Four Decades of the Quantel Paintbox
Adrian Wilson et al.

Summary

In this Computer Arts Society Christmas lecture marking the 40th anniversary of the Quantel Paintbox, Adrian Wilson, Bo Bardati and Matthias Papert share first-hand recollections of a machine they describe as revolutionary. Wilson opens with archive footage demonstrating the Paintbox's pressure-sensitive stylus, naturalistic line and luminous colour, explaining how Quantel's Newbury-built hardware transformed television graphics, pop-video post-production and advertising throughout the 1980s, even attracting artists such as David Hockney. Bardati recalls how expensive, union-guarded engineering departments initially kept artists away from the machine, and how MTV became a creative magnet where he produced news and promo graphics around the clock. Papert traces his own path from a German science programme to Cologne television, where he still uses a restored Paintbox and Hal to create broadcast graphics, exploiting the "illegal" colours only visible on CRT monitors. All three celebrate Mark Haylock's ongoing restoration work, discuss the Paintbox's distinctive "fingerprint," the gradual displacement of Quantel by desktop software, and their plans for exhibitions, NFT provenance and archive sharing with the Science Museum.

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