Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: matt3k on April 24, 2014, 06:19:58 PM
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Enjoy:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/lost-andy-warhol-artworks-recovered-after-spending-30-years-on-floppy-disks-9282576.html
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Great bit of history, but:
The Computer Club managed to reverse-engineer the ancient Amiga format
Hmmm... Hyperbole much?? ;-)
desiv
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I thought you were saying Andy Warhol lost his Amiga collection, but since he's not around anymore. ;-)
But, reverse engineer, what!? Why would they go to so much work? Why didn't they just stick the disks in an Amiga? LOL! what a bunch of banana-heads!:-P
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The trio discovered that the images had entered the museum’s archives in 1994 but had been inaccessible due to their obsolete format. In order to overcome this they got in contact with the Carnegie Mellon University Computer Club, a student organization known for its “comprehensive collection of obsolete computer hardware”.
"Obsolete computer hardware"???
(http://forum.reachingforthetippingpoint.net/Smileys/default/TorchesPitchforksRed.gif)
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"Obsolete computer hardware"???
(http://forum.reachingforthetippingpoint.net/Smileys/default/TorchesPitchforksRed.gif)
Yes The word "Obsolete" leaves a bad taste in your mouth. I'll give them obsolete.
A guy at a store in Australia when I lived there told me my Amiga 2000 was obsolete back when the Amiga was at it's height. Needless to say without another word I walked out. They has since closed down.:)
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Wait? What? You guys think that Amiga hardware isn't obsolete?
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reverse-engineer the ancient Amiga format
Why didn't they just consult the ancients still using this forgotten technology?
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Why didn't they just consult the ancients still using this forgotten technology?
How many here have knowledge of PLBM image format? :-)
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I think the article is very insulting to the Amiga computer, but perhaps they were just talking about this PLBM format and the software GraphiCraft, which I don't remember hearing of before.
I eventually realised that switching to PCs and trying to do artwork in Windows or even Linux software was what stopped me doing computer graphics.
Unfortunately, I haven't managed to transfer any of my Amiga artwork onto any other devices at all. Can this museum, or anyone else help me? If so, then I'll do a portrait of you in DPaint IV or Photon Paint 2!
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Great. Some scribbles on a few floppies. Sigh. I hope we can all agree that the Amiga scene has produced more substantial art.
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How many here have knowledge of PLBM image format? :-)
Apparently all it takes is a small tweak to the IFF header with a HEX editor and, voila, it's an ILBM that can be read by anything.
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Wait, I thought this already happened a few years ago... I was trying to help someone restore the banana2 file but couldn't figure it out. Sometime later, someone else did it successfully with the pre-release version of GraphiCraft used at the launch event, which was the only program that could handle it.
It looks like another group now did the exact same thing, only through a much more circuitous route...
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Apparently all it takes is a small tweak to the IFF header with a HEX editor and, voila, it's an ILBM that can be read by anything.
Hence..."reverse engineer".
The way they're reporting you'd think Warhol was using ENIAC.
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Wait, I thought this already happened a few years ago... I was trying to help someone restore the banana2 file but couldn't figure it out. Sometime later, someone else did it successfully with the pre-release version of GraphiCraft used at the launch event, which was the only program that could handle it.
It looks like another group now did the exact same thing, only through a much more *profitable* and circuitous route...
Fixed
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Well, a route that was satisfactory to the art historians involved.
The articles I've read seem to be giving Warhol complete credit for works he modified but did not create, e.g. the Deluxe Paint "Venus" image. Of course, if a ten year old gives digital Venus a third eye, it's disrespectful vandalism. If Warhol does it, it's a revolutionary commentary on the art establishment.
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Of course, if a ten year old gives digital Venus a third eye, it's disrespectful vandalism. If Warhol does it, it's a revolutionary commentary on the art establishment.
Pretty ridiculous, eh?
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Hence..."reverse engineer".
The way they're reporting you'd think Warhol was using ENIAC.
There is an PDF with the detailed description of the restoring process - it seems that it was not as easy as someone of us could think...
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There is an PDF with the detailed description of the restoring process - it seems that it was not as easy as someone of us could think...
What I understood from the PDF it was easy task but they were not proceeding very quickly. The first meeting was almost year after and images were read in March 2013.
