John Lansdown
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Robert John Lansdown (2 January 1929 Cardiff, Wales - 17 February 1999) was a computer graphics pioneer, polymath and Professor Emeritus at Middlesex University Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts, which was re-named in his honour in 2000.
As early as 1960, Lansdown, a very successful architect with offices in Russell Square, was a believer in the potential for computers for architecture and other creative activities. He pioneered the use of computers as an aid to planning; making perspective drawings on an Elliott 803 computer in 1963, modeling a building's lifts and services, plotting the annual fall of daylight across its site, as well as authoring his own computer aided design applications.
Lansdown joined ACM in 1972 and Eurographics in 1983. From the early 1970s to the 1990s, he had influential roles in several professional bodies, and chaired several committees, through which he drove the world leading strategy for developing computer aided architectural design in British universities. He had enormous influence as founder, member and secretary of the Computer Arts Society (1968-1991). He was on 10 editorial boards and chaired and organized many international conferences - Event One at the RCA (1969) and Interact at the Edinburgh Festival (1973) were seminal events in establishing the use of computers for the creation of art works.
He became directly involved in education as Senior Research Fellow and Tutor at the Royal College of Art and Senior Visiting Fellow at the Department of Architectural Science, University of Sydney from 1983. He joined the staff of Middlesex Polytechnic (now University) in 1988 as Head of the Centre for Advanced Studies in Computer Aided Art and Design (now Centre for Electronic Arts), also becoming Dean of the Faculty of Art, Design and Performing Arts in 1992 and then Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University in 1993. He relinquished these roles on formal retirement in 1995, but continued to be very active and influential as Emeritus Professor in the Centre for Electronic Arts.
Lansdown's range of publications began to diversify from the early 1970s. He wrote the classic Teach Yourself Computer Graphics (Hodder and Stoughton, 1987), exhibited algorithmically generated images, animations, compositions, conversations, sword fights and choreography, such as the 18 minute dance piece A/C/S/H/O commissioned by the One Extra Dance Company and performed at the Sydney Opera House in 1990. He contributed as author and/or editor to 34 books and worked on more than 100 conference and journal publications.
Lansdown married Dorothy (Dot) in 1952, and they had two children, Robert and Karen.
