MAINFRAME EXPERIMENTALISM

Early Computing and the Foundations of the Digital

Edited by Hannah B Higgins and Douglas Kahn

Q3

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles London 4

INFORMATION AND THE SCHOOL

Christoph Kllitsch

In the mid-1960s, mainframe computer emerged from an adventurous en­ counter among a new information aesthetic, political ideologies, and technical possibilities. In Stuttgart, new computer technology invited speculation about the nature of art, beauty, and mechanical production. Here a new generation of artist-scientists believed the computer would enable them to break with the speculative and subjective approach to making and evaluating art. The main­ frame Denkmaschirzen1 (thinking machines) offered users the limited computing capacities of the time, forcing the computer artist to program carefully, to use the resources as economically as possible, and, through an extreme economy of means, to break down visual problems into small, elegantly designed pieces. Through an analysis of the early work of a few members of the Stuttgart school, the artistic range of early mainframe , as well as its rigorous theoretical basis, will be discussed. The chronological beginning of the Stuttgart school falls somewhere between December 1964, when an article titled "Statistische Graphik" (Statistical graphic) by appeared in the journal Grundlagenstudien aus Kybernetik und Geisteswissenschaft (GrKG; Fundamentals in cybernetics and humanities), and February 5, 1965, when the first computer art exhibition opened in Stuttgart.2 had founded the Studiengalerie des Studium Generale (Study gallery of the general studies program) in 1958, and, by the time the gallery closed in 1978, Bense had presented ninety-one exhibitions there and borne witness to the rise and collapse of the Stuttgart schooP As one of the founders of information aesthetics, he had an influence throughout the first generation of computer art­ ists, in all their various forms: mathematicians, engineers, philosophers, artists,

65 66 CENTt=?S iNF=ORM,A.TiO['.) l\[STHETICS 67

poets, writers, and sculptors were among his pupils and disciples. Bense had In this list, the material of concrete poetry, i.e., language, is broken down into its studied mathematics, physics, geology, and at Bonn University.4 His atomic elements and investigated by the relation between signs and their sto­ book Konturen einer Geistesgeschichte da Mathematik: Die lVIathematik und chastic frequencies. The elements of sound, meter, and graphic form are isolated die Kunst (Contours of an intellectual history of mathematics [1949]) theorized and considered as independent parameters. Instead of conventional lyric pro­ a relationship between mathematics and art in terms of a relationship between duction, the isolated elements become the material for experimental stochastic order and chaos. In 1950, he came to Stuttgart, where he taught philosophy of and algorithmic processes. That same year, at the Institute of Contemporary Arts technology, science theory, and mathematical at Stuttgart University till in London, Jasia Reichardt launched the exhibition Between Poetry and Painting, 1976. Between 1954 and 1958, Bense followed a request by to teach "in­ which was heavily influenced by the experiments in Stuttgart. It was here that formation" at the Hochschule fUr Gestaltung (). Bense and Reichardt met for the first time, inspiring her to make "something with During that time, Bense founded the magazine Augenblick, one of the most the computer." As a result, Reichardt curated the legendary exhibition Cybernetic important German literary magazines of the era. Shortly thereafter, litterateurs Serendipity in 1968 at the same institution? Helmut HeiBenbuttel (1955) and Reinhard Dohl (1959) came to Stuttgart. In 1960, in collaboration with his later partner, Elisabeth Walther, Bense started INFORMATION AESTHETICS another editorial project: a set of small books called edition rot with a reappear­ ing quote by Ernst Bloch on their back covers: "There are also red secrets in the The information aesthetics initially developed by Max Bense and Abraham A. world, actually, only reds."5 By the late 1950S, Max Bense had become increas­ Moles between 1956 and 1958 tried to bridge philosophy, psychology, aesthetics, ingly interested in the relation between algorithms (mathematics) and aesthet­ social sciences, and art theory.8 The goal was to develop a theory that would al­ ics (the arts). low one to measure the amount and quality of information in aesthetic objects, Beginning in the 1950S, literary groups such as the Vienna group, the Darm­ thus enabling an evaluation of art that goes beyond "art historian chatter." Infor­ stadt circle of visual poets, and the Graz circle of Austrian and German musi­ mation aesthetics investigated the numerical value of "the aesthetic object" itself. cians and writers emerged in rebellion against the normative political and cul­ Based on David Birkhoff's experiments on aesthetic measurements around 1928, tural climate of postwar , Austria, and Switzerland. A new, procedurally the theoretical mathematician Norbert Wiener's Cybernetics: or, Control and Com­ experimental literature offered radically alternative means of producing written munication in the Animal and the Machine from 1948, Claude Shannon's infor­ words. Language was newly conceived of as an artistic material that could be mation theory from 1948, and Charles Sanders Peirce's semiotic theory, Bense combined with new procedures ofliterary production. The most radical of these focused on physical concepts such as entropy, process, and co-reality, while new procedural approaches was visual or concrete poetry, in which words are Abraham Moles, similar to Daniel Berlyne, accentuated aspects of perception transformed from literary signs into graphical signs. This opened a new field for theory and psychology. aesthetic experimentation. In Stuttgart, the literary element of the group con­ Max Bense's early thinking on aesthetics starts with a Hegelian view in which sisted of the philosophers and writers Max Bense, Reinhard Dohl, Ludwig Harig, art is seen as a teleological epistemic processY By the 1950S and 1960s, his inter­ and Helmut HeiBenbuttel and the typographers Hansjorg Mayer and Klaus Bur­ ests had shifted to Peirce's pragmatic , which views logic as a function khardt. In 1964, Bense and Dohl wrote the manifesto for the literary component of signs and symbols. By understanding aesthetic objects as signs, Bense linked of the Stuttgart group. Entitled "Zur Lage," meaning "Toward an experimental semiotics to Shannon's purely technical information theory, where he adapts the condition or state of affairs," the essay articulates the following elements of con­ concepts of linguistic signs to the problem of signal loss in technological com­ crete poetry in terms that emphasize typography and process: munication. As a link between the technical notion and the human notion of communication, Bense built on Wiener's cybernetic theory. Following Wiener's Types-type arrangements-type pictures theory of feedback, whereby some proportion of the output signal of a system is Signs-graphic arrangements-font pictures passed (fed back) to the input, Bense devised a model for theorizing how the pro­ Serial and permutational realizations-metrical and acoustic poetry cess of art production, consumption, and criticism is procedurally related in Sound-sound arrangement-phonetic poetry terms that suggest computation. In this theoretical frame, Bense aimed to create Stochastic and topological poetry rational aesthetics free from subjective speculation and grounded on a purely Cybernetic and material poetry6 scientific base. 68 CENTERS 69

