Max Bense, Elisabeth Walther (eds.): rot 19: Computer-Grafik (1968) [German]

“This little booklet of 14 pages is one of the first publications ever on computer art. It appeared at the occasion of the first exhibition of computer-generated, algorithmic art world-wide: the famous show of a small set of graphic works by Georg Nees. The show was held from February 5 to 19, 1965, on the premises of the Studiengalerie of TH Stuttgart (now University of Stuttgart).

The booklet is in German. It contains two short contributions by Georg Nees (2 pages) and Max Bense (3 pages) plus six images of Nees’ earliest works.

Both texts are important from a historic perspective. Nees gives a brief account of the essentials of early algorithmic art, including five descriptions of programs in plain language. These descriptions are precise formulations of the algorithms, and as such they constitute perfect documentations, independent of programming language, operating system, run-time support, or hardware. This was possible because of the simplicity of the algorithmic schema.

Bense’s text, Projekte generativer Ästhetik, must be considered the manifesto of computer art. It introduces the notion of Generative Aesthetics, in direct reference to Chomsky’s Generative Grammar. It is formulated in Bense’s typical apodictic, rigorous, almost mechanistic prose. But it points to a development that started to blossom and gained recognition only during the first decade of the 21st century: the exciting movement of generative art, design, architecture, music, and more.

The special issue of Studio International, published by Jasia Reichardt, for the Cybernetic Serendipity exhibition in London, 1968, contains an English translation. It has often been re-published.” (source)

Published in Stuttgart, February 1965
14 pages
via Nina Wenhart

More information (compArt database Digital Art)

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Malcolm McCullough: Abstracting Craft: The Practiced Digital Hand (1996)

The love of making things need not be confined to the physical world —electronic form giving can also be a rewarding hands-on experience. In this investigation of the possibility of craft in the digital realm, Malcolm McCullough observes that the emergence of computation as a medium, rather than just a set of tools, suggests a growing correspondence between digital work and traditional craft.

Personal and conversational in tone, with examples and illustrations drawn from a variety of disciplines, Abstracting Craft shows that anyone who gives form with software, whether in architecture, painting, animating, modeling, simulating, or manufacturing, is practicing personal knowledge and producing visual artifacts that, although not material, are nevertheless products of the hands, eyes, and mind.

Chapter by chapter, McCullough builds a case for upholding humane traits and values during the formative stages of new practices in digital media. He covers the nature of hand-eye coordination; the working context of the image culture; aspects of tool usage and medium appreciation; uses and limitations of symbolic methods; issues in human-computer interaction; geometric constructions and abstract methods in design; the necessity of improvisation; and the personal worth of work.

For those new to computing, McCullough offers an inside view of what the technology is like, what the important technical issues are, and how creative computing fits within a larger intellectual history. Specialists in human-computer interaction will find an interesting case study of the anthropological and psychological issues that matter to designers. Artificial intelligence researchers will be reminded that much activity fails to fit articulable formalisms. Aesthetic theorists will find a curiously developed case of neostructuralism, and cultural critics will be asked to imagine a praxis in which technology no longer represents an authoritarian opposition. Finally, the unheralded legions of digital craftspersons will find a full-blown acknowledgment of their artistry and humanity.

Publisher MIT Press, 1996
Antipode Book Series
ISBN 0262133261, 9780262133265
309 pages

Publisher
Google books

EPUB (updated on 2014-9-14)

Manfred Mohr: Computer Graphics. Une esthétique programmée, catalogue (1971) [French/English]

In 1970 Pierre Gaudibert, director of Animation-Recherche-Confrontation (ARC) at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, visited the computer center of the Meteorology Institute in Paris, Avenue Rapp, where Manfred Mohr conducted his research in computer graphics. Gaudibert was so impressed by what he saw that he subsequently invited Mohr to prepare a show of his work at the Museum.

An exhibition by Manfred Mohr, featuring for the first time, a one-person show in a museum of works entirely calculated by a digital computer and drawn by a plotter. The show consisted of 28 drawings framed and displayed on the wall; a Benson 1286 drawing machine (plotter) and its magnetic tape drive installed at the museum; a large white panel, a sort of guest book, where visitors could write comments of whatever they wished to say.

Catalog printed for this occasion containts texts by three authors and all 28 drawings from the show.

ARC – Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 11 May – 6 June 1971
48 pages

About the exhibition

PDF (20 MB)
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