Computer art

'Computer art' is the generation of aesthetic objects with the aid of software on a digital computer. Its history started in 1965. Three exhibitions took place that year, which are acknowledged as first public presentations of digital art: Georg Nees at the Studiengalerie of the University of Stuttgart (5-19 February 1965); A. Michael Noll and Bela Julesz at Howard Wise Gallery, New York (6-24 April 1965); Frieder Nake and Georg Nees at Galerie Wendelin Niedlich, Stuttgart (5-26 November 1965)... The picture changes slightly, when we closely look at the time when these researcher-artists started their experiments in algorithmic art: Noll in 1962, Nake in 1963, Nees in 1964. All these dates refer to "digital" art and computers. Ben F. Laposky had started to work with analogue equipment in 1952. Herbert W. Franke followed in Austria in 1959, and Kurd Alsleben in Hamburg around 1960."
– Frieder Nake

Artists, Events

• Kurd Alsleben
• Radu Bagdasar
• Horst Bartnig
• Juraj Bartusz
• Otto Beckmann
• Max Bense
• Vladimir Bonačić
• Martijn van Boven
• Ileana Bratu
• Zdeňka Čechová
• Savel Cheptea
• Harold Cohen
• Compos 68
• Computer and Art
• Computer Art in ČSSR and in the World
• Computer grafik
• Computer Graphic
• Computer Graphics Art (Prague, 1982)
• Computer Graphics in Fine Arts
• Computerkunst - On the Eve of Tomorrow
• Computers and Automation
• Waldemar Cordeiro
• Charles Csuri
• Cybernetic Serendipity
• Digital Pioneers
• Stanisław Dróżdż
• Sherban Epuré
• Peter Foldes
• Helmar Frank
• Herbert W. Franke
• Roland K. Fuchshuber
• Aldo Giorgini
• Karl Otto Götz
• John Halas
• Desmond Paul Henry
• Grace C. Hertlein
• Jiří Hůla
• Ideas Before Their Time
• Mihai Jalobeanu
• Jozef Jankovič
• Jankovič - Graphics
• Béla Julesz
• Hiroshi Kawano
• Miroslav Klivar
• Ken Knowlton
• Zenon Kulpa
• Ben F. Laposky
• Radomír Leszczynski
• Dominic Lopes
• Solomon Marcus
• Viktor Ernest Maşek
• Florin Maxa
• Leslie Mezei
• Petar Milojević
• Manfred Mohr
• Abraham Moles
• Vera Molnár
• Ivan Moscovich
• Motif Edition
• Mihai Nadin
• Frieder Nake
• Georg Nees
• New Tendencies
• A. Michael Noll
• Jan Pamuła
• Cord Passow
• Alexandru Patatics
• Sergej Pavlin
• Rosen Petkov
• SCAS
• Kubo Pišek
• Programmierter Zufall - Computergrafik
• Vladan Radovanović
• Zoran Radović
• Lillian F. Schwartz
• Martin Šperka
• Alan Sutcliffe
• Zdeněk Sýkora
• Yasunao Tone
• Jiří Valoch
• Roman Verostko
• Visions of the Present
• Tamás Waliczky
• Peter Weibel
• Ryszard Winiarski
• XCoAx
• Gerard Zieliński
• Stanislav Zippe

Magazines

• rot 19: "Computer-Grafik", eds. Max Bense and Elisabeth Walther, 1968. (German)
• Bit International: teorija informacija i nova estetika, 9 numbers (7 issues), ed. Božo Bek, Zagreb: Galerije Grada Zagreba, 1968-72. (multiple languages)
• PAGE, London: Computer Arts Society, 1969-85 & 2004-11.

Group exhibition catalogues

• Computer Graphics, ed. Jiří Valoch, Brno: Dům umění města Brna, 1968, 16 pp. (Czech)
• Cybernetic Serendipidity: The Computer and the Arts, ed. Jasia Reichardt, London: Studio International, Jul 1968; 2nd ed., rev., Sep 1968.
• Arte y cibernetica, eds. Jorge Glusberg and Alfredo Ibarlucía, Buenos Aries: CEAC, 1969. Exh. held at Galería Bonino, Buenos Aires, Aug-Sep 1969. [1] (Spanish)
• Impulse Computerkunst: Graphik, Plastik, Musik, Film, ed. Herbert W. Franke, Munich: Kunstverein München, 1970, 62 pp. Exh. held at Karl-Ernst-Osthaus Museum, Hagen, Feb 1970; Kunstverein München, Munich, 8 May-7 Jun 1970; Kunsthaus Hamburg, 12 Jun-12 Jul 1970; afterwards at Goethe-Institut internationally (Brussels, Oslo, Madrid, Zürich, Rome, Amsterdam, Lisbon, and elsewhere), 1971-1972. (German)
• Tendencije 4 / Tendencies 4: Zagreb, 1968-1969, eds. Boris Kelemen and Radoslav Putar, Zagreb: Galerija suvremene umjetnosti, 1970, [146] pp. Texts and statements by Radoslav Putar, Almir Mavignier, Matko Meštrović, Enzo Mari, Alessandro Carlini, Bernhard Schneider, Alberto Biasi, Gianni Colombo, Milan Dobeš, Herbert W. Franke, Karl Gerstner, Rolf Glasmeier, Rolf Gravenhorst, Hein Gravenhorst, Dieter Hacker, John Gabriel Harries, Gottfried Jäger, Richard Kriesche, Max H. Mahlmann, Marcello Morandini, Zoran Radović, Bernhard Sandfort, Paolo Scheggi, Klaus Staudt, Josef Hermann Stiegler, Jorrit Tornquist, Gabriele de Vecchi, Herman de Vries. (Serbo-Croatian)/(French),(German),(Italian),(English)
• Interactive Sound and Visual Systems, ed. Charles A. Csuri, College of the Arts, Ohio State University, 1970, 31 pp.
• Arte y cibernética, Buenos Aires: Centro de Arte y Comunicacion (CAC), 1970. (Spanish)
• Software: Information Technology: Its New Meaning for Art, New York: Jewish Museum, 1970, 71 pp.
• Computer Art, ed. Laxmi P. Sihare, New Delhi: National Gallery of Modern Art, 1972, 57 pp.
• International Computer Arts Festival, New York: Kitchen, 1973, [7] pp. Program leaflet. Held 1-14 Apr 1973.
• 2nd International Computer Art Festival, New York: The Kitchen, 1974, [10] pp. Held 1-15 Jun 1974. [2]
• Computer Graphics in Fine Arts / Počítačová grafika vo výtvarnom umení, ed. Martin Šperka, Bratislava: Academy of Fine Arts, 1993, 8 pp. (English)/(Slovak)