As a keystone for his scientific aesthetics, Bense adopted Birkhoff's mathe­ In Stuttgart, a generation of young scientists in the circle around Bense exam­ matical measurement of aesthetic values. In the late 1920S, Birkhoff had pre­ ined various aspects of information aesthetics. Rul Gunzenhiiuser, for example, sented a simple formula to measure the aesthetic values of art: M = 0 I C, where applied Shannon's information theory to Birkoff's concept of aesthetic measure, the aesthetic measure (M) is defined as the ratio of order (0) and complexity building up a theory of microaesthetics.19 Helmar Frank focused on percep­ (C). to This formula was adapted in very different ways. Whereas Bense adhered to tion. 20 He wrote his Ph.D. dissertation under Abraham Moles in Paris before he the original equation, M = 0 I C, Moles modified the formula into M = 0 x C, came to Stuttgart. Georg Nees wrote his first aesthetical programs in 1964, and with drastic implications. If you take low order (0) and low complexity (C), for finished his Ph.D. on generative aesthetics under Max Bense in 1968, applying his Bense the measurement (M) can still be high, but with Moles's modification it aesthetic explicitly to computer art.21 Outside of the Stuttgart school, Umberto would be at a minimum. If both values C and 0 are high, Bense gets a compara­ Eco offered his own approach to information aesthetics in The Open Work. 22 It is tively low measurement (M), while Moles gets a maximum. Both approaches within this greater context of computation, philosophy, and an emerging theory serve a purpose, and both pose problems. Bense was focused on the relation of of information aesthetics that Bense's arrival in Stuttgart in 1950 was so pivotal the two values, and couldn't explain why very low values for 0 and C would be and timely. considered high aesthetic values. Whereas Moles's formula excludes the problem of the extreme ends of the function, it doesn't have an answer for the relation of GEORG NEES o and C (0 = 0.1 and C = 10 have the same value as 0 = 2 and C = 5). This funda­ mental problem was not discussed in detail in the Stuttgart schoolY For his very first computer drawing, Georg Nees (b. 1926) used a punch-hole­ As these structuralist approaches to sign systems emerged, Bense combined controlled drawing table ZUSE 64 and an S&H 2002 calculating machine to Shannon's information theory,12 especially his analysis of the English language, produce "aesthetic disturbance." Here he analyzed the graphical potential of a with Birkhoff's mathematical analysis of aesthetic measure and Noam Chom­ rather simple algorithm.23 In the same issue of the journal Gnmdlagenstudien sky's generative grammar (an idea of a general grammar that is hardwired into aus Kybernetik und Geisteswissenschaft appeared 23-Ecken (polygons of twenty­ human brains and serves as a base for all naturallanguages).13 He formed a the­ three vertices) (figure 4.1).24 Nees submitted these plottings together with a de­ ory that allowed for the analysis of an art object on a microaesthetic level by in­ tailed description of the algorithms used on November 12, 1964· He realized a vestigating the use of sign repertoire.14 Having a repertoire and rules for combin­ fundamental principle of generative computer art: variation. The picture plane is ing the elements of that repertoire, Bense now had the tools to form a model for divided into rows of fourteen by nineteen small squares, and one polygon takes the macroaesthetic values of aesthetic objects. In art he saw a process that moves the place of each square. Each polygon varies between horizontal and vertical in the opposite direction of the typical physical process. While for Bense the lines of random length. Twenty-three vertices are chosen this way, with the first physical world heads toward chaos (entropy), the world of art heads toward order and the last vertex connected by an oblique line. The result was an astonishingly (negentropy). Both process and order are key terms in his aesthetic, and these complex tension between order and complexity, and it was clear that pro­ concepts deliver the ontological basis for his scientific approach. IS grammed variation had a nearly brutal force. Here is the earliest realization of Max Bense tried to place the aesthetic value of aesthetic objects within a meta­ Bense's information aesthetics in a radical, purely graphical form. physical framework of process ontology and semiotics. Their intersection is the While the experience with the aforementioned 1965 exhibition in Stuttgart basis of information. He inverted the physical process of entropy in the arts: art will be discussed in more detail below, the exhibition was sufficiently productive seeks order, not chaos.16 The relation of chaos/complexity and order defines the for Nees that he pursued a Ph.D. in philosophy with Bense as his supervisor. aesthetic value. This implies a fundamental principle, which has the status in his Probably the first doctoral degree on this topic, Nees's thesis was published as thinking of a natural law. Order is a state of circumstances; it is a property, that Generative Computergraphik in 1969.25 As a practical proof of Bense's aesthetics, is, a relation between entities. Artificial objects have special properties of "corea 1- Nees used the mainframe computer as an aesthetic laboratory to test Bense's ity"; they are more than their material carrier. In the case of aesthetic objects, theories linking philosophy with mathematics and aesthetics. coreality is determined by macroaesthetic rules. These rules can be interpreted as executed algorithms; the result refers to a process of neg-entropie (negentropy). English philosopher Alfred North Whitehead17 developed a process-ontology that was useful for Bense in this regard. IS H=ORMATiOcJ I-'ESTHETiCS 71

