CAS Session: How Quantel's Paintbox Changed the World
Adrian Wilson, Kim Mannes-Abbott
25th May 2023, 19:00
Phoenix, Leicester
Part of the Quantel Paintbox Exhibition
Adrian Wilson and Kim Mannes-Abbott trace how Quantel's Paintbox transformed digital image making after its 1981 launch. They discuss its pressure-sensitive stylus, intuitive interface, influence on broadcast graphics and advertising, use by artists such as Hockney and Haring, and why this commercial video tool remains excluded from mainstream art history.
AI Generated Summary
Video Recording
Adrian Wilson and Kim Mannes-Abbott examine the Quantel Paintbox as a tool for digital image making whose cultural influence extends beyond its recognition in art histories. Wilson connects its broadcast origins with television graphics, advertising, album covers and photographic manipulation, challenging accounts that begin with Photoshop. Mannes-Abbott recalls discovering the machine at college, developing graphics for MTV and travelling internationally as a demonstrator. Their accounts emphasise the pressure sensitive pen, intuitive interface, immediate visual response and collaboration between artists and engineers. They describe how commercial demand creates opportunities for skilled operators while equipment remains inaccessible to many practitioners. A survey of exhibition images demonstrates stylistic variety through work associated with David Hockney, Keith Haring, Richard Hamilton and other artists, alongside experimental photography and broadcast production. Wilson explains his efforts to recover overlooked images from slides, tapes and obsolete disks, reconnecting material with artists, families and archives. Preservation involves respecting low resolution and characteristic digital edges rather than smoothing or modernising them. Both speakers advocate keeping surviving systems operational so contemporary artists can experience their creative possibilities. Discussion considers commercial art's exclusion from established narratives, the emergence of a new visual language, and the importance of documenting technical and artistic collaboration.
AI Generated Summary
About the Event
Adrian Wilson and Kim Mannes-Abbott describe how Quantel's Paintbox transforms the history of digital image making. Launched in 1981, the video Paintbox and its 1985 photo-quality successor anticipate Photoshop by several years, offering an intuitive, pressure-sensitive stylus that lets artists draw and manipulate images directly on screen. Wilson traces its origins at Quantel in Newbury, where Paul Keller solves the key technical puzzle and Martin Holbrook designs the accessible, paint-themed interface. The device revolutionises broadcast graphics, pop videos, advertising and album covers, training the public to accept virtual images long before the internet. The speakers recall that demonstrators such as Mannes-Abbott are flown worldwide to show the machine, while artists including Keith Haring, David Hockney, Jennifer Bartlett and Richard Bernstein use it to explore a new digital medium. Wilson also notes that the absence of an undo button and the enclosed hardware-software system shape a distinctive creative workflow. Despite its profound influence on contemporary visual culture, the Paintbox remains largely excluded from the art-historical canon because it was commercial and video-based. The accompanying Computer Arts Society exhibition presents a representative selection of works that reveal the machine's range and argue for its rightful place as a foundation of digital art.
About the Speakers
Adrian Wilson
Kim Mannes-Abbott