have a huge passion for anything and everything
that involves electronics.
I even have a collection of
vintage gaming and computer magazines and am always on the lookout for more,
especially magazines from the USA which I missed out on here in the UK. I love
comparing the industry around the world and there’s nothing more retro than
sitting down with a coffee and flipping through the pages of a physical
magazine with the phone turned off and not a screen in sight!
I mentioned earlier that I
never throw technology away, but in my younger days I did sell on computers
that I had owned for a while so that I could purchase the next latest model. My
parents funded what they could but that usually meant waiting until machines
came on offer towards the end of the model’s life, or as a result of me saving
up. Since then, all I seem to have done is try to replace whatever I sold in my
younger days and lived with the regret that I sold some hyper-rare items for
pennies on the dollar compared to what they are worth today, both in a monetary
and nostalgic sense.
Even some of the magazines
that I had read at the time made me get that warm, safe, fuzzy feeling, and my
own video games were advertised in some, yet I still don’t have a single copy
of a magazine that featured any of my work, or any of the many letters I would
write to the letters pages which got published. I also passed up the
opportunity to work in video games journalism after being head-hunted at the
age of 14, a regret I carry to this day. By headhunted, I mean they were pretty much, taking anyone on who knew how to play video games and write BASIC programs! Big regret, massive, my life could have been so different!
I have to admit that my
digital art studio has become more museum-like over the past few years, but my
ever-growing collection always manages to provide an abundance of inspiration
for my eighties inspired work, and I can justify it by calling it research
rather than hoarding! So, if you are sorting out your attic and need to find a
home for any old computers, vintage computing magazines, or if you need to
either know more about them or donate them to a good home, I’m all ears and
always willing to find space! My bank manager agrees that I should just cut out
the middle-man and exchange my art directly for vintage systems. Maybe they
should create a special version of Patreon where I get funded in tech in return
for art!
That’s all for this time, but
keep an eye open for a future article on popular culture and art through the
70s, 80s and 90s, which might just give you a clue as to what my next artworks
are likely to feature!
As always, stay safe, stay
well, and look after each other, oh, and Happy Creating!
Mark x
About Mark…
I am an artist and blogger and
live in Staffordshire, England. My days are filled with art, dog walking and Teams
Meetings, while still being stuck somewhere in the eighties. You can purchase
my art through my Fine Art America store or my Pixels site here: https://10-mark-taylor.pixels.com and
you can purchase my new works, special and limited editions directly. You can
also view my portfolio website at https://beechhousemedia.com
If you are on Facebook, you
can give me a follow right here, https://facebook.com/beechhousemedia
You can also follow me on Twitter @beechhouseart and on Pinterest at https://pinterest.com/beechhousemedia
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