Desmond Henry

Who was Desmond Henry?

Desmond Paul Henry was a Manchester University Lecturer and Reader in Philosophy and was one of the first few British artists to experiment with machine-generated visual effects at the time of the emerging global computer art movement of the 1960s. During this period, Henry constructed a succession of three drawing machines from modified bombsight analogue computers which were employed in World War II bombers to calculate the accurate release of bombs onto their target. Henry’s machine-generated effects resemble complex versions of the abstract, curvilinear graphics which accompany Microsoft’s Windows Media Player. Henry’s machine-generated effects may therefore also be said to represent early examples of computer graphics: ‘the making of line drawings with the aid of computers and drawing machines’.

During the 1970s Henry focussed on further developing his own unique photo-chemical techniques for the production of highly original visual effects. He then also went on to make a fourth and even a fifth drawing machine in 1984 and 2002 respectively. These later machines however, were based around a mechanical pendulum design and not bombsight computers.