Spacescope
Date1985
MediumCibachrome print
DimensionsImage Size: 18 1/4 × 19 1/4 in. (46.4 × 48.9 cm)
Frame Size: 26 5/8 × 27 5/8 in. (67.6 × 70.2 cm)
ClassificationsPrint
Credit LineGift of Morgan Schuster, 2024
Object numberUAC7823
DescriptionA starry winter sky with light cones? Fireworks or deep supernovas? A frozen screen from an early videogame? The painter and digital artist Is Schuster (1948-2016) worked with nascent computer graphics technologies during the 70s and 80s, situating herself at a timely and consequential intersection between art, science, and technology. Born in Detroit and raised in Oak Park, Schuster graduated from Monteith College at Wayne State University with degrees in fine art. Though she was a “die-hard painter,”[1] Schuster’s privileged exposure to new digital modes of artmaking during her graduate education changed her approach; her involvement with the Architecture Machine Group at MIT and with the University of Michigan’s aerospace program led to formal, philosophical, and sociopolitical meditations on the significance of digital art in a quickly changing world. Schuster felt her works (such as Spacescope here) could illuminate the potential of these technologies to “form and shape the culture…our minds, and how we relate to each other, and how we think about ourselves.”[2] Her embrace of these new tools anticipated the huge impact they would have on art and visual culture during subsequent decades.
Written by Sarah Teppen
[1] Linked radio interview, 14:35: https://isschuster.com/about/
[2] Linked radio interview, 15:00: https://isschuster.com/about/
