The First Circle — Claudia Hart

The First Circle:
Radical Humanism

By Claudia Hart
And Natasha Chuk

Purchase The First Circle Here

The First Circle: Radical Humanism focuses on the early adoption of computers by a pioneering generation of artists who worked creatively to lay the foundation of contemporary digital art by integrating a wide range of mediums, artistic practices, and theoretical approaches . It seeks to expand the current discourse on the history of digital art — highlighting the evolution of digital art outside of the framework that triangulates science, technology and industry — to demonstrate its relevance in today's artistic landscape.

The First Circle: Radical Humanism is an archaeological project that began with intermedia artist Claudia Hart’s personal quest for identity. Her desire to expand her own story into a broader historical context resulted in a set of criteria emerging from her own life yet demarcating a type of artist who she felt reflected the pioneering spirit of her own generation. According to Hart’s rule set, artists must be born between 1945 and 1960, coming of age in America during the tech-industry explosion that took place during that era. These artists do not work with a documentary or social justice approach; were not trained as computer or engineers nor embraced scientific methods; produced images which were post-photographic rather than abstract and algorithmic; and above all, integrated computers as a significant force in their practice in the period between 1995-2005. Hart’s schema located a group of disparate artists running on parallel creative tracks, bridging experimental film, video, audio, photography, painting, and sculpture. The findings of this rubric identify a first circle of artists working with computers, but also working in free-wheeling, unexpected ways to create art that is uncanny, but also symbolic, expressive, and ultimately humanistic.