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John Francis Dunn (June 6, 1943 - June 27, 2018) was an American music and art
software developer Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, Computer programming, programming, software documentation, documenting, software testing, testing, and Software bugs, bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applic ...
. He created several visual art, music, and design software programs, including Lumena, MusicBox, SoftStep, and others. He has also written and performed a variety of electronic music compositions throughout his career. He was a graduate of
Sonia Landy Sheridan Sonia Landy Sheridan (April 10, 1925 – October 30, 2021), known as Sonia Sheridan, was an American artist, academic and researcher, who in 1969 founded the Generative Systems research program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She ...
's
Generative Systems Generative systems are technologies with the overall capacity to produce unprompted change driven by large, varied, and uncoordinated audiences. When generative systems provide a common platform, changes may occur at varying layers (physical, netwo ...
program at the
School of the Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum and ...
. He also founded Time Arts, Inc. and Algorithmic Arts.


Education

Dunn attended the
University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...
. In 1977, he received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) after completing Sonia Landy Sheridan's Generative Systems program. While at the program, Dunn served as a graduate teaching assistant. He also helped Sheridan with work on an early computer graphic system and assembled the program's first image-making computer using algorithmic software he designed. Also while at SAIC, he began working on a paint software program prototype that later would be expanded into SlideMaster, then EASEL and Lumena.


Career

After graduating, Dunn took a job at
Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc. (1972–1992), Atari, Inc., ...
where he worked as one of the company's first game developers. In 1978, he programmed the
Atari 2600 The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocessor- ...
''
Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...
'' video game, a tie-in game to the 1978 film of the same name. Dunn designed the gameplay and graphics and wrote both the story and the game manual. In 2017, ''
Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
'' identified it as the first superhero video game and the first video game/movie tie-in.
Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...
was also recognized as the longest-running video game character. His work on ''Superman'' drew interest from
Cromemco Cromemco was a Mountain View, California microcomputer company known for its high-end Zilog Z80, Z80-based S-100 bus computers and peripherals in the early days of the personal computer revolution. The company began as a partnership in 1974 betwe ...
. In 1980, Dunn developed Cromemco's SlideMaster software which was considered the first professional paint program for a microcomputer. SlideMaster used the company's Super Dazzler graphics board. Dunn also continued developing a graphics arts program of his own called "EASEL." The software was initially designed for S-100 PCs like the Cromemco, and was later ported to the
IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...
. In 1982, he founded Time Arts, Inc. in
Glen Ellen Glen Ellen is a census-designated place (CDP) in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, California, United States. The population was 784 at the 2010 census, down from 992 at the 2000 census. Glen Ellen is the location of Jack London State Historic Par ...
,
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
to further develop the EASEL software. The software was eventually renamed "Lumena." Updated versions of the Lumena software continued to be made throughout the 1980s. It is considered one of the most important pieces of software in terms of improving graphics capabilities. Dunn left his position at Time Arts Inc. and moved to
Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
in the late 1980s. In 1986, Dunn created the electronic music software, MusicBox. He released it as "freeware" in the public domain. At the time, it was the only electronic music software of its kind to be available on PC platforms. In the 1990s, Dunn founded Algorithmic Arts, an online company that primarily produces electronic music software. He released a variety of software programs in the 1990s and early 2000s, including the Kinetic Music Machine, SoftStep, BankStep, and ArtWonk, all of which incorporated details of visual art and design. SoftStep was a
Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
-based
MIDI MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...
step sequencer and "algorithmic-composing program." ArtWonk, another algorithmic composition program, implemented algorithmic visual art, the use of mathematical functions, and DNA and protein sequencing with contributions from expert users. In 1997 he has collaborated to ''netOper@'', the first Italian interactive work for the web, by the composer
Sergio Maltagliati Sergio Maltagliati (born 1960 in Pescia, Italy) is an Italians, Italian Internet-based artist, composer, and visual-digital artist. His first musical experience with the Gialdino Gialdini Musical Band was in the early 70s. Biography Sergio Ma ...
. The Kinetic Music Machine, SoftStep, and BankStep were three of Dunn's programs that could make musical renderings of DNA. Dunn's wife, biologist Mary Anne Clark, helped in the creation of these programs. Dunn and Clark used both DNA and amino acid protein sequences to produce renderings. They wrote an article on the subject of "sonifying" protein sequences ("Life Music: The Sonification of Proteins") that appeared in the February 1999 edition of the journal, ''
Leonardo Leonardo is a masculine given name, the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese equivalent of the English, German, and Dutch name, Leonard Leonard or ''Leo'' is a common English masculine given name and a surname. The given name and surname originate ...
''. The two later rendered music from the DNA of vampire bats, sea urchins, slime molds, and the human sex hormone.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dunn, John F Living people 1943 births American computer programmers