1965: THE STUDIENGALERIE AND THE MANIFESTO FOR GENERATIVE AESTHETICS

The key event in the promotion of this computer art was the exhibition in the Studiengalerie in Stuttgart in 1965. Bense invited Georg Nees to exhibit his works, and the reactions were intense. Bense had to defend the exhibition against artists such as Heinz Trokes, Anton Stankowski, and Herbert W. Kapitzki by stating that this was "only artificial art." At first glance this response appears evasive-calculated not to offend. However, the phrase "artificial art" refers to artificial intelligence, which together with Bense's manifesto "projekte generati­ ver asthetik "26 (The projects of generative aesthetics?7 and its echo of Chomsky's concept of generative linguistics, moved ahead of the aesthetic theories of Bense's time. The art critics at the Stuttgart newspaper were furious, and Der Spiegel (Germany's most prominent weekly magazine) published a condemnation of Bense and another artist in the exhibition, Frieder Nakc. 28 In addition to that historic exhibition, Bense's "projekte generativer asthetik" stimulated a number of important computer art experiments and influenced art­ ists elsewhere in Europe (e.g., Marc Adrian, Vera Molnar, and Zdenek Sykora), as well as in North and South America (e.g., Waldemar Cordeiro) and Japan (e.g., Computer Technique Group and Hiroshi Kawano). With the concept of chance substituted for artistic intuition, programs were written using pseudorandom number generators to create aesthetic objects on early mainframe computers. The defined aesthetic object was seen as a class of works, rather than a concrete graphical outcome. Thus, the first generation of generative computer art pioneers such as Nake, Nees, Noll, and Mohr challenged the art world in a radical way. They fused generative aesthetics with an understanding of aesthetic objects as members of classes of artworks.29 In "Projekte Generativer Asthetik," Bense writes:

Generative aesthetics therefore implies a combination of all operations, rules and theorems which can be used deliberately to produce aesthetic states (both distribu­ tions and configurations) when applied to a set of material elements. Hence gen­ erative aesthetics is analogous to generative grammar, in so far as it helps to formu­ late the principles of a grammatical schema-realizations of an aesthetic structure. Any generative aesthetics, which leads to an aesthetic synthesis, must be pre­ ceded by analytical aesthetics. This process is responsible for the preparation of aesthetic structures based on the aesthetic information found in given works of art. In order to be projected and realized in a concrete number of material ele­ FIGURE 4.1. Gcorg Nees, 23-Ecken, 1964. Computer drawing. Reproduced in Gnmdla­ ments, the prepared aesthetic information must be described in abstract (mathe­ genstudien aus Kybernetik rmd Geisteswissel1schaft (, Gcrmany, 1964). matical) terms. At the moment there are four different ways of making abstract descriptions of aesthetic states (distributions or configurations), which can be used to produce aesthetic structures-the semiotic (employing classifications) and the metrical, statistical and topological methods-the latter three are numerically or geometri­ cally orientated.30