It just seems that most people here pissed off because those Amiga users are not part of our Amiga community.
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My little 6 years old brother can draw dpaint better than this......
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Here's the pdf of the report... http://studioforcreativeinquiry.org/public/warhol_amiga_report_v10.pdf
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They seem to have approached the task very professionally. Good job. The people that dont like the images I can understand but they also must understand that mr. Warhol was not a computer artist and it must have been very hard for him to draw with a mouse. Most people at the time didnt even know what a computer mouse is.
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Well that is ironic. I click the link and get thrown a Varnish 503 'Guru Meditation' error.
I was surprised to see this story because I remember reading another article years ago on the same thing being done. The reason that one stood out was because it vaunted the use of Apple Mac machines being used to 'recover the lost art' due to how ancient the Amiga was and that it took them 2-3 years to manage.
At the time, I couldn't work out why they didn't just get some second hand Amigas off EBay and use them to convert the art to a modern format. It would have required a lot less stuffing around and been quicker.
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What is amazing is that for the first time the original digital art from Warhol will be reproduced (printed and digital) in it's original quality: Warhol photographed the screen to reproduce it's art. :)
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What is amazing is that for the first time the original digital art from Warhol will be reproduced (printed and digital) in it's original quality: Warhol photographed the screen to reproduce it's art. :)
Photographing off a screen (CRT) actually gives something to digital art, it doesn't take away anything, especially early works of low resolution. This is how CGI for movies got onto film up until laser recorders.
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With social media, forums, Facebook ect ect, i cant believe that they could not have found one Amiga user out there that could have used their real Amiga to convert the image file to something a PC could use, not to mention Cross Dos, so they could read the floppy disk on a PC without any fuss. Tossers!!!!
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I got an email yesterday proclaiming that KryoFlux was used to do the recovery and then emulation (WinUAE i assume):
Hi there!
Some of you may be aware of Andy Warhol's attendance at the Amiga computer launch event about 30 years ago. Andy used a preliminary version of GraphiCraft and a digitizer to create a digital picture of Deborah Harry ("Blondie").
Now, after three decades, more pictures made by Andy Warhol on his Amiga 1000 have surfaced. In a combined effort by the Carnegie Mellon University Computer Club and its Frank Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry and other contributors, KryoFlux was used to create high definition (stream) files of the magnetic information and convert these into ADF sector dumps. Further processing was then applied by loading those images in emulation and extracting the data via the original software Andy used to create the pictures.
We are very proud that KryoFlux was the tool of choice and we are glad that these important artefacts could be preserved before the disks aged beyond repair.
Fore more technial details, here is a document that has been prepared which outlines the process that was applied:
http://studioforcreativeinquiry.org/public/warhol_amiga_report_v10.pdf
Here is the link to the original press release:
http://www.warhol.org/uploadedFiles/Warhol_Site/Warhol/Content/The_Museum/Press_room/documents/The_Warhol_Amiga_Project_Release_4-24-14.pdf
And here are the pictures in the best quality that is available to the public at the moment:
http://www.warhol.org/uploadedFiles/Warhol_Site/Warhol/Content/Museum/Press_room/Press_Room_ZIPS/Warhol_Amiga_Press_Images.zip
Enjoy & have a great weekend!
--Chris
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So I read the pdf and now I'm more miffed that the 26.7 KS isn't available than any Warhol "art".
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Wait, I thought this already happened a few years ago... I was trying to help someone restore the banana2 file but couldn't figure it out. Sometime later, someone else did it successfully with the pre-release version of GraphiCraft used at the launch event, which was the only program that could handle it.
It looks like another group now did the exact same thing, only through a much more circuitous route...
Yes, you're right!
I was able to open the Andy's files running a beta version of Graphicraft, the same used by Warhol in 1985, with a pre-release kickstart on my Amiga 1000. I did it in an afternoon and it happened some years ago...
The owner of the disk is Don Greenbaum. In 1985 he was the chief financial officer for Commodore International and he got the disk directly from Andy Warhol during the days of the Amiga launch at the Lincoln Center. I met Don here, on this forum: he was looking for someone or something who could help him to open the Andy's files 25 years later...
I'm really glad Matt_H remembered this!
Alessandro
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Yes, you're right!
