In this text, critic Walter Zanini provides a context for the emergence of art influenced by electronic communication technologies in Brazil. He traces the origins of this sort of art to 1968, when painter and theorist Waldemar Cordeiro, in conjunction with engineer Giorgio Moscati, a professor at the Universidade de São Paulo, produced the first works of what they called “computer art” using a plotter. Zanini argues that the tie between artist and machine first developed in Brazil in the late forties when Abraham Palatnik formulated his works of Kinetic art. Today, Zanini asserts [that there is] a new paradigm that places emphasis on the formal/material process of the work and its making. He indicates that in 1972, there were two focal points of these new concepts and tools of artistic creation: the Centro Arteônica da Unicamp (directed by Cordeiro) and Jovem Arte Contemporânea (JAC), the show held at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (MAC-USP) under his direction. In Zanini’s view, starting in the late sixties, “the old nineteenth-century concept of the museum as space of contemplation” was undergoing a transformation. This was due in part “to the information and debates surrounding the two nationwide colloquia organized by the Associação dos Museus do Brasil (the now extinct AMAB).” In this text, Zanini places emphasis on the role played by Spanish graphic artist Julio Plaza—his colleague as codirector of MAC-USP—in the organization of a number of international shows. Zanini states that the first public exhibition of video art in Brazil was held at MAC-USP in 1974. The experimental video art group working at MAC-USP acquired its first camera (a Sony portapak) in 1976.

Walter Zanini (1925−2013), the author of this text, was a critic, curator, and art historian. His work was twofold insofar as he was a theorist interested in the technological impact on art, and an active commentator who in his work as the director of a number of cultural institutions, attempted to support art that engaged technology and effected radical change. Zanini was the first director of the Museu de Arte Contemporânea (a part of the USP). From that post, which he held from 1963 to 1978, he encouraged the production of emerging artists and supported marginalized forms of artistic expression. He was also one of the curators of the first Bienal de São Paulo (1951). In conjunction with Julio Plaza (1938–2003)—an artist from Madrid who lived in Brazil and taught in the Departamento de Multimeios of the UNICamp and the Departamento de Artes Plásticas of the ECA-USP—Zanini organized major events in the seventies focused on communicating the work of artists engaged in experimentation and a conceptual use of multimedia. Due to its exhibitions and equipment, MAC-USP became a focal point for the first generation of Brazilian video artists. As a curator of the 1981 and 1983 Bienales de São Paulo, Zanini presented experimental works of video art, video text, slow-scan, and other media to the public.

For related texts, see Walter Zanini’s “Introdução a Prospectiva ‘74” [doc. no. 1110588] and “[Incontáveis artistas] = [Countless artists]” [doc. no. 1110891]; and Waldemar Cordeiro’s “Arteônica” [doc. no. 1110836] and “‘Computer Plotter Art’—Primeira Mostra na America Latina” [doc. no. 1110487].

For additional information, see Walter Zanini’s “A Arte de Comunicação Telemática” (1998): Agnus Valente (org.), HIBRIDA, Revista Eletrônica, www.agnusvalente.com/hibrida/walterzanini_texto_01.htm available as of February 2009; cf. Ars magazine, São Paulo, 1(2003), pp. 10–34.