Generative aesthetics "implies a combination of all operations, rules and the­ orems which can be used deliberately to produce aesthetic states." Bense speaks of all operations, rules, and theorems. This is not a small project, and it is all­ .5 embracing in its manner. Just as the linguist Noam Chomsky was looking for the laws of natural language, Bense was attempting to identify the laws of aesthet­ ics. In art, these laws are applied to a set of material elements (induding signs). c However, it is not enough to give the rules and the elements; the goal has to be .'2 defined as well. Bense says, "Any generative aesthetics, which leads to an aes­ ..g thetic synthesis, must be preceded by analytical aesthetics." Analytical aesthetics ..c c ~ '" r.;) c investigates existing works of art and describes their mathematical values, ;; G '- t: E :.n v ~ :L which a synthetic aesthetic can then (re-)construct, i.e., generate. For Bense, z ~ -g :J < is there are four methods for abstract descriptions of aesthetic states: the semiotic I :L '"'- :::: '"" .- z "' method, the metrical method (macroaesthetic), the statistical method (micro­ Q ~ - f- :L J. ~ -E aesthetic), and the topological method (set of elements). In the description of 2: 'J § ::J '"~ t ~ :L aesthetic values, these methods descend from the meaning to the set of elements V) g g .~ -s<" ~ ;.. Q Vl " < .2 being used. 2 z <"i :L § -cu i :2 -'" ~c In synthetic aesthetics, the main goal is to produce order based on rules be­ Z .=; '" ~ v" f- WJ -S .g :02 V) t <0 f- ~ .-=:. £ cause art is defined as the ratio of order to disorder. The element of disorder comes :< 2:- os ;< < :L :L into concrete generative computer programs through the pseudorandom number ~ -'" ~ ~ Z "" .:::.. :L U generator. Here, a methodological shift in the production of artworks can be seen. :J 3 a 2: f- ""c -" ~ :...n ~ t; :< While traditional artists-according to A. Moles-work under the dictum of trial ::? i Z "7 ~ '< .~ '" ~." " c; " :L :L :il I 'J and error, computer artists follow the principle of experiment. No longer is the z " z en , g 9 f- a c: artist a person who might only search for a language of expression, trying out dif­ v;. f- :L .s OJ :< :::::::: ~ !.,/'; t ferent forms of representation, discarding trials, and learning from errors. In­ u c ;.. C ~ 2 5 E v .~ '- ;.." u stead, computer artists set up an experimental situation, scientifically described a =~ '7 :r. < .c X :< ....; t ~ :f and repeatable. '" ;.. v J: 1 ~ if) I 0 '- -B Siegfried Maser's "Cybernetic model of aesthetic problems" (figure 4.2) illus­ 0 < .~ ~ :~ ..L 2 2 ~ 3 2: ! trates the adoption of Bense's information aesthetics. The process of aesthetic OJ communication can be divided into aesthetic production and aesthetic con­ -'"-' '- (.) -'" ~ :g C 1) J U " Vi sumption. While both relate to the artwork, in the case of aesthetic production 0. z '7:~ ~ " x 2 .c the artwork is the result of a creative process; in the case of aesthetic consump­ - :L ':::!< :L'" tion the artwork is the starting point of a process of behavior. The crucial point :::: in Maser's model is the distinction between an aesthetic of measurement and an ~ aesthetic of value. The artistic production follows an aesthetic of measurement­ the artistic process is seen as a scientific one, which can be described precisely. The process of aesthetic consumption follows an aesthetic based on values. Value is to be understood here in semiotic terms rather than mathematical ones. ~------~- 123 74 CE'HEKS 75

