Tony Pritchett
Tony Pritchett
Early CAS
Tony Pritchett (1937 - 2017) was a pioneer of British computer animation and a longstanding participant in the Computer Arts Society. In 1967, working at the University of London’s Institute of Computer Science, he created The Flexipede using the ATLAS computer. The CAS archive identifies this film as the first computer animation made in Britain. It was subsequently exhibited at Cybernetic Serendipity, the influential exhibition held at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1968. His achievement belongs to a period when access to computers depended heavily on universities and research institutions, and creating moving images required combining artistic ideas with technical knowledge.
Pritchett’s involvement with CAS extended beyond this early contribution. The Society’s PAGE bulletin lists him among its committee members during the 2000s, connecting his pioneering work with the organisation’s renewed activities following its re-establishment. CAS’s archives also document his inclusion in Scratch Code, an exhibition presenting early artists who incorporated programming into their creative processes. More recently, the Society’s tribute to Sarah Mallen notes the inclusion of his work in Tate Modern’s Electric Dreams exhibition. These records place Pritchett within the community of artists and technologists whose experiments helped establish computer-based moving images as a field of artistic practice in Britain.
AI Generated from CAS Sources