[2] The Austin Museum of Digital Art is a creation by Harold Chaput, then a Computer Sciences doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin, and Christopher Rankin, an art history graduate of Trinity University and experienced museum worker.
Chaput was connected to many artists and musicians employed in high tech positions who were looking for a creative outlet.
By establishing an organization with the goals of supporting the production and exhibition of new work and encouraging discussion about the role of technology in current contemporary art, Chaput and Rankin hoped that they could encourage a community of artists, musicians, and technologists to create cutting-edge digital-based contemporary art.
They also agreed that the new organization should be a museum rather than a collective or a gallery, placing the emphasis on artistry and aesthetics rather than fashion and popularity.
Shortly after its founding, Rankin left AMODA because his new job working for the Texas Commission on the Arts posed a conflict of interest.
Rankin and Krukowski were replaced by Kyle Anderson, Jennifer Potter, Joel Stearns, Robert Turknett and Samuel Trim.
Together with Chaput, this board moved AMODA from a museum on paper, to an art institution.
The drawings of Harold Cohen's AARON are digital art because a computer program was used to generate the works, even though the final product is ink on paper.