Although Max Bense first established the combination of aesthetics and in­ procedure for distributing the elements in the "aesthetic space," and a procedure formation theory as a new aesthetic theory, he was not alone in his research to fix the results in a medium comprehensible by human minds. This very formal interests.32 structure was subsequently filled with empirical laws including, for example: Birkhoff's values for the aesthetic measure, W. Fucks's stylistic analysis,36 and Moles's and Frank's theories of how many bits the human consciousness can operate with best-and derive pleasure in doing so. Perhaps the most radical computer graphic artist from Stuttgart was Frieder Bense (who was influenced by Hegelian thought, after all) saw in the general Nake (b. 1938), who studied mathematics in Stuttgart, where he received his doc­ development of art the process of negentropy, a progression toward order, while toral degree in mathematics in 1967. His dissertation was about a problem in the physical world heads toward chaos. Within Birkhoff's function (f) of the aes­ probability theory. In 1963, Walter Knodel, his teacher at the University of Stutt­ thetic measurement (M) as a relation of order (0) and complexity (C), Ma = f gart at the time, entrusted him with the task of programming the new Zuse (o,c), we can identify complexity as the degree of chaos produced by randomness. Graphomat Z64. The plotting machine came without any software, and so Nake The other element, "order," is comparatively easy to handle for a computer, as had to write the control program in machine language. To test his program, computers can be seen as "ordering machines"-following algorithmic proce­ he experimented with drawings of aesthetic qualities rather than mathematical dures, the computer arranges certain elements in a predefined sequence. Repeti­ qualities. When Bense opened the first computer art exhibition on February 5, tion, for instance, is the simplest rule, and creates the highest degree of orderY 1965, with works by Georg Nees, Nake realized that his work might be exhibited More complicated is the treatment of artistic intuition. Some members of the as well. He approached Wendelin Niedlich, a close friend of Bense's, to exhibit Stuttgart school considered probabilistic decision making to be a computable his work at Niedlichs's Buchladen, a bookshop with a gallery. On November 5, counterpart of intuition. Nake used a set of probability distribution functions 1965, Reinhard Dahl opened Nake's exhibition by reading a text by Bense. Four and their realizations, in the form of a variety of pseudorandom number genera­ years later, at the time of the New Tendencies exhibition in Zagreb,33 Nake stated: tors. The relation among intuition, chance, and pseudorandom number genera­ "Each painter is a restricted picture generator. So is each picture generating com­ tors requires deep philosophical analysis that can be only approximated here. puter program. At all times, artists have applied the same method most com­ The generative aesthetic was embedded in cybernetic models of art itself. puter programs employ: they tried to vary a theme as often as possible in order to Comparing the model by Siegfried Maser (figure 4.2) and the original model of attain a 'best' (in their judgment) object. This method became particularly im­ the elementary communication schema (Shannon) with the semiotic extension portant in recent years with Bauhaus, , New Tendencies, etc."34 by Bense, Nake combined two cybernetic circles in a third circle (figure 4.3). The In this statement we hear the self-confident voice of an artist who had experi­ creative aspect is reduced to a creative selection process; the process of aesthetic mented with computer graphics for fewer than five years; not just a few painters but consumption is reduced to the critical selection of values. Both selection pro­ "each painter is a restricted picture generator." Next we read, "So is each picture cesses are part of the model of the aesthetic process itself. The creative selection generating computer program." As a mathematician, Nake is concerned about offers an object based on judgment, while the critical selection offers a judgment definitions. If we had a proper definition of art, we might enable the computer-a based on an object. Each time, either the object or the judgment is consumed due mathematical machine-to produce art. Such a definition would have to precede to the conservation-of-energy principle. the question of whether a computer would be able to produce art.35 Nake's work In figure 4.4, Nake shows the schema tor his program package COMPART ER leads to a first approximation of a definition of computer art. What is the scope 56. 