Resources

• Database of Digital Art, founded by Frieder Nake
• The Recode Project, An active archive of computer art. A community-driven effort to preserve computer art by translating it into a modern programming language (Processing).
• Early beginnings of (digital) computer art, maintained by Christoph Klütsch
• How Computer-Generated Animations Were Made, Circa 1964 - AT&T Archives
• The V&A's Computer Art Collections.
• Computer Art Festivals, organised by Dimitri Devyatkin, 1973-1975.
• selected works

Literature

• J.R. Pierce, "Portrait of the Machine as a Young Artist", Playboy 12:6 (1965), pp 124-5 & 150 & 182 & 184.
• Dick Higgins, Computers for the Arts, Somerville, MA: Abyss Publications, 1970, 17 pp.
• Ruth Leavitt (ed.), Artist and Computer, Harmony Books, 1976, 121 pp.
• George Stiny, James Gips, Algorithmic Aesthetics: Computer Models for Criticism and Design in the Arts, University of California Press, 1978, 220 pp.
• Frank Dietrich, "Visual Intelligence: The First Decade of Computer Art (1965-1975)", Leonardo 19:2, MIT Press, Apr 1986, pp 159-169.
• Art Journal 49(3): "Computers and Art: Issues of Content", Autumn 1990.
  • Copper Giloth, Lynn Pocock-Williams, "A Selected Chronology of Computer Art: Exhibitions, Publications, and Technology", Art Journal, pp 283-297.
• Ivo Janoušek, Slovníček pojmů elektronického a multimediálního umění, Prague: Národní technické muzeum, 1994, 18 pp. (Czech)
• Stuart Mealing (ed.), Computers and Art, 1997; 2nd ed., Intellect Books, 2002, 159 pp.
• Nick Lambert, A Critical Examination of “Computer Art”: its History and Application, Oxford University, 2003. DPhil thesis.
• Matthias Weiss, "Was ist Computerkunst? Ein Antwortversuch und Beispiele zur Auslegung", MedienKunstNetz, 2004. (German)
  • "What is Computer Art? An Attempt Towards an Answer and Examples of Interpretation", MediaArtNet, 2004.
• Paul A. Fishwick (ed.), Aesthetic Computing, MIT Press, 2006, 457 pp.
• Christoph Klütsch, Computergrafik: Ästhetische Experimente zwischen zwei Kulturen. Die Anfänge der Computerkunst in den 1960er Jahren, Springer, 2007, 288 pp. (German)
• Dominic Lopes, A Philosophy of Computer Art, Routledge, 2009, 160 pp.
• CAT 2010: Ideas Before Their Time: Connecting the Past and Present in Computer Art, eds. Nick Lambert, Jeremy Gardiner and Francesca Franco, BCS – The Chartered Institute for IT, 2010, 192 pp. Conference proceedings.
• Thomas Dreher, Geschichte der Computerkunst, Munich, 2012. (German)
  • History of Computer Art, Munich, 2014.
• Grant D. Taylor, When the Machine Made Art: The Troubled History of Computer Art, Bloomsbury, 2014. Based on 2004 PhD dissertation.
• Carolyn L. Kane, Chromatic Algorithms: Synthetic Color, Computer Art, and Aesthetics After Code, University of Chicago Press, 2014, 343 pp.
• Zabel Patterson, Peripheral Vision: Bell Labs, the S-C 4020, and the Origins of Computer Art, MIT Press, 2015, 152 pp. [3]. Review: Neural.
• A. Michael Noll, "The Howard Wise Gallery Show Computer-Generated Pictures (1965): A 50th-Anniversary Memoir", Leonardo 49:3, Jun 2016, pp 232-239. [4] [5]
• Boris Magrini, Confronting the Machine: An Enquiry into the Subversive Drives of Computer-Generated Art, De Gruyter, 2017. [6]
• A. Michael Noll, "The VanDerBeek-Knowlton Movies", Leonardo 52:3, Jun 2019, pp 314-319.
• Margaret A. Boden, Ernest A. Edmonds, From Fingers to Digits: An Artificial Aesthetic, MIT Press, 2019, 392 pp. [7]

More

• Publications on computer art at Monoskop Log

Bibliography

• Bibliography compiled by Christoph Kluetsch

Recent exhibitions

• Thinking Machines: Art and Design in the Computer Age, 1959–1989, MoMA, New York, 13 Nov 2017-8 Apr 2018.

See also

• Computer art in CEE, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria.
• Further bibliography.