David Em is one of the first artists to work with pixels.

He created digital pictures at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in 1975, and in 1976 built articulated 3D creatures at Information International Incorporated.

From 1976 to 1988, he was Artist-in-Residence at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and at Caltech, where he constructed navigable virtual worlds. His recent work incorporates AI.

Em’s images have been published internationally and exhibited in museums in America, Europe, and Japan. He is the first digital artist to have his working papers collected by the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.

You can learn more about his life and art here.