Museum of Computing Machinery

Computer graphics was born in the 1960s with the first experiments on cathode ray tubes and graphical terminals, used to display simple shapes. In the 1970s, Evans & Sutherland revolutionized 3D graphics with military simulators and modeling software. The system on display was used in the 1980s at the CNR in Pisa, for the visualization of the three-dimensional structures of molecules. The 1980s marked a turning point: James Clark founded Silicon Graphics, developing workstations for 3D modeling and advanced graphics pipelines, while the Commodore Amiga democratized graphics with dedicated chips, becoming a cult for designers and creatives. In the 1990s, 3D graphics exploded in cinema and video games. Pixar's Toy Story became, in 1995, the first entirely digital feature film. At the same time, graphics cards with 3D acceleration became a common component in PCs. The first experiments with computer-generated music date back to the 1950s: the Australian CSIRAC and the British Ferrant Mark I were pioneers in producing electronic melodies. In 1961, Bell Labs revolutionized the field with the first computer capable of "singing" Daisy Bell, made famous in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. In Italy, between the 1960s and 1970s, Pietro Grossi led cutting-edge research in Pisa, laying the foundations for electronic music with projects such as the Tau 2, on display in the second room. In the 1980s, software for music creation spread, such as ProTracker for the Amiga, and SoundBlaster for the PC. In 1991, the MP3 standard was introduced, which facilitated online sharing, fueling piracy on platforms like Napster. The 2000s saw the advent of streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music, which offer unlimited playback from a vast selection of songs.