Publications and Research
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2024
Abstract
Conversations for this special section of Leonardo first began in July 2023. Over the course of the following year and half, as the framework was conceptualized, papers were solicited, reviewed, edited and re-edited, and editorial deadlines came and went, two pioneering figures in the field of video image-processing passed away: Louise (Etra) Ledeen and Ralph Hocking. While the trajectories of their engagement with the now-widely dispersed community of image-processing artists differed—Ledeen left the art world to focus on corporate projects in the late 1980s while Hocking continued to teach at Binghamton University and remained at the helm of the Experimental Television Center (ETC) until 2011—they both played an instrumental role in the early emergence and adoption of, and experimentation with, image processing equipment. Ledeen was both an artist and an organizer at the center of several electronic art communities in 1970s New York. In addition to making work of her own, she brought artists together and gave them a platform to showcase their work by organizing programs and screenings of experimental video and early computer art. Hocking's contributions almost go without saying. He was not only a pioneer in the field of electronic art but also a community leader and longtime steward of its legacies in his role as a professor and department chair at Binghamton as well as the founder and director of ETC.
Comments
This introduction to a special section on "Histories, Legacies, and Futures of Image-Processing" was originally published in Leonardo, available at https://doi.org/10.1162/leon_e_02581