Software art

Also artistic software, critical software, experimental software, speculative software.

Events

• Transmediale 2001: DIY (do it yourself!) festival conference, Berlin, 4-11 Feb 2001. This year the festival introduced an award for "artistic software", the first award given and solely dedicated to software art.
• Kontrollfelder - Programmieren als künstlerische Praxis exhibition, HMKV, Dortmund, 5 Apr-5 May 2002. Curated by Andreas Broeckmann and Matthias Weiß.
• Readme festival held in four editions: Moscow, 2002; Helsinki, 2003; Aarhus, 2004; Dortmund, 2005. Conceived by Olga Goriunova and Alexei Shulgin.
• Generator exhibition, Spacex Gallery, May-Jun 2002; later toured the UK. Curated by Geoff Cox. Video.
• CODeDOC online exhibition, Whitney Museum, New York, Sep 2002; later as part of Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, 2003. Curated by Christiane Paul.
• I love you - computer_viren_hacker_kultur exhibition, Museum of Applied Art, Frankfurt/Main, May-Jun 2002; later as part of Transmediale festival, Berlin, 31 Jan-5 Feb 2003.
• Software Art: A curatorial fiction or a new perspective? conference, Bethanien, Berlin, 4 Feb 2003.
• Ars Electronica: CODE - The Language of our Time festival, Linz, Sep 2003.
• After the Net exhibition, Centre del Carme, Valencia, 5-29 Jun 2008; Peninsula Arts Gallery, Plymouth, 12 Sep-23 Oct 2009; Tecnologico de Monterrey Toluca, Mexico, 3-5 Mar 2010. Curated by Joasia Krysa (KURATOR).
• Funware conference and symposium, Nov 2010-Jan 2011. Curated by Olga Goriunova; produced by aaaan.net (Annet Dekker and Annette Wolfsberger).

Resources

• Runme, a software art repository. Launched in Jan 2003.

Artists, theorists, initiatives

• 0x00WE15E7
• Amy Alexander
• Burak Arikan
• Eric Butler
• Code31
• Geoff Cox
• Florian Cramer
• Annet Dekker
• Eleonora Oreggia
• Matthew Fuller
• Olga Goriunova
• GOTO10
• Graham Harwood
• I/O/D
• Jaromil
• Jodi
• Michael Kargl
• Chris King
• Golan Levin
• LISA
• Make Art
• Aymeric Mansoux
• Nancy Mauro-Flude
• Alex McLean
• Moddr
• Mongrel
• Netochka Nezvanova
• Julian Oliver
• OpenLab
• Radical Software Group
• Readme
• Rethread
• Runme.org
• Warren Sack
• Gordan Savičić
• Antoine Schmitt
• Alexei Shulgin
• Bengt Sjölén
• Winnie Soon
• Marloes de Valk
• Danja Vasiliev
• Adrian Ward
• Marius Watz
• Matsuko Yokokoji
• Simon Yuill

Publications

Florian Cramer, Words Made Flesh, 2005, Log.

Olga Goriunova (ed.), Readme 100: Temporary Software Art Factory, 2006, Log.

Aymeric Mansoux, Marloes de Valk (eds.), FLOSS+Art, 2008, Log.

This bibliography excludes texts primarily concerned with computer art and internet art, even though, technically speaking, they overlap with software art. However, they are included on their respective pages.

Books, Catalogues

• Olga Goriunova, Alexei Shulgin (eds.), Read_me Festival 1.2: Software Art/Software Art Games, Moscow, 2002.
• Olga Goriunova, Alexei Shulgin (eds.), ReadMe 2.3 Reader: About Software Art, Helsinki: NIFCA, 2003, 87 pp. [1]
• Gerrit Gohlke (ed.), SoftwareArt: eine Reportage über den Code, Berlin: Künstlerhaus Bethanien, 2003, 68 pp. Based on the Software Art conference. Texts by Inke Arns, Tilman Baumgärtel, Florian Cramer, Gerrit Gohlke, Karl Heinz Jeron. [2] (German)/(English)
• Olga Goriunova, Alexei Shulgin (eds.), Read_me: Software Art & Cultures, Aarhus: University of Aarhus, 2004, 396 pp. TOC.
• Florian Cramer, Words Made Flesh: Code, Culture, Imagination, Rotterdam: Media Design Research, Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy Hogeschool Rotterdam, 2005, 140 pp. [3]
• Joasia Krysa (ed.), Curating Immateriality: The Work of the Curator in the Age of Network Systems, Autonomedia/I-DAT, 2006, 288 pp.
• Olga Goriunova (ed.), Readme 100: Temporary Software Art Factory, Dortmund: Hartware MedienKunstVerein, 2006.
• Aymeric Mansoux, Marloes de Valk (eds.): FLOSS+Art, Poitiers: GOTO10, and London: Mute, 2008, 320 pp.
• Geoff Cox, Antithesis: The Dialectics of Software Art, Aarhus University, 2010, 232 pp. Based on author's PhD thesis, 2006.
• Digital Artists’ Handbook, folly and GOTO10, 2009, 228 pp.
• Casey Reas, Chandler McWilliams, LUST (eds.), Form+Code in Design, Art, and Architecture: "Code", New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2010, 176 pp.
• Warren Sack, The Software Arts, MIT Press, (forthcoming).