I was able to open the Andy's files running a beta version of Graphicraft, the same used by Warhol in 1985, with a pre-release kickstart on my Amiga 1000. I did it in an afternoon and it happened some years ago...
The owner of the disk is Don Greenbaum. In 1985 he was the chief financial officer for Commodore International and he got the disk directly from Andy Warhol during the days of the Amiga launch at the Lincoln Center. I met Don here, on this forum: he was looking for someone or something who could help him to open the Andy's files 25 years later...
I'm really glad Matt_H remembered this!
Alessandro
Alessandro is absolutely correct. We did this 3 years ago and approached the Warhol Museum telling them what we did and seeking to work with them. I even talked directly to Matt Wribican, curator who told me he was too busy to look for this. I have all my emails to and from him and with two other people at the Museum and Warhol Foundation. In the PDF CMU issued (and mentioned above) they discuss our earlier restorations and the article we published in 2011, before they "had their brainstorm". Evidently he found the box and went to a fellow worker at the Museum to keep this in house.
From their PDF:
"The second known instance was the rediscovery by Don Greenbaum, the CFO of Commodore who worked directly with Warhol at the 1985 launch, of several disks in his possession around 2011. According to the referenced article, nine works ("campbells," "banana2," "andy7," "cycle2," "flowers," "andys," "bigflower," "money," and "cycle1") were produced and hand-delivered by Don himself for the launch event. This discovery and referenced article is of particular relevance as it mentions pre-release Kickstart ROMs and Graphicraft software also used in this effort, which has unearthed versions of some but apparently not all of these files. Pending his ongoing determination as to the ownership of the works (now known to be Warhol), Don has not published any of these files.
Reference: http://www.academia.edu/1467355/Nine_Warhols_Waiting_"
And....
"Avenues for Further Exploration
• A live exploration and demonstration of the software Warhol had at his disposal- perhaps as a video, an exhibition of the original hardware, or an interactive exhibit running in modern emulators-would be a great way to educate the art community and the public at large in the origins and history of modern media.
• Acquisition of copies of the media held by Don Greenbaum containing several works not discovered here would permit data comparison and proper exhibition of the entire set of works known to have been created by Warhol on the Amiga."
It's nice to see the Warhol museum sort of acknowledging my and Alessandro's earlier work 3 years ago, AND, we informed the Museum of that fact before we published the discovery of these works. Now they claim they came up with this on their own.
AND, our disks run on the original Amiga hardware, something they have not reproduced to date. Odd, it didn't take Alessandro tons of money and team from a university. Only an old Amiga and some brains.
So why was this timeline left out of the Carnegie Mellon Report? Why did they not contact me? Some answers would be nice.
Don Greenbaum
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Don, Alessandro, thanks for chiming in and reminding me of the details. It's both interesting and frustrating how a story of early digital art is inextricably linked to issues of digital copyright.
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This story finally trickled its way down to my small town local newspaper (I guess it is a syndicated story now).
Unfortunately, now all reference to the Commodore Amiga has been removed - the story only mentions Andy Worhol was demonstrating a "new computer design".
Sort of takes some of the point away from the story, because newspaper readers must be wondering why they couldn't have found a PC with a 3-1/4" drive from six or eight years ago (or purchased a USB floppy drive) and read the disk.
One of the whole challenges in reading the files was, or course, the Amiga's proprietary disk format.
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A documentary about the collection was put online today.
http://vimeo.com/92583299
The documentary was interesting.
Though, I'm not too sure about the computer club they had working on the project. They didn't realise the disks had copies of the program itself along with the files. That was a common thing back then.
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A documentary about the collection was put online today.
http://vimeo.com/92583299
The documentary was interesting.
Though, I'm not too sure about the computer club they had working on the project. They didn't realise the disks had copies of the program itself along with the files. That was a common thing back then.
The use of the descriptors "worldwide Amiga experts" and "hacking" in the video seemed a little like hyperbole. These guys just read the files off the floppies with a Kryoflux and then figured out how to load them into GraphicCraft in UAE. Now, I'm sure these fellows are extremely clever (one works for NASA) and they've certainly done a good thing. Heck, I'd probably like to hang out with them and talk old computers, but the fact that the one fellow (using the laptop) only had a very basic grasp of what an IFF is didn't give me the impression that they were "worldwide Amiga experts".