Computer Art

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Computer Art

• Minor
• Kunst, Media, Technologie

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Doel

• Techniek mediumsoftware
• Beeldtaal pioniers
• experiment
• primitief
• Historische context
• Voorbeelden

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NUMERAL

• WWW.NUMERAL.COM
• ICON beeld conventie teken
• Shakespeare - Aap
• Generate and Test
• Complexiteit en toeval
• Techniek
• Presentatie

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Algorithms

• Computer art at first centered on producing
  computer-generated images by using algorithms.
• Algorithms instructions for completing a
  specific task
• In this case drawing programmed lines and shapes
  and varying them systematically.

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CODE

• A computer artist still sees a physical image
  drawn on a screen or paper or other medium, but
  that image is generated from textual and
  numerical instructions or code.
• If the image is stored as a series of color
  values, as in a paint program, the artist can
  change these values to create scenes that never
  really existed.

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Computer Art

• Software-Generated Art
• Computer Graphics, Music, Literature
• Computer Assisted
• Computer Medium
• Material Digital Data Algorithms
• Kunstenaar Programmeur

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MAX CS
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SE METHODE
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HISTORISCH
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Context

• In den Künsten, den freien und den angewandten,
  begann in den zurückliegenden Jahren etwas
  Revolutionierendes, nämlich die Verwending von
  elektronischen Rechern und programmgesteuerten
  Zeichenmaschinen zur Lösung künstlerischen
  Probleme.

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Context

• Seltsamerweise wird dies alles heute oft noch als
  eine Art Spielerei belächelt oder aber - mit dem
  aus populären Diskussionen über Technik sattsam
  bekannten Vokabular - verteufelt.

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That was then

• Legend has it that in the early 1950s, IBM
  assessed the US market for computers and
  concluded that only five would be needed.

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Computerkunst

• Computerkunstwerk jedes ästhetische Gebilde das
  auf Grund von logischen oder numerischen
  Umsetzungen gegebener Daten mit Hilfe
  elektronischer Automaten entstand.
• Der Zugang zur Computerkunst ist durch eine Hürde
  versperrt,die andere Kunstarten nicht kennen zu
  ihrer Ausuebung bedarf es gewisser elementarer
  mathematischer und technischer Kenntnisse.

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Periods

• 1965-1975
• Excitement of breaking new ground
• Need to learn programming
• Difficult access to equipment
• 1975-1985
• Increased use of mini-computer
• Commodification of interactive graphics software
• Expansion of computer art community
• 1990-...
• Standard tool

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Through the Early 1970s

• Early 1960s commercialization of computer-driven
  plotters
• Algorithmically generated pictures variations on
  line-drawings
• Look dictated in large part by limitations
• Random number generators to enliven potentially
  boring, predictable compositions.

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Shows

• 1965 Howard Wise Gallery NYC (Noll, Julesz, Bell
  Labs)
• 1967 MoMa NY Brooklyn Museum
• 1968 Cybernetic Serendipity (Reichardt)
• Experiments in Art and Technology (Rauschenberg)

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History

• 1963 birth of Computer Graphics
• Ivan E. Sutherland Sketchpad.
• How a computer could be employed for interactive
  design of line drawings using a simple
  cathode-ray tube display.
• Slow development
• high cost of machines
• involved algorithms had to be developed

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Technology after 1960

• Better, faster, cheaper
• Interactive graphics
• 1970s Raster Graphics (Xerox)
• GUI (Xerox)
• MacPaint (earlier versions late 70s)

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Computer Art Late 1970s and 1980s

• Personal Computers
• Two camps
• artist-programmers like Ruth Leavitt, Harold
  Cohen, William Latham
• users of commercial programs (AutoCAD, MacPaint,
  MacDraw)
• SIGGRAPH, SIGCIVA (Computers in the Visual Arts),
  Ars Electronica

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Computer Art in the 1990s and beyond

• Powerful, inexpensive computers
• Virtual Reality
• 3D graphics
• Multimedia
• Interactivity
• Internet, WWW

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Aard en Eigenschappen

• Wat is de kunst?
• het resultaat
• het algoritme
• het concept de wiskundige abstractie
• Wat is de rol van de kunstenaar?
• Autonome algoritmen
• Anti-auctorieel standpunt
• Rol van toeval

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Het Begin

• Nieuw medium
• Duur
• Zeldzaam
• Specialistisch
• Grote apparaten
• Moeilijk te programmeren
• Geen consumer software

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Kunst of Techniek

• Kunstenaars of ingenieurs
• Simplistisch - Marginaal
• weinig tentoonstellingen
• weinig overzichten
• Onderzoek in Computer Graphics
• Kunst of Techniek?
• Vergelijk SIGGRAPH - Special Effects

