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Previously Unknown Warhol Works Recovered From '80s Amiga Disks
First time accepted submitter mooterSkooter (1132489) writes "Magnetic Imaging tools were used to recover a dozen images produced by Andy Warhol on his Amiga computer. I would've just stuck the disks in and tried to copy it myself."
Read more about it from the Frank Ratchye Studio for Creative Inquiry, which says "The impetus for the investigation came when [artist Cory] Arcangel, a self-described “Warhol fanatic and lifelong computer nerd,” learned about Warhol’s Amiga experiments from the YouTube video of the 1985 Commodore Amiga product launch. Acting on a hunch, and with the support of CMOA curator Tina Kukielski, Arcangel approached the AWM in December 2011 regarding the possibility of restoring the Amiga hardware in the museum’s possession, and cataloging any files on its associated diskettes. In April 2012, he contacted Golan Levin, a CMU art professor and director of the FRSCI, a laboratory that supports “atypical, anti-disciplinary and inter-institutional” arts research. Offering a grant to support the investigation, Levin connected Cory with the CMU Computer Club, a student organization that had gained renown for its expertise in “retrocomputing,” or the restoration of vintage computers."
from the YouTube video of the 1985 Commodore Amiga product launch
I didn't know YouTube was around in 1985
I bought my first Amiga in 1986
They could have just used the disk drive. 99% of my Amiga floppies still work just fine.
The Amiga 1000 was a surprisingly durable machine, and frankly, Commodore, despite anything you could say about them making "toy" computers at a target price used very high quality components.
A modern PC's power supply will burn out long before a 25-yr old Commodore power supply will.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
The Amiga and its demo scene were more art than Warhol ever will be.
His commentary on crass commercialism basically became crass commercialism itself. Why shouldn't it? It was the same basic idea.
As a wise man once said, "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you."
Futurist Traditionalism
I would've just stuck the disks in and tried to copy it myself.
Possibly that's because you're an idiot. Floppies and drives degrade just like everything else and taking these extraordinary measures gives a better chance of not permanently damaging something priceless during recovery attempts.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
Souper
Digital Archaeology, whoda thunk it?
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
and I just learned to use flood-fill.
CMOA? AWM? CMU? FRSCI? Identifying what an acronym stands for is very helpful when the acronym isn't very well known. Yes I know I can read the article and try to find it out, but it's helpful for summaries too.
In case anyone else was wondering:
CMOA - Carnegie Museum of Art
AWM - Andy Warhol Museum
CMU - Carnegie Mellon University
FRSCI - Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry
You've just found an undiscovered work by Andy Warhol. Do you want to:
1. Wipe it down with Pledge(TM)?
2. Call an appropriate professional for advice?
Because I'm pretty sure that . . . "I would've just stuck the disks in and tried to copy it myself" . . . is the physical artifact equivalent of using some randomly chosen household cleaner. And museum curators are pretty anal about curation of their stuff.
Also, for the love of God, do not use "DiskDoctor"!
I am not a crackpot.
Andy used to hang around the SVA (School of Visual Arts) cafeteria trying to pick up (male) students.
I was in the film school at the time, so I didn't give a crap about who he was. There was another guy as well back then, Larry Gartel, who also used the Amiga to create digital art. He's obviously not as well known as Warhol, but thems the breaks.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
i have a mint amiga 600!
Odds are very high that they where IFF. Commodore created a universal documented format container called IFF back in the day. The Graphics version was completely documented and is evens still supported by a lot of graphics programs.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
thank you for sharing.
If you computer isn't still unique and fun you're doing it wrong.
Life is subjectively perceived but must be objectively assessed.
Futurist Traditionalism
Have gnu, will travel.
His commentary on crass commercialism basically became crass commercialism itself. Why shouldn't it? It was the same basic idea.
Whooooooooooooooosh.
No, I think he maybe *does* get it. I got- without having to have it explicitly pointed out- that this a significant part of the implied justification for low-art-promoted-as-high-art.
It's this whole would-be-ironic, self-referencing self-justification that I've always hated.
At some point- one that was passed long ago- it clearly just becomes an exercise in self-justifying would-be-smartassery, a meaninglessly incestuous argument used to sell crass commercialism masquerading as art masquerading as crass commercialism [repeat as often as necessary] to equally odious and wealthy clients who want to feel cleverer and more insightful than they actually are. Sometimes obscenely overpriced and underproduced "art" *is* just that.
"Aaaahhh... but that's the irony, isn't it?" I can hear some smug tosser imply. And the moneyed collectors buying Jeff Koons' latest piece of obnoxious "playful" kitsch nod smugly.
I've had the pleasure of working with the CMU CC for the past several years, broadcasting their Demoparty, Demosplash, on Scenesat the past several years. These guys are seriously passionate about retrocomputing and The Demoscene. They have released some neat Demos for the Apple Lisa and the Vectrex. Good to see them getting some recognition here. They're nice bunch of guys, and the Warhol museum certainly picked the right people for the job, right in Pittsburgh.
If you're in the Retro computers and the Amiga, they showcase a TON of it at Demosplash, both by allowing you to play games on them and by showcasing Demos, so its worth a trip.
Not only does my old ZX still run (had to buy a new RF mod from Radio Shack to test it BTW) but the cassette tape programs still load! (also had to buy a cheap cassette player to use them....)
they use scanning electron microscopy. it's manually a pita however tools are available to dedicated high dollar interests. from there they'ld need to find some fairly common image conversion programs from aminet or fredfish or some amiga software base to convert images into more pc-friendly formats. images woulda been bitmap and not vector so wouldn't exactly move up to png, but getting tiff raw files shouldn't be too much of a task.
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media...
That Venus is not the work of Andy Warhol if I remember correctly. (Well, he might have done the HAM-fisted cut and paste of the third eye in the middle of her forehead..)
I remember seeing it on the cover of one of the Amiga magazines as the full reproduction. I realize that Warhol stole most of what he did from other artists, but surely this has to be a joke.
When you only have 16 colors, everything looks like a Warhol work.
Table-ized A.I.
Seriously ? They could have just asked. They didn't have to go to all that trouble to recover the images. Not only were there backup disks made at the time, but the images were converted and stored as IFF files after the Amiga's launch. I know a few ex-Commodore people who have signed backup disks from Warhol from the training sessions for Warhol, and from the launch itself. The graphics program he used at the launch was an early beta version. It had a more than a few bugs. Area fill in particular was a problem. Before we launch , we went over with him about what not to do during the launch demo. And of course, he completely forgot during the presentation, and went right for that button. Our rows went entirely silent when he hit that button :-) It was a major relief when the program did the fill and survived. There was a plan B, fortunately, it was unnecessary.
This is why the Amiga Demo Scene was so amazing.
(Other brands had good demo scenes as well. The Amiga just had the best graphics capability of anything you could purchase at that time.)
Futurist Traditionalism
images woulda been bitmap and not vector so wouldn't exactly move up to png
Why not?
The images would most likely be in IFF ILBM format. ilbmtoppm can convert those without any problems.
If you want a png, just add a little pnmtopng and you're done.
alias sudo="echo make it yourself #" ; # https://pipedot.org/~stderr & http://soylentnews.org/~stderr