Micro Arts Group – Geoff Davis

Founded London, 1984. Generative art and procedural story text from London’s alternative art scene — publicly distributed on data cassette and network before the web existed.

V&A talk by Catherine Mason. Photo shows Piano Bar, generative art animation (1984), with Micro Arts Magazine, (1984). The images are not to scale.

Micro Arts Group was a generative computer art collective founded in 1984 by Geoff Davis in London, along with an international group of artists and programmers with notable gender balance. The group distributed pioneering digital art for the new low cost available micro computers (ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, etc.) on data cassettes (1984) and via the Prestel teletext network (1985) — classic computer and generative art, with conceptual art and text generators, and pre-web net art, reaching the public directly rather than through galleries or institutions.

Micro Arts operated outside the traditional art world, connecting instead to London’s experimental and club scene: the London Film-Makers Co-op, London Video Arts, and Network21 pirate TV. The work was reviewed in the computer press — Computer News, Personal Computer World and fashion magazines including Blitz, and many others — but remained unknown to the academic and gallery world, retaining its original alternative character. It was not revived until Geoff made a website for it in 2019, when it was noticed by Dr Sean Clark, chair of the Computer Arts Society.

Key Works

• • “Abstract Originals” — in set MA1 (1984) Seven generative art displays with menu control. The quotes question whether computer-generated art can be “abstract” or “original”.
    More about “Abstract Originals”
  • Pixel Art — Minimal— in set MA2 (1984) Before the pixel was considered a worthy subject. Each of 45,056 pixels, to fill a micro computer screen, with a 65536 frame pause (longest it did) which is 21.5 minutes — requiring nearly two years to fill the screen, pixel by pixel. Currently running a full session at Computer Arts Society / BCS London from September 2025 until April 2026.
    More about Minimal
  • Text Generator — Story Generator — in set MA4 (1985) Procedural text generation from a short story seed. Distributed via Prestel network. Exhibited internationally 1985–2025.
    “Geoff Davis’s Story Generator (1985) is an early precursor of ChatGPT.” — Georg Bak, historian and curator

    More about Story Generator

    

  • Glitch Art — Carry On Computing in set MA2 (1984) The inner code of a microcomputer flashing and scrolling onscreen, with assorted beeps and shrieks.
    More about Carry On Computing
  • Feminist Agit-Prop — Money Work System in set MA2 (1984) Computer animation responding to Valerie Solanas’s SCUM Manifesto, exploring themes of Universal Basic Income. MA2.
    More about Money Work System

Also published the first ‘fine art’ Paintbox image by an artist in the print magazine (1984); new market approaches for art; Graphics for Network21 pirate TV (1986) and others. Exhibited LFMC (1985) and recently.

The 1980s Releases

• MA1 — “Abstract Originals” · Geoff Davis · 1984 — 7 iconic genertive art programs
• MA2 — Various Unusual Events · Geoff Davis · 1984 — 6 conceptual provocations
• MA3 — Volume 1 · Martin Rootes · 1984 — 5 recreations of art history
• MA4 — Story Generator · Geoff Davis · 1985 — text generator
• Micro Arts Magazine · 1984 · Print magazine with art and articles, to reach traditional (or non-computer) art fans — Editor Geoff Davis

Selected Exhibitions

Geoff Davis

Further Reading

Full archive, magazine scans, people, videos, history and resources.

More About Micro Arts