A philosophy lecturer and part-time artist, Desmond Paul Henry saw the potential of wartime technological advances to be an instrument of beauty. He created a series of electromechanical drawing machines in the 1960s, harnessing the inner workings of an analogue bombsight used in World War II bomber planes.
His machines produced a vast array of unique, abstract, curvilinear visual effects, creating art that featured in exhibitions on both sides of the Atlantic.
Described by The Manchester Evening News in 1962 as "the Picasso of the machine age", Henry's work would help pave the way for the digital art we have today.
