Roger, Thank you for posting this most enlightening message!
Allan(R) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Roger Stevens" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, January 26, 2004 6:52 AM Subject: FLUXLIST: FW: Obituary, Billy Kluver 1927-2004 > > ---------- > This is a posting from the Arts Council England "arts news" mailing > list. Please send any response direct to the sender rather than replying > to the list itself. > ---------- > OBITUARY FOR BILLY KLUVER > > Billy Kluver, scientist, and writer, was the originator of the > contemporary art and technology movement. He died Sunday, January 11, > 2004, at his home in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, from melanoma. He was > 76 years old. > > Billy Kluver, a Swedish citizen, was born Johan Wilhelm Kluver, in > Monaco > on November 13, 1927, and grew up in Sweden, where his father built the > first ski hotel in Sweden. He graduated in electrical engineering from > the > Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. He also served as president of > > the Stockholm University Film Society and was a co-founder of the > Swedish > Alliance of Film Societies. > > He spent the year 1952 working for Thomson-Houston in France where he > helped install the television antenna on top of the Eiffel Tower and > devise an underwater television camera for Jacques Cousteau's > expeditions. > > He came to the United States in 1954, and received a Ph.D. in Electrical > Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1957. He > served as Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering, at the > University > of California, Berkeley, 1957-58. > > >From 1958 to 1968 he was a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Telephone > Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. He has published numerous > technical and scientific papers on, among others, small signal power > conservation in electron beams, backward-wave magnetron amplifiers and > infra-red lasers. He holds 10 patents. > > In the early 1960s, he collaborated with artists on works of art > incorporating new technology, including Jean Tinguely's machine that > destroyed it self in the garden of the Museum of Modern Art, Homage to > New York; provided Jasper Johns with neon letters for two paintings; > Robert Rauschenberg's sound sculpture Oracle, John Cage's and Merce > Cunningham's Variation V; and Andy Warhol's Silver Clouds. > > In October 1966 he and Robert Rauschenberg organized a series of > performances at the 69th Regiment Armory: "9 Evenings: Theatre and > Engineering." Ten artists -- John Cage, Lucinda Childs, Öyvind > Fahlstrom, Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer, Robert > Rauschenberg, David Tudor, and Robert Whitman -- worked with more than > 30 > engineers from Bell Telephone Laboratories to produce performances > incorporating new technology; and the evenings were attended by more > than > 15,000 people. > > That same year, 1966, Kluver, Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Whitman, and > Fred Waldhauer founded Experiments in Art and Technology, a > not-for-profit > service organization for artists and engineers; and Kluver became > president of E.A.T. in 1968. E.A.T. established a Technical Services > Program to provide artists with technical information and assistance by > matching them with engineers and scientists who could collaborate with > them. > > In 1970 Kluver headed a team of more thant 60 artist, scientists and > engineer to design and program the Pepsi Pavilion at Expo '70, Osaka > Japan. > > Kluver also initated and directed communication projects for E.A.T.: > - pilot projects to produce instructional programming for educational > television at the Anand Dairy Cooperative, Baroda, India; > - Utopia: Q&A, public spaces linked by telex in New York, Ahmedabad, > India, Tokyo, and Stockholm, where people could ask people in other > countries questions about the future, 1971; > - pilot program to develop methods for recording indigenous culture in > El Salvador 1973; > - Children and Communication pilot project to use telephone, telex and > fax equipment to have children in different parts of New York City > communicate with each other, 1972; > - large screen outdoor television display system for Centre Georges > Pompidou, Paris, 1976-1977; > - collaboration with artists Fujiko Nakaya (1980) and Robert > Rauschenberg > (1989) to design sets for the Trisha Brown Dance Company. > > In 1997 Kluver initiated a series of films documenting the artists > performances in the 9 Evenings from 1966. > > In 1972 Kluver, Barbara Rose and Julie Martin edited a book Pavilion, > that documented the design and construction of the Pepsi Pavilion for > Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan. > > He is co-author with Julie Martin of the book Kiki's Paris, a history of > > the art community in Montparnasse form 1880 to 1930. It has been > published > by Harry N. Abrams in 1989 and later in France, Germany, Sweden, and > Spain. > > He and Julie Martin edited and annotated the original English > translation > of Kiki's Memoir's, published in 1930, but banned by U.S. Customs from > the > United States. It was issued by Ecco Press in Fall 1996; and in French > by > Editions Hazan in 1998. > > His book, A Day with Picasso, has been published by MIT Press in the > fall > of 1997, and was previously published by Cantz Verlag in Germany in 1993 > and by Editions Hazan in France in 1994 and was published by Hakusuisha > in > Japan in 1999, and in Korea and Italy in 2000, and in Brazil in 2003. > > A the time of his death he was working with Julie Martin on a social > history of international art communities from 1945 to 1965 in the United > States, Western Europe and Japan. > > In 1974 he received the Royal Order of Vasa, from the King of Sweden. > In > 1998 he received an honorary doctorate in Fine Arts from Parsons School > of > Design of the New School University. In 2002 he received the order of > Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the French Government. > > Billy Kluver is survived by his wife, Julie Martin, a daughter Maja > Kluver of Brooklyn, NY; a son Kristian Patrik Kluver of Boulder > Colorado; > Half brothers Bjorn Tarras-Wahlberg and Lorentz Lyttkens; a > half-sister Ase Lyttkens all of Stockholm, Sweden. > > For more information please call Julie Martin 212 285 1690 or email > mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > --- > You are currently subscribed to artsnews as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe send a blank email to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > >