Evoking his early personal experiences, computer art pioneer Paul Brown wrote in the mid-1990s that to work with computers was akin to a ‘kiss of death’. According to him, as a result of sheer prejudice, the majority of people in the art world did not acknowledge such artworks as interesting, valid or important. Although recurrent in the literature concerned with such art, Brown’s claims must be confronted with the relative success of artistic practices interchangeably labelled as computer, new media, cybernetic, electronic or simply digital art. However, as attested by this proliferation of labels as well as by the development of numerous dedicated awards, degrees, galleries, museums, awards and publications, the success of such practices cannot be explained by artistic merit alone. Since many in the art world do not accept these artworks, as Brown and others suggest, how can we explain the works’ success in securing and developing their own space over the course of fifty years? This thesis investigates the emergence, development and institutionalisation of the field termed here as ‘art, science and technology’ (AST) between 1965 and the mid-1970s in Europe and North America. Also recognised by the aforementioned labels (among others), AST is an umbrella term that arguably designates the artistic practices interested in the adoption, theorisation and dissemination of post-war technologies and, particularly, information technology. Yet, despite this shared interest, here I argue that it is the particular institutional arrangement of AST that best distinguishes it from other artistic practices. A direct consequence of its rejection, AST’s emergence as a separate field is here explained via a revision of its initial social and cultural contexts. Arising from the technophile cultural climate of the long 1950s, and alongside the massive investments in technology made by Western governments in the same period, early AST developed not within traditional artistic spaces but within industries and universities. In the late 1960s, however, with the rise of economic, political and social uncertainties alongside escalating international conflicts, it became increasingly difficult to justify an art produced with the tools and support of the military– industrial complex. If on the one hand artists such as Brown understood these new artworks as central to art and its history, a normative development of a new technological era, on the other hand opponents located at the centre of contemporary art lambasted these new artworks for their supposedly scientific, commercial and aesthetic pretensions. Differently from previous attempts aimed at justifying the artistic worthiness of art produced with post-war technology, this thesis presents the history of such practices from the point of view of its own struggle – that is, its fight for survival. Ultimately, here I explain and describe how AST became detached from art while claiming its status. This is an effort not interested in the merits of these practices per se but, instead, concerned with AST’s development as an autonomous and prosperous field.

A presente pesquisa investiga a implantação da televisão analógica em cores no Brasil durante o regime militar em 1972, na perspectiva das relações entre Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade (CTS). Analisa as justificativas e consequências políticas, econômicas e técnicas da opção pelo sistema PAL alemão, adaptado às condições de telecomunicações no Brasil, resultando no padrão PAL-M. Relata a chegada da televisão ao país, no pré-Segunda Guerra Mundial, em ação conjunta de propaganda política do Estado Novo de Vargas e o III Reich de Hitler. Registra os marcos principais do desenvolvimento do meio no Brasil e suas relações com o poder político: a inauguração da TV Tupi no início da segunda era Vargas e o lançamento do Jornal Nacional da TV Globo no auge da repressão do regime militar. Descreve as propriedades físicas da cor, sua formação no cérebro humano, pelos processos de adição e subtração das cores primárias, e a discussão de filosofia da ciência travada após Goethe contestar a Teoria das Cores de Newton. Registra o nascimento e a evolução da televisão, de especulação científica no século XIX à condição de meio de comunicação global no século XX, quando pousou na Lua. Descreve os padrões de TV analógica em cores e relata o processo de comparação entre eles e a implantação do sistema PAL-M no Brasil. / This research investigates the deployment of analogical color TV in Brazil, under military rule in 1972, in a Science, Technology and Society (STS) approach. Analyzes the reasons and the political and economic consequences of the option for German PAL color TV system, adapted to the Brazils telecommunications conditions, resulting in the standard PAL-M. Reports the arrival of television to the country in pre-World War II, in a political propaganda act sponsored by both Varga´s New State and Hitler\'s Third Reich. Records the major milestones of the development of the medium in Brazil and its connections with political power: the inauguration of TV Tupi early in the second Vargas era and the launch of TV Globo\'s Jornal Nacional at the height of the repression of the military regime. Describes the physical properties of color, its formation in the human brain by processes of addition and subtraction of the primary colors and the discussion of the philosophy of science after Goethe\'s contest of Newton´s Theory of Colors. Records the birth and evolution of television, from a scientific speculation in the nineteenth century to the global communications medium in the twentieth century, when landed on the moon. Describes the analog color TV standards and the process of comparison between them and the deployment of PAL-M in Brazil.

A presente pesquisa investiga a implantação da televisão analógica em cores no Brasil durante o regime militar em 1972, na perspectiva das relações entre Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade (CTS). Analisa as justificativas e consequências políticas, econômicas e técnicas da opção pelo sistema PAL alemão, adaptado às condições de telecomunicações no Brasil, resultando no padrão PAL-M. Relata a chegada da televisão ao país, no pré-Segunda Guerra Mundial, em ação conjunta de propaganda política do Estado Novo de Vargas e o III Reich de Hitler. Registra os marcos principais do desenvolvimento do meio no Brasil e suas relações com o poder político: a inauguração da TV Tupi no início da segunda era Vargas e o lançamento do Jornal Nacional da TV Globo no auge da repressão do regime militar. Descreve as propriedades físicas da cor, sua formação no cérebro humano, pelos processos de adição e subtração das cores primárias, e a discussão de filosofia da ciência travada após Goethe contestar a Teoria das Cores de Newton. Registra o nascimento e a evolução da televisão, de especulação científica no século XIX à condição de meio de comunicação global no século XX, quando pousou na Lua. Descreve os padrões de TV analógica em cores e relata o processo de comparação entre eles e a implantação do sistema PAL-M no Brasil. / This research investigates the deployment of analogical color TV in Brazil, under military rule in 1972, in a Science, Technology and Society (STS) approach. Analyzes the reasons and the political and economic consequences of the option for German PAL color TV system, adapted to the Brazils telecommunications conditions, resulting in the standard PAL-M. Reports the arrival of television to the country in pre-World War II, in a political propaganda act sponsored by both Varga´s New State and Hitler\'s Third Reich. Records the major milestones of the development of the medium in Brazil and its connections with political power: the inauguration of TV Tupi early in the second Vargas era and the launch of TV Globo\'s Jornal Nacional at the height of the repression of the military regime. Describes the physical properties of color, its formation in the human brain by processes of addition and subtraction of the primary colors and the discussion of the philosophy of science after Goethe\'s contest of Newton´s Theory of Colors. Records the birth and evolution of television, from a scientific speculation in the nineteenth century to the global communications medium in the twentieth century, when landed on the moon. Describes the analog color TV standards and the process of comparison between them and the deployment of PAL-M in Brazil.