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FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 1983
Copyright [[copyright symbol]] 1983 The New York Times

Computerized Billboard Brightens Up Times Sq. With Art-of-the-Month

By MICHEAL MINERP
 There would be no art if the artist and the computer man could not come to an understanding. The first time Howardina Pindell carted her sketches to Curtis King, the program-mer of an electronic billboard in Times Square, nothing was resolved. Miss Pindell dreamed of turning the Eiffel Tower into an arching mis-sile. Mr. King said, "That is very impossible."
 She had plans to tilt the Statue of Liberty and disintegrate it. Mr. King said, "Oh my God."
 She was going to superimpose demons over an atomic explosion. Mr. King said, "I doubt it'll work."
 "I was somewhat dismayed," is how Mr. King remembers the first meeting with his artist for August. But if the meetings between artist and computer man inevitably seem to begin in this manner, by the middle of the month, somehow there is always a new piece of electronic art for Times Square.
 The Public Art Fund has appropri-ated $40,000 during the last two years and recruited 24 artists to insure it will be so. Spectacolor Inc. has do-nated its 20-by40-foot electronic bill-board and, equally important, it has donated Mr. King, a computer pro-grammer with an artist's resolve.

Sought Out by Tourists
 And so, from the 15th to the bitter end of each month, for 35 seconds every 20 minutes. sandwiched be-tween advertisements for Hippopota-mus Shoes and the United Jewish Ap-peal, for the Internal Revenue Serv-ice and the Rainbow Room, right smack in the heart of Times Square, there is art.
 "Yes, we have lots of calls about it," said Jessica Cusick, project di-rector of the fund. "One cabdriver told us he gets all these German tour-ists who ask to be taken to Times Square to see the electronic art. I don't know why Germans."
 It is considered one of the fund's most successful programs. The non-profit organization sponsors 20 projects in public spaces throughout the city. 
 You cannot get much more public, Miss Cusick said, than a 20-foot-high sign in the middle of Times Square that one million people see every day.
 Usually, about a month before the artists are due up in lights, they pay Mr. King a visit in his computer room, behind the electronic billboard. They often look a bit uneasy, like chickens invited to a barbeque.
 Mr. King, a graphic artist in his own right, tries to calm their worst fears. He tells them he is there to help them bridge the gap between his com-puter and their art medium. He tells them not to work, it always turns out in the end. He tells them the com-puter is their friend and demon-strates a few electronic commands for them.

Limits of Lightbulb Art
 He worries they are bored stiff. "I'm doing my thing, fiddling with the computer," he said, "and this person is quiet, watching me, and I'm thinking, 'They're bored.' If I were watching me do it, I think I'd be bored."
 He remembers them all, their original, grandiose plans, and their more humble final versions, scaled down to meet the limits of electronic lightbulb art.
 Edgar Heap-of-Birds, whose spe-cialty is Indian art, walked into Times Square with plans for an elabo-rate abstract image that receded to reveal a written message. In the end, Mr. Heap-of-bird feared the image would obscure the message, and he dumped the image. "I thought his words had a nice rhythm to them," Mr. King said.
 Bill Sullivan wanted to do some-thing with street dancing. His first drawings were cluttered with street scenes. Characters even had buttons on their shirts.
 Mr. King tried to break the news gently. "I told him with so much stuff in the background, the people would-
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[[image]]
The New York Times/William E. Sauro
Part of the computer-generated art display currently being shown on the 20-by-40-foot electronic billboard at 1 Times Square.