Book chapters, Papers, Articles

• Edward A. Shanken, "The House that Jack Built: Jack Burnham's Concept of 'Software' as a Metaphor for Art", Leonardo Electronic Almanac 6:10, Nov 1998; repr. in Reframing Consciousness: Art and Consciousness in the Post-Biological Era, ed. Roy Ascott, Exeter: Intellect, 1999.
• Geoff Cox, Alex McLean, Adrian Ward, "The Aesthetics of Generative Code", 2000. Paper delivered at the Generative Art 00 conference, Milan, 2000. [4]
• Tilman Baumgärtel, "Experimental Software", 2000. Paper presented at the Art+Communication conference, Riga, 26 Aug 2000.
• Florian Cramer, Ulrike Gabriel, "Software Art", 15 Aug 2001, PDF; repr. in DIY Media: Kunst und digitale Medien: Software, Partizipation, Distribution. Transmediale.01, eds. Andreas Broeckmann and Susanne Jaschko, Berlin: Berliner Kulturveranstaltungs, 2001, pp 29-33 [5], repr. as "Software Art and Writing", American Book Review 22:6, Sep-Oct 2001 [6]; repr. as "On Software Art", in Rhizome, 20 Sep 2001. Written 15 Aug 2001. (German)
• Tilman Baumgärtel, "Experimentelle Software. Zu einigen neueren Computerprogrammen von Künstlern", Telepolis, 28 Oct 2001. (German)
• Florian Cramer, "Der selbstausführende Entwurf: Software und Softwarekunst", 24 Jan 2002. (German)
  • "Concepts, Notations, Software, Art", 23 Mar 2002, PDF.
• Florian Cramer, "Contextualizing Software Art", [18 May] 2002.
• Thor Magnusson, Processor Art: Currents in the Process Oriented Works of Generative and Software Art, 2002, 116 pp. Thesis.
• Ricardo Barreto, Paula Perissinotto, "The Culture of Immanence", in Internet Art, São Paulo: IMESP, 2002.
• Olga Goriunova, Alexei Shulgin, "QuickView on Software Art", Feb 2003. Survey; participants: Amy Alexander, Florian Cramer, Matthew Fuller, Thomax Kaulmann, Alex McLean, Pit Schultz, The Yes Men.
• Florian Cramer, "Zehn Thesen zur Softwarekunst", 23 Sep 2003, PDF; repr. in SoftwareArt: eine Reportage über den Code, ed. Gerrit Gohlke, Berlin, 2003, pp 6-14. (German)
  • "Ten Theses about Software Art", 23 Sep 2003, PDF.
• Ivan Stehlík (mim), "Software.art = Umenie programovať?", 3/4 Revue 14, Bratislava, 2003. (Slovak)
• Andreas Broegger, "Software Art - an introduction", Copenhagen, 24 Sep 2003.
• Andreas Broeckmann, "On Software as Art", in Sarai Reader 2003: Shaping Technologies, New Delhi, 2003, pp 215-218.
• Simon Yuill, "Code Art Brutalism: Low-level Systems and Simple Programs", Apr 2004; repr. in Read_me: Software Art & Cultures, eds. Olga Goriunova and Alexei Shulgin, Aarhus: University of Aarhus, 2004.
• Geoff Cox, Alex McLean, Adrian Ward, "Coding Praxis: Reconsidering the Aesthetics of Code", in Read_me: Software Art & Cultures, eds. Olga Goriunova and Alexei Shulgin, Aarhus: University of Aarhus, 2004, pp 160-174. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the symposium Programmation-Orientee Art, University of Paris: Sorbonne, Mar 2004.
• Andreas Broeckmann, "Runtime Art: Software, Art, Aesthetics", 24 May 2004.
• Josephine Bosma, "Constructing Media Spaces: The novelty of net(worked) art was and is all about access and engagement", MediaArtNet, 2004.
  • "Die Konstruktion von Medienräumen. Zugang und Engagement: das eigentlich Neue an der Netz(werk)kunst", trans. Nikolaus G. Schneider, MedienKunstNetz, 2004. (German)
• Peter Luining, "Read_Me 2004 review", crumb, 22 Sep 2004. An extensive review of the Run_Me software art conference/festival.
• Andreas Broeckmann, "Software Art Aesthetics", Mono 1, Porto: FBAUP, Jul 2007, pp 158-167.
• Geoff Cox, "Generator: The Value of Software Art", in Issues in Curating, Contemporary Art and Performance, ed. Judith Rugg, Bristol: Intellect, 2007.
• Geoff Cox, "Software Art Has No History", 2007. Paper given at re:place conference, Berlin.
• Simon Yuill, "All Problems of Notation Will be Solved by the Masses", Mute, 23 May 2008.
• Jussi Parikka, "Ethologies of Software Art: What Can a Digital Body of Code Do?", in Deleuze and Contemporary Art, eds. Zepke and O’Sullivan, Edinburgh University Press, 2010, pp 116-132.
• Jana Horáková, "Softwarové umění: programování excesu", Musicologica Brunensia 47:2 (2012), pp 23-47. (Czech)
• Monika Szücsová, Softwarové umenie: genealógia, história, jazyk, Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2015, 71 pp. Master's thesis. (Slovak)

See also

• Software - Information Technology: Its New Meaning for Art exhibition, 1970.
• Computer art, Net art
• Hacktivism, Code poetry, Live coding, Demoscene
• Software studies
• FLOSS