Women have shaped the devices and systems that define contemporary existence, though their efforts have sometimes been ignored or downplayed in accounts of the past. A fresh art show aims to present a more complete picture. Special correspondent Mike Cerre reports from San Jose for our arts and culture series, CANVAS.

Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

Geoff Bennett:

Women have shaped the devices and systems that define contemporary existence, though their efforts have sometimes been ignored or downplayed in accounts of the past. A fresh exhibition aims to present a more complete picture with creators from California and farther afield. It links tasks done in Silicon Valley labs to generations of work by women in factories, offices and homes worldwide.

Special correspondent Mike Cerre reports from San Jose for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

Mike Cerre:

The old analog clock atop the historic wing of the San Jose Museum of Art stands as one of the early signs of advanced engineering in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Jeremiah Matthew Davis:

It represents the value of blending art and technology in our region.

Mike Cerre:

Jeremiah Matthew Davis, the executive director of the San Jose Museum of Art, works to close the divide between technology and art, whether real or perceived, through displays that draw both groups.

Jeremiah Matthew Davis:

The notion that art and technology stand apart is a misconception. Both have existed together from the start. They stem from the same human drive, which is why they share a root in the ancient Greek term technic.

Mike Cerre:

The museum’s current Motherboards show, named for a computer’s central circuit board and control system, illustrates the long ties between women and technology from the dawn of computing and the growth of Silicon Valley.

Rhonda Holberton began as a sculptor before incorporating digital tools to expand her practice.

Rhonda Holberton, Digital Artist:

The work I created for Motherboards draws partly from my family background. My great grandfather served as an engineer and maintained orchards in Silicon Valley. Before it earned its current name, the area was famed for its fruit trees and called the Valley of the Heart’s Delight.

The sculpture features a plum branch as a tribute to that farming past. I converted the branch from a three dimensional scan of a real tree and produced it with three dimensional printing using bioplastics and resins.

Mike Cerre:

Her display, Collateral Influences, presents a digital image of the plum branch to honor the early part women took in computer development.

Rhonda Holberton:

Ada Lovelace is widely recognized as the first computer programmer or at least the writer of the first algorithm. On the screen across the sculpture face, above the three dimensional model of the plum branch, appears a rendering of Ada Lovelace’s Note G algorithm, the initial algorithm converted to binary code and then to black and white pixels.

Mike Cerre:

Silicon Valley artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia recently gave one of its high performance chips the name of this mid nineteenth century mathematician.

Sarah Buckius, Digital Artist:

As a youngster I enjoyed solving problems, math, science and building objects.

Mike Cerre:

It bears no resemblance to a computer. It looks more like an upside down couch or similar item.

Sarah Buckius:

Yes.

(Laughter)

Mike Cerre:

Sarah Buckius holds degrees in mechanical engineering and fine arts and now works as a digital artist.

Sarah Buckius:

Human computers were women who handled much of the calculation tasks before physical machines existed. They served as the foundation for the computer field.

Mike Cerre:

Her digital audiovisual collages incorporate early technology sketches and patents submitted by women.

Sarah Buckius:

Physical art allows many options, yet the digital realm lets you operate in a three dimensional program, apply texture to models, shift them in various directions and combine them in a digital setting.

Mike Cerre:

The physical version of her collages with pink fur details is titled Kitchen Computer Plushy. It draws from a 1969 Neiman Marcus catalog advertisement for an early Honeywell kitchen computer the size of modern kitchen islands bearing the slogan If she can only cook as well as Honeywell computes.

Sarah Buckius:

I enjoy using humor in my pieces because it renders difficult concepts more approachable and adds amusement. Art has a tradition of employing humor for such purposes.

Mike Cerre:

This classic Navajo weaving of the Pentium microchip acknowledges the input of Navajo women’s arts and craft abilities to computing during their employment at Intel chip plants in Arizona and New Mexico.

Sarah Mills, Textiles Art Curator:

Unlike certain art forms that remain on a screen, digital weaving moves from the screen to the wall as a tangible piece.

Mike Cerre:

Sarah Mills curated the companion Woven Pixel exhibition at the nearby San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. It shows how a traditional craft such as weaving has come full circle thanks to technology. The full process is now computerized to whatever degree the artist chooses.

Sarah Mills:

The notable aspect of weaving is the ability to shift between methods. You can move from a computer to a handloom. Weavers now welcome both approaches since working by hand alongside a computer proves straightforward.

Mike Cerre:

When not producing digital art, Rhonda Holberton serves as an assistant professor of digital arts at San Jose State University, one of the earliest schools to merge fine arts and digital technology into a degree program.

Rhonda Holberton:

The start of integrating art and technology occurred in locations where technology was based, since artists and universities could experiment with some of the first computers.

Mike Cerre:

The rising interest in the city’s First Friday Art Walks demonstrates how linked the tech and arts groups can become in Silicon Valley when breaking conventions and making new items.

For the PBS News Hour, Mike Cerre in San Jose, California.