38 The abbreviation ER 56 represents the computer that was used, the Standard of the problem, how can we describe it, how can we formalize the description? Elektrik Lorenz ER 56. Each parameter can be controlled by a probability distri­ This approach fits Bense's program of a rational aesthetics to terminate the bution. The functions of those distributions are given first, then a random choice "art historian chatter." A theory must be scientific, exact, and reproducible to determines the number (n) of hatchings to be generated. For each hatching, its describe aesthetic properties of a class of certain objects in the world. The ap­ location, width, and height, the number of its lines of equal distance, the direc­ proach of a generative aesthetics could henceforth be used to find more efficient tion of the lines (only vertical or horizontal), and the width and color of the pen algorithms, that is, the "universal picture generator" Nake described. Such a gene­ were determined by seven random choices. rative aesthetics needed a well-defined set of at least one of each of the following This early schema from the ad hoc program package was the basis for Rech­ elements: a repertoire, a procedure for selecting elements of the repertoire, a teckschraffuren (rectangular hatchings). The program first asks for the picture START i i ,____ ~ _... __--L- ______Eingabe von Bildformat a. b. i -:S'" ____R_ec_h_t_e_ck_·seinlc:i_Iu_n_g IlX~·. ~ll}~' ______>- J ~ ..0 Ja -,----"'+------N . Z r- r- ;:,: -0 -·<,~ __Z_u_fal!igc Rechteckseinteilu_n...cg_,? __· _. ',>---=~~ 0 Z Z :: ; p::: WCl ,....; ~ - r- co'" .... ___ .._ ... ±..l__ ~ W ~ C; u.; 0:: ;L '"bf) N UJ w w "i2'" RECHTECKSEINTEILUNG r- 0- r- N ....., :: :-< .....J 0:: 0:: CO .;;;c W x w...1 [/) w...; -' i2 :I: 0- 0 .~ U \.) Einga be der , [/) UJ ....8 Wahrscheinlichkeitsverteilungen i :I: --~.-i--'-----'--'-' ~_ ~_.----l p:::r- 0 ..- ... U ..:.. 0- UJ [/) .f ... ---~- ---_. ~ 0- -C :i Zufallige Koordinaten '"'- p:::E . arj= 1 (l) /lX, -0:: '- ~ ;L '" "- - ~ 3' !_.-- --~~-~? :2'" .: _I___ ~_ r:r; .~ '"bf) I Zufiillige Koordinaten - V .;::c r:r; 1::'" I b,.i=l(l)lJ), r:r; .... 0- Or../) , /;0+-0 V 'S .. N ~...... ; I 0 ;.... -.':2 '" ~ '-' Wiihle erstes Rechteck -l t- o... C :...J ;L ~ '"~ ______..L ..... _.. r- '- ...J :..w 0 '" ~ ;L ':5 Eingabe oder Bestimmung des Code c i>:: V V; :;: U..l w 03 -, :J ...s::: :~ fUr das Generationsprogramm GEN r- 0 .. -.-~.~----.-.... ::0 [/) u 0:: [/) r:r; :2 0 i..W :J UJ .- .-...... ~, [/) r- [/) r- v, .... V ~ GEN(c) W w :I: '"'-' "1::S V U V V ...s::: a :: :J ...... "- ;:,: :J r:r; c.. ~ -< r- s:: Eingabe der fUr GEN (e) notwendigen 0:: 0:: 0:: -< :ro .~ oJ.; 0:: .2 ::0 W CO r:r; 'U W ahrschein lich keitsverteilungen 0:: ;... ~ 0:: V -S ;:,: i LW w ~, > '"0 "1::S * ------, > ...... ~'" Bcs[lillmungdcrBildelementevon GEN 0: V '" '" unter Benutzung der entsprcchenden - -:is t; '"0 .... -s:: ZUFALLSGENERATOREN 0 ~, '-' -;;; ·E "1::S ZEIPRO ~ ~ c -S'" r:r; v; J V ~ :e Ausgabe der Zeichenbcfehlc Hir ..... "1::S -s:: cin Bildelement ;.... '-' V '"s:: .~ Z '- ,.., + ~ ~ '-' - Cl:; 0- .- CQ'" t-' w..; Wahl des nachsten Rechtecks ;L <2 ~ .§ 0:: 0:: ;.... -'" W UJ V -l .....J Z'" UJ ~ Nein r-~ .... r- [/) .-- ,.--- ,.....;1<- [/) > 1::'" UJ r- -0'" '- , Ja z ~ -:::- Z 0i w ::J > UJ , .;:: -l UJ '? ;L r- 0:: r- .-i ..... STbp -< UJ +- 4- ;L k- 0 "- w r- N W..J UJ 0i § -- Abb.5.2-1. Flu13diagramm des Programmpakets COMPART ER 56 0:: -, 0- .... "1::S'" 0:: 0:: ::0 u;.. ;L :...; u.; X :: 0 WCl ..0 '-- ~ L-.- .D ,-<) ~'" 'T ;:,: FIGURE 4.4. Frieder Nake, Flowchart of the Program Package COMPART ER "1::S -< ~ ..; 0:: 56,1974, in Asthetik als Informationsverarbeitung: Grundlagen und Anwend­ :0 ~s. C;; .5 ungen der Inlormatik im Bereich iisthetischer Produktiol1 und Kritik (Vienna s:: ::l "" ~ '" et al.: Springer, 1974), 193. Permission granted by the author. 78 CSi'lTSRS 79 format and the amount of Rechteckschraffuren. Second, the user can insert a his artistic method. The key notion for Mohr was the repertoire. Coming from a random number or let the computer determine the random number. On this musical background, and stylistically bound to hard-edge painting, he was used basis, the first "Rechteck" is determined. The third step starts the subprogram to thinking and working with basic elements: notes, geometric forms, ~istrib~­ GEN, which determines the elements within the Rechteck. In the fourth step, tion, and composition of well-defined objects. Mohr studied some of Bens: s another subprogram, called ZEIPRO, draws the Rechteckschraffur. Last, the pro­ works and was fascinated by the idea of an objective aesthetic based on scientific gram asks if it should do another iteration. principles, made possible by using the computer as a tool. He took Bense li~erally, In August 1966, Nake won Computers and Automation's annual computer art investiaated his own formal language, counted the occurrence of each pa1l1terly contest. In February 1966, Gunther Vogt had compared Nake's work to that of elemen~, fed the elements into a database, and wrote programs-in other words, the German-French modernist painter Hans Hartung, and to that of Paul Klee, he developed the concept of a formal language into a literal graphical language in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. 