Program Flyers (PF31 - PF35): Drawing With Vera Molnar: A New Media Archaeology of Early Computer Graphics - Zsofi Valyi-Nagy (PF35)

Zsofi Valyi-Nagy joins NFTuesdayLA to share her research on Vera Molnar (1924-2023), the Hungarian-born, Paris-based pioneer of digital and generative art. This talk takes a media archaeological approach to Molnar’s Lettres de ma mère (1981-1991), a series of plotter drawings that “simulated” the artist’s late mother’s handwriting. By reverse-engineering these drawings using hardware and software that Molnar herself used––a vintage microcomputer and the programming language BASIC––Valyi-Nagy reenacts Molnar’s process to shed light on the collaborative, interactive, and embodied aspects of early digital art, as well as its material history.

ABOUT ZSOFI VALYI-NAGY

Zsofi Valyi-Nagy, Ph.D. is an art historian, artist, and writer currently based in Los Angeles, where she is a postdoctoral fellow in residence at the Getty Research Institute. Her research on Vera Molnar and early computer graphics in postwar Europe has been supported by the Dedalus and Fulbright Foundations, the DAAD, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Her writing has appeared in Artforum, Art Journal, Right Click Save, Outland, and HOLO: Emerging Trajectories in Art, Science, and Technology.

https://www.zs-vn.com/