In 2023 Sean Clark went on his first "Computer Arts Road Trip" to visit a number of artists whose work is in the Computer Arts Archive. This year he organised a longer trip that involved visiting Jack Tait, Nick Lambert and Marcus West in Wales and then George and Sarah Mallen, Sue Gollifer and Jeni Cornock in England. The result was a van full of amazing materials that is now being added to the Computer Arts Archive collections.

The Stops

The first stop on the trip was to see Jack Tait in South Wales. The archive has been working with Jack for a number of years documenting his artwork and he has donated five of his grawing machine to the collection. He showed us the latest machine he has been working on and gave us an overview of his progress cataloging his extensive body of work. Both the new machine and the original artworks will eventually move up to Leicester to be stored in the archive.

Next, down to Cardiff to catch up with former Computer Arts Society Chair Nick Lambert and to collect a number of boxes of books and catalogues he had been holding for us. The materials included some original slides from Event One in 1969 and Ecogame in 1970.

While in Cardiff we visited Marcus West to hand over some digitised recordings we made of music he made on the Synth 100 in the 1970s, and to discusses plans for his "20 Print" exhibition in Leicester next year. This will take place at Phoenix. Keep an eye on the Computer Arts Society website for future details.

It was then over the River Severn back into England and across to Twickenham to visit George and Sarah Mallen.

We had expected to be collecting slides and documentation from George Mallen's pioneering Ecogame artwork from 1970. These were amazing artefacts in their own right, but we were also offered 'The Ironwork'.

This sculpture was first shown at Event One in 1969 and has been in George and Sarah's garden since around 1970. The artist is unknown, but it was the subject of an in-depth article by Alan Sutcliffe in PAGE 56 in Spring 2004. In the article he examines the structure of the work and postulates on its rules of construction. Despite being in a garden for over 40 years it is in good condition and is now in Sean Clark's garden where it is being cleaned, prior to being stored in the Computer Arts Archive.

After Twickenham it was down to Brighton to visit Sue Gollifer. Sue is the subject of the next full Computer Arts Society exhibition at BCS Moorgate in London and it was an opportunity to select works for the show. With the support of Anna Dumitriu, twelve large artworks and three small ones were slected for the exhibition and loaded in to the van. We hope that the exhibition will open in October.

Finally, we managed to squeeze in a visit to North London to see Jeni Cornock, the widow or Stroud Cornock. Jeni has been cataloging Stroud's archive prior to it being transferred to the Computer Arts Archive in Leicester. She's been making great progress and we were able to look through some of the boxes. Of big interest to Interact was material relating to The 'Invention of Problems,, two events held in Leicester in 1970 and 1971. These pioneering events are an important part of Leicester's Computer Art History and are the current focus of our historic research. Stroud was the organiser of the events and many original documents and press cuttings can be found in his archive.

Post Trip

This year's road trip achieved a great deal in just three days! The donation of 'The Ironwork' was a real bonus and we couldn't result attempting to make a 3D printed model. The model needs some more work, but the first attempt to print it was pretty good.

More photographs on Google Photos.