39 The comparison with Hartung illustrates svstem that reflected his own personal style. that, only one year after the provocative first exhibition, the conservative estab­ , As stated, Mohr had his first solo exhibition as a computer artist in Paris at lishment considered computer graphics part of the contemporary avant-garde in A-R-C Musee d'Art Moderne in 1971. In the exhibition catalogue, he opened with Germany. On the other hand, the comparison shows that the establishment this statement: didn't understand the algorithmic principles at all. In the same article Nake was called a Klee scholar. Yet something had dramatically changed. Nake was invited Accepting that creative work is an algorithm which represents a human behavior to conferences and art schools to talk about his work. In 1970, he declared in in a given situation, it is natural to ask: how is such an algorithm built up, and London that he had stopped producing computer art. which precise mathematical laws could be extracted for later use in different cir­ cumstances? If one is now curious enough to look for his own aesthetical parame­ I stop exhibiting for the present (last exhibition, in form of a retrospective, with H ters, he is ready to engage in an interesting line of research. 'These considerations de Vries at Swart Gallery, Amsterdam). Reason: it looks as if the capitalist market led me to use the computer as a PARTNER in my work. is trying to get hold of computer productions. ]11is would mean a distraction from visual research. Exhibiting in universities etc. is different as it helps to communi­ Computer graphics in general are conditioned by four basic premises: cate; communication is essential to research. The actual production in artistic computer graphics is repeating itself to a great extent. Really good ideas haven't 1. A PRECISE idea of an aesthetical problem. shown up for quite a while.40 2. The need to break this idea into parts which could be reassembled as a program. 3. A steady control of the computing process to take full advantage of the This farewell appears at the peak of Frieder Nake's visibility in the art world: in MACHINE-HUMAN dialogue. 1970, his work was exhibited along with that of Georg Nees and Herbert W. 4. The need for the logic of the events to become perceptible. Franke in a special section of the German pavilion at the Venice BiennaleY A good example of the artwork that resulted from the program is ~-~50/R (figure 4.5). His more conceptual "formal language" phase connects hIS former style MANFRED MOHR with generative aesthetics. The elements of his personal repertoire are. lined li~e a text or a musical score. The text structure is randomly ordered but gIVes the Im- In 1971, just as Nake was publishing his abandonment of computer art practice, pression of a rhythmical composition. . . Manfred Mohr had his first exhibition of computer graphics in Paris.42 He en­ In the years that followed, Mohr used the cube like an instrument because It IS tered the world of computer graphics with a classical artistic background. Born "perfectly" ordered; any variation makes reference to a mathematical truth, and in 1938 in Pforzheim, Germany, near Stuttgart, he first learned to become a gold­ thus exemplifies a concept of objective beauty. In 1973, Mohr used a computer to smith. But it seems he focused more on playing the saxophone and oboe than on generate and print a series entitled (P-154C1). These prints initiated his cube series, metalwork. In 1960, he started painting in the tradition of the Art Informel in which he investiaated the formal richness of the cube through the use of gen- movement, and shortly after moving to Paris in 1963, he visited the Ecole des b r . erative aesthetics. Around the same time, Sol Le\Vitt worked on his lamous Varza- Beaux-Arts. What he saw there moved him toward hard-edge painting. The year tions of Incomplete Open Cubes, in which he concentrated more on perceptual 1967 was a pivotal time in Mohr's artistic development. While listening to a lec­ space (see fig. 1.3, p. 26). The two simultaneous approaches are c01~plementary b.ut ture by composer Pierre Barbaud,43 he realized that he could use a computer for nonexclusive. Their commonalities outweigh their conceptual dIfferences. WhIle IcFORMATION AESFiETiCS 81

