By the 1980s computers became sophisticated enough that computer art entered the media age.
[Note: Page numbers refer to pages in the book.]Peter Weibel
In the late 1960s Peter Weibel was at the center of the Viennese Activists, a wildly Bohemian group of artists who practiced what they called the politics of transgression (pp. 108-9). In the course of their “actions” they often used their body as canvases as in this video where Weibel has blood extracted from him to make an artwork while he holds forth on the end of time as well as the history and future of art and of humankind. Next to him a clearly bourgeois group lounging around on couches largely ignores him, except for the occasional snicker.
Zeitblut – Peter Weibel
Courtesy of the Artist
The Activists had frequent meetings that had the aura of happenings – impromptu performances and fierce arguments over de rarum natura while wild atonal music blasted. This video captures an era gone by.
Publikum als Exponat – Peter Weibel
Courtesy of the Artist