Alex May's presentation to Imperica's "Horizons" event. BFI, London, 5/6 May 2012. www.imperica.com/horizons

1. Sinclair and Me
Alex May

2. NEW

4. ZX81 BASIC

5. CHAPTER 11
The Code The Result

6. OBSESSED

7. ZX81
• Broken audio
• RAM Pack Wobble
• Loose power plug
• SCROLL = animation!
• UNPLOT = best name!

8. EX81
From the end of Chapter
One:
“Regardless of what you
type in, you cannot
damage the computer.”
This was not altogether
true…

10. Games
The Promise The Reality

11. Lovely Games

13. Ubiquity
A cassette tape found
discarded on the grass
outside St. Andrews
Primary School, Steyning

14. Contemporary(70/80s) Computer Graphics
Sunstone (1979) Tony De Peltrie (1985)

15. Film
TRON (1982) Star Trek II (1983)

16. ZX3D

17. ZX Mandelbrot

18. Copy Protection

19. Lenslok

20. Peripherals

21. What did I see?
• I knew this was what I wanted to do!
• An intrinsic link between code, language, and
image
• My interests crossed boundaries between
code, art, math, music, and science
• Programming was much more fun than
homework (or school in general)
• Crashing computers then was much more fun
than crashing computers now

22. 1988-2012

23. The Result
• Programming for over 30 years
• Visiting Research Fellow: Artist in Residence at
Hertfordshire University
• Co-director of Quadratura, creating audio/visual
installations with sound artist Martin A. Smith
• Head of Projective Geometry at the Institute of
Unnecessary Research
• Exhibited work at the V&A, Science Museum,
Science Gallery, amongst others.

24. The Power of Pixels
Miner Willy (1984) ANSI Gringo (1991)

25. 994,138 (2010)
Each pixel represents a single human life lost
in the UK during the first World War

26. Out of White (2009-2011)

27. Shadows of Light (2009-2011)

28. Animation Decathlon (2009)

29. Other Work
My Robot Companion Recyclowave
(2011-2012) (2009)

30. Thoughts
• A generation was given the opportunity to write
code and experiment with computer graphics,
sound, and other I/O
• General knowledge of the entire machine was
both possible and invaluable
• My artwork investigates the relationship between
artwork, author, and viewer
• I’m trying to communicate the feeling of
externalisation that is both exciting and terrifying
• Programming is not art

31. Lovely Pixels

32. Sinclair and Me

33. Alex May
Website: www.bigfug.com
Email: bigfug@gmail.com
Twitter: @bigfug
Performing AV show at Watermans Gallery on June
23rd for Alan Turing’s 100th birthday celebration