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Kunstenaars

• William Fetting (Boeing)
• Allen Bernholz (Laboratory for computer graphics
  and Spatial Analysis, Harvard)
• Ronald Resch (University of Illinois)
• Leon Harmon, Kenneth Knowlton (Bell Labs)
• A. Michael Noll (Bell)
• M.R. Schroeder (Bell)
• Bela Julesz (Bell)
• Charles Csuri (Art department, Ohio State)

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Artists

• Vera Molnar
• Manfred Mohr
• Lillian Schwartz

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Artists

• Controversy about the artistic status of
  early computer images stemmed in part from the
  fact that only people associated with
  institutions having suitable computers could even
  use digital image-making technology. Many of
  these people were scientists who were also
  artists or simply had an interest in art.
  Traditional artists and designers who did manage
  to get access to the equipment either had to work
  closely with someone who could program or, more
  frequently, had to learn how to program -- no art
  applications could be purchased off the shelf.
  Because the field was so new, experimentation was
  essential and often combined artistic and
  scientific goals.

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Appreciation

• Part of the combination of often intense
  criticism and total lack of interest in computer
  art by the mainstream art world undoubtedly arose
  because the scientist creating the tools and the
  artists and critics spoke different languages
  (and still do). Critics frequently attacked the
  use of automated image creation and randomness,
  when expressed in terms of algorithms and
  performed on computers, either as a meaningless
  exercise or as a self-reflexive approach to
  art that ignored the issues arising in the
  Postmodern art world.
• But early computer art can be viewed as a direct
  descendant of modernist concerns with form and as
  a continuation of Dada and Surrealist work that
  grows out of both choice among materials, such as
  Dadaist assemblages, and chance.

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Beginnings

• With the commercialization of computer-driven pen
  plotters in the early 1960s, the computer became
  capable of drawing as well as typing, but artists
  frequently worked blind, unable to see their
  work until it was printed.

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Remediation

• Im-mediacy versus Hyper-mediacy
• Media transparant or opaque
• Re-use or reference to other media
• Digital versions of older media
• homepage
• typewriter-art and ASCII-art
• simulating/referencing other artists

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Beeldtaal 1

• Selection
• Compositing
• Tele-Action
• Sampling
• Morphing
• Copy-Cut-Paste
• Search-Filter
• Filter-Transform

• Modularity
• Variability
• Menu-based Interactivity
• Customize
• Hypermediacy
• Scalability
• Transcode
• Programmability

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Variation/Abstraction/Parameters

• It would make little sense to develop a computer
  program to produce a single graphic. But they are
  at least written to allow one to change a range
  of parameters, and in many cases the palette of
  options is so great that individual realizations
  for the same program are ofen scarcely
  recognizable as such.

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Beeldtaal 2

• Visualisatie mathematische functies
• Plotters voor industrieel ontwerpen
• Algoritmische eigenaardigheden
• loops
• recursie
• Digitalisering
• ASCII en Typewriter

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Beeldtaal 3

• Grafische algoritmen
• als zodanig
• niet als onderdeel van tekenprogramma
• Programma Vast verloop
• RANDOM()
• Interact()

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Harmon-Knowlton

• Leon D. Harmon and Kenneth C. Knowlton produced
  their first computer graphics at Bell Labs in
  1967, after Harmon was asked to make a modern
  art mural to decorate an office.
• The complete idea, according to Harmon, emerged
  within minutes, and two months later the office
  was emblazoned with a 12-foot long, and by now
  famous, nude made up of alphanumeric characters
  and produced with the aid of a computer. The
  nude, and various other images generated in the
  same way, Knowlton and Harmon referred to as
  computer processed pictures.
• They described their method as follows

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Method

• A 35mm transparency is made from a photo of some
  real-world object and is scanned by a machine
  similar to a television camera. The resultant
  electrical signals are converted into numerical
  representations on magnetic tape. This provides a
  digitized version of the picture for computer
  processing.
• The first step taken by the computer is to
  fragment the picture into 88 rows of 132
  fragments per row. The average brightness level
  of each fragment is computed thus 11,616 (88??
  132) numbers are generated. That is for gull,
  gargoyle and telephone pictures. The nude has
  only 50 rows with 100 fragments per row thus
  only 5000 numbers are generated for that picture.
• The brightness levels are encoded into numbers 0
  through 15 which stand for white, black, and 14
  intermediate shades of grey. The original picture
  is now represented by 11,616 numbers each one of
  which represents a small area having one of 15
  possible density (brightness) values. The nude is
  represented by only 8 brightness levels.

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Method

• A density is reproduced by the number of black
  dots occupying an 11 ? 11 square. A light gray
  requires about 42 black dots. Approximately this
  number of dots is structured to form a figure
  (house, cat).
• When a particular brightness level is called for,
  the computer makes a random choice among the set
  which fits that level.
• This dot array is produced on microfilm by a
  microfilm printer.
• The microfilm frames are enlarged
  photographically
• ...