LeWitt said, "The idea becomes a machine that makes the art," Mohr, in contrast, saw his use of a computer for art "as an extension of ourselves."44

MAINFRAME, BAUHAUS, AND THE "TWO CULTURES"

The achievements of early computer art from the Stuttgart group can be tightly connected to contemporary art movements such as New Tendencies (through the Groupe de Recherche d'Art Visuel [GRAV]), concrete art (Max Bill), concep­ tual art, and , routing in principles from Russian constructivism and the Bauhaus. The Bauhaus started in 1919 with the vision "Bau der Zukunft" (building the new future) and, in 1923, had the guideline "Kunst und Technik­ eine neue Einheit" (Art and technology-the new unity). Bauhaus adherents fa­ vored new scientific teaching principles, and the influence of constructive and formalistic elements can't be overlooked in early digital computer art. Artists such as Frieder Nake and Vera Molnar referred expliCitly to Bauhaus artists Paul Klee, Joseph Albers, and . Most surprising, perhaps, is the influence of the aesthetical and philosophical ideas ofWassily Kandinsky. Max Bill, one of his students at the Bauhaus, wrote the introduction for the German translation of From Point and Line to Plane, which was first published in 1955. In it Kandinsky speaks of an exact expression in numbers, of a measurement, a grammar, and repertoire. Art historian Max Imdahl45 contrasted Bense's aesthetic with Kandinsky; Cumhur Erkut46 also pointed out the parallels between computer art and Kandinsky. Computer artist Joseph H. Stiegler47 sees Kandinsky as a forerunner of computer art, and Frieder Nake48 refers to Kandinsky's notion of an inner necessity. Because the Bauhaus was closed by the Nazis, Otl Aicher and Inge Scholl FIGURE 4·5· Manfred. Mohr, P-050IR, "a formal language," 1970. Plotterdrawing, paper, founded the Ulm Hochschule fUr Gestaltung after World War II. Inge Scholl was and wood, 39-4 x 39-4 m. (100 x 100 em). Courtesy of the artist. the sister of Sophie and Hans Scholl, who had lead the resistance group Weihe Rose (White Rose) and were killed by the Nazi regime. In postwar Germany, Inge Scholl wanted to found an institution that was explicitly rooted in the for­ bidden Weimer Bauhaus tradition. The Swiss artist Max Bill, who in 1949 wrote "Die mathematische Denkweise in der Kunst unserer Zeit" (The mathematical way of thinking in the art of our times), asked Bense to come to the newly founded Ulm Hochschule fUr Gestaltung to teach "information" in 1954.49 Between 1954 and 1960, Bense published his aesthetic theory in four parts.50 One of the first things he did was to invite Norbert Wiener to speak at the Hochschule in 1955. During the political turmoil of 1968, the school was closed again. ll1rough these connections, therefore, there is a clear line of influence linking the Bauhaus to computer art in Germany.51 The connections to the USA are less transparent. The Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) at MIT and Harvard's Carpenter Center for 82 CENTERS INFOPiv1;.\TiO:-'..j AESTHETICS 83 followed in the tradition of the "new Bauhaus," with an understanding of the art­ 7. Do you consider the work by the computer as finished or as a repertoire from ist as "a new kind of Renaissance man." which you select the aesthetical relevant works? Jane Kay writes, "c. P. Snow's 'two cultures' thesis had just about filtered 8. Do you consider the computer-produced work as artwork, technical objects, down to the status of a cliche when along came a charge of the light artists' bri­ or aesthetic information? (You can pick up to three.) 9. If you consider your work as art, how do you understand this art: conven­ gade." Later in the article, she states: "The science-humanities gap is closed tional art with new tools? New art that doesn't fit into traditional aesthetic at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. Neighbors categories? along Boston's Charles River, these venerable seats of learning, are both explor­ 10. If you aspire to a new art, what are your criteria? ing new concepts of art education that bring together students of the humanities, n. Is an art based on pure rationality cogitable? social science, and advanced technology to create a new kind of 12. Or has computer art another, indefinite dimension? Renaissance man-the visual designer of tomorrow."52 13. Does emotion still playa role in computer art, and if so, which? Rapidly, the gap Snow saw between the arts and sciences filled with techno­ 14. Can you produce an aesthetic object with the help of certain computer logical trappings. Kay illustrates here the deep influence of the Bauhaus on the parameters, so that it would be perceived as art? new CAVS, directed by Georgy Kepes. Computer art in the "art and technology" 15. Could you measure and criticize an already existing artwork in numbers environment made it into the discussion of the "two cultures" initiated by C. P. based on the rational analysis of the aesthetic information? Snow in his famous lecture on May 7, 1959.53 That lecture, "The Two Cultures and 16. In your opinion, what are the criteria for the quality of an artwork?56 the Scientific Revolution," was delivered at Cambridge in the nearly five-hundred­ year-old tradition of the Rede lecture. Here Snow presented his thesis that the The answers to these questions were mostly statistically summarized. 'While some "two cultures"-the humanities and natural sciences-were incapable of com­ of the answers were intriguing, the outline of the questionnaire is even more tell­ municating with each other. This lack of communication was seen as a reason for ing. The questions can be divided into three blocks. The first six address technical the technological shortfall of the western world, as demonstrated by the launch issues. The second block deals with four art-historical questions. The last six ques­ of the Russian Sputnik on October 4, 1957. The discussion that followed heated tions deal with philosophical implications. The architecture of the questionnaire intellectual minds around the world. shows the heavy influence of the Stuttgart school and information aesthetics. It is worth mentioning that Snow published an article in Computers and Auto­ The survey was done in a time when mainframe computer art was at its first mation about the gap between the two cultures.54 Two years later, the magazine international peak. Exhibitions had accelerated since 1965 and had a break­ launched the first worldwide computer art contest. through in well-known exhibitions such as the much-reviewed Cybernetic Seren­ dipity in London (1968), Tendencije 4 in Zagreb (1969), and the computer art ex­ hibition section at the Viennese Biennale (1970). It is worth emphasizing that THE STUTTGART SCHOOL IN A BROADER CONTEXT mainframe computer art crossed traditional boundaries among graphics, sculp­ In 1970, the German Magazin Kunst surveyed computer artists. Sixteen ques­ ture, theater, literature, and music. tions were addressed to forty-one computer artists from the USA (seventeen), During the 1960s, Bense's and Moles's information aesthetics were explored Germany (nine), England (nine), Austria (four), Canada (one), and the Nether­ more in artistic circles than in the scientific community. Two Festschrifts for lands (one).55 This survey precisely represents the nascent beginnings of computer Max Bense57 and translations in Brazil, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Yugo­ art, and it reflects the awareness of early computer art pioneers, mainly in Ger­ slavia, Spain, and France show the impact of Bense's thinking on concrete poetry many, England, and the USA: and computer art. Nevertheless, scientific treatments of his philosophy are rare. In 1956, Eva Schaper gave perhaps the first review of Bense's "Aesthetica," compar­ 1. Do you use programs for your visual work? ing Bense and Hartman on their common Hegelian ground.58 In France, Jacques 2. Do you use computers to execute your programs? Learand introduced Bense's aesthetic in 1965,59 that same year that Ferdinand b 3. Which technical equipment do you use? 60 4. Do you use linear programs? Gowa discussed Bense in the USA in the College Language Association Joumal. 5. Do you use nonlinear programs? Rudolf Arnheim reviewed Moles's Information 7heory and Aesthetic Perception in 6. Do you interrupt the program flow to change it? 1968.61 In Entropy and Art, he discussed Manfred Kiemle, an architect working 84 !i',jFORM/\T10N F.,ESTHETiCS 85 with Bense's information aesthetics, but he didn't mention Bense.62 Jonathