ICAM 40 / VIS 40: Introduction to Computing in the Arts


early computer art (1950s-1960s) | software art and generative art | use of algorithmic form generation in different cultural areas today

summary:
in this lecture we will discuss one of the most widespread uses of computers in art, design, and architecture - algorithmic generation of still and moving images, compositions, 2D and 3D forms |
today this process is used to create final works of art or design - as, for instance, in the work of some software artists | algorithmic generation is also in all design and communication fields today to make elements which become parts of larger works



1. gradual movement towards abstraction in modern art between appr. 1860s and 1910s (in Europe)

selected artists:
van Gogh (1853 - 1890, Netherlands - France)
Seurat (1859 - 1891, Paris)
Matiss (1869 - 1954, France)
Mondrian (1872-1944, Netherlands - New York)
Theo van Doesburg (1883 - 1931, Netherlands)
Kandinsky (1866 - 1944, Russia - France)
Delauney (1885 - 1941, France)
František Kupka (1871 - 1954, Czech Republic)
Malevich (1878 - 1935, Russia)
Liubov Popova (1889 - 1924, Russia)
El Lissitzky (1890 - 1941, Russia)
Rodchenko (1891 - 1956, Russia)

the analysis of visual art into the basic elements: line, simple geometric forms, pure colors, textures |
creation of compositions from these basic elements |

the analytic phase was completed in the 1910s |
the new vocabulary of visual art has also become the basis of modern graphic design and modern visual communication in general |
in particular, Lissitzky, Rodchenko, and Moholy-Nagu brought the abstract vocabulary into graphic design, industrial design, illustration in the 1920s

abstract movement affected all the arts including film |
in the 1910s-1920s a number of artists in Europe created abstract films | examples: Ruttman, Eggeling, Richter, Man Ray, Moholy-Nagy, Fishinger

This visual reduction that took place in modern art parallels with the dominant scientific paradigm of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Physics, chemistry, experimental psychology and other sciences were all engaged in the deconstruction of the inanimate, biological and psychological realms into simple, further indivisible elements, governed by simple and universal laws.

video shown in class:
Hans Richter, Rhythmus 21 (1921)
Viking Eggeling, Symphonie Diagonale (l924)
Oscar Fischinger, Study No.7 (1931), Study No.8 (1932)

2. early computer art (1960s)

When in the late 1950s-1960s artists, engineers and computer scientists started to use computers to make images, films, and other works, one of the key moves was to use algorithms to generate abstract forms |
abstract repeated and varied forms became the obvious expression of what can be done with algorithms |
history and examples

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algorithm = a detailed sequence of actions necessary to perform to accomplish some task. Named after an Iranian mathematician, Al-Khawarizmi.
Technically, an algorithm must reach a result after a finite number of steps. The term is also used loosely for any sequence of actions (which may or may not terminate).
Algorithms do not have be executed on computers. For instance, when you ask for driving directions on mapquest.com, you get back an algorithm - a sequence of driving directions.
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given the novelty of computers, during this period the algorithmically generated forms were often the theme of artworks |
in the 1990s algorithmic (procedural) generation became a basic technique used by artists, designers, architects,
filmmakers along with many other techniques |

the connection between abstract art made with computers and minimal art of the 1960s |
common ideas: seriality (making a series of works) | combinatorics (creating all possible combinations of a small number of elements) | artwork as an algorithm, a set of directions which can be executed by others
examples of art done without computers: Donald Judd | Sol LeWitt
example of computer art done around the same time: Manfred Mohr | John and James Whitney

video shown in class: John Whitney, Catalog (1961) - done with mechanical techniques
video available online (view on your own): John Whitney, Arabesque (1975) - done with digital computer

In some cases, the teachers of the artists who started to work with computers in the 1960s were abstract artists of the 1920s | for instance, Oscar Fishinger was the teacher of the Whitneys


3. algorithmic generation of 2D and 3D forms, compositions, moving image sequences today

in the late 1990s, abstract form generation via algorithms once again became again a subject matter ssssss(rather than only a technique) |

some of the cultural areas which use algorithmic generation today with the examples of artists and works:

software art | example: John Simon (New York) | Casey Reas (Los Angeles) / movies (no particular projects were discussed in class)
video shown in class: documentation of John Simon's Art Appliances
generative art | examples: generative.net | generative_graphics_portal (no particular projects were discussed in class)
motion graphics| examples: imaginary Forces (Los Angeles) (no particular projects were discussed in class)
live cinema and VJing | examples: vjcentral.com | vjbook.com (no particular projects were discussed in class)
graphic design and typography: John Maeda (MIT) | some of his books (played an important role in popularizing the use of programming in design: Maeda@Media (2000) / Design by Numbers (2001) / Creative Code: Aesthetics and Computation (2004)
web design | example: Joshua Davis (New York) (no particular projects were discussed in class)
architecture | example: xefirotarch (Los Angeles) (no particular projects were discussed in class)



the ideas and the aesthetics of contemporary "software abstraction" are different than in the 1960s | or are they?

investigation of software as the artistic medium | code as a form of writing | example: CODEeDOC exhibition (2002) |

additional resources (optional):
Transmediale.01 statement of the Software Art jury | transmediale festival website here
runme.org
processing.org
bitforms gallery

contemporary software artists operate in a different context - in contrast to the 1960s, computers are omnipresent, and commercial menu-driven software running under GUI is used by practically all citizens of developed societies | consequently software artists can be said to investigate what is "beneath the surface" of digital culture - software

if early 20th century abstraction was focused on reduction and analysis, and abstraction of the 1960s investigated repetition and combinatory (both computer art and minimal art), contemporary software abstraction often investigates emergence and complexity in visual forms |
software abstraction is connected to the new paradigms of modern science and culture - complexity, emergence, and artificial life | example: online works in Abstraction Now exhibition (2003)