Electric Dreams at Tate Modern Surveys Pre-Internet Art and Technology

The Tate Modern's exhibition, 'Electric Dreams: Art and Technology Before the Internet,' showcases four decades of art spanning from the 1950s to the 1990s, setting the stage for the digital surge of the late 1990s. It begins with Atsuko Tanaka's Electric Dress (1956, reconstructed 1999), a garment of intertwined flex adorned with colored bulbs, created during her time with the Japanese Gutai group. Featured are pieces by Op and Kinetic artists from West Germany's Zero group, including Otto Piene's Light Room (Jena) (2005/2017), a revival of his 1959 Archaic Light Ballet. The exhibition also highlights plotter-drawn works from the 1970s, like Vera Molnár's Transformations 1–21 (1976) and Harold Cohen's AARON #1 Drawing (1979). From the 1980s, it includes Rebecca Allen's CGI animation Steps (1982) and Tatsuo Miyajima's LED installation Lattice B (1990). The 1990s section features Suzanne Treister's Fictional Videogame Stills (1991–92). This exhibition will be on display until 1 June 2025. Noteworthy exclusions are Jenny Holzer's LED ticker pieces, Gustav Metzger's Liquid Crystal Environment (1965), and works by Roy Ascott.