Anthropologist Catharina E. Santasilia interviews artist David Em about his fifty-year journey in the field of digital art, from his work in 1975 with some of the earliest color pixels to his current explorations of generative AI.

​Em’s stories cover what life was like for artists in high-tech labs at a time when few people on the planet even knew digital art existed, and the medium’s implications for the future of human creativity.

Here are two short video excerpts in which Em discusses his first experience with pixels and his thoughts about AI.

a r c h i v e s

copyright david em 2010 – 2024