What we know as computer art began on a December morning in 1968 when Lillian Schwartz grasped a light pen and began to draw.”⁠
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We are sad to learn of the death of Metabolic Rift artist Lillian Schwartz. Born into a family with 12 brothers and sisters (six of whom had died by the time she was thirteen), Schwartz contracted polio while working as a nurse in post-war Japan shortly after the detonation of the nuclear bomb over Hiroshima. The treatment for overcoming paralysis consisted of learning to move her muscles until she could slowly draw with pen and ink. She eventually started piecing together electrical parts and in the process invented computer art. In her advanced age she returned to pen and ink. She was able to send us over 500 images she had drawn from her hospital bed which we pieced together with video artist Hiroo Tanaka @doggytastes and sound designer @33EMYBW into a video which was shown in the basement of the Kraftwerk. She was 97 years old.