Samia Halaby, Lighthouse, 1993-2005

Samia Halaby (born 1936) is an abstract painter and activist and was one of the first artists to make work using computers. 

Halaby taught herself the coding languages BASIC and C in the 1980s and created what she described as ‘kinetic paintings’ on a Commodore Amiga 1000, one of the first computers that became widely available for home use. 

She found that the technology offered her greater creative freedom and possibility for experimentation, as well as a more direct means of expressing ideas about the present. 

In the early 1990s Halaby developed her own computer software called The Kinetic Painting Program, which allowed her to manipulate her digital paintings in real time, as in the work presented here. 

The abstract, coloured shapes are in constant motion, reacting to the rhythm of the musical soundtrack as they evolve and transform. 

Halaby regularly performs her kinetic paintings as live improvisations with musicians, and this combination of analogue sound and digital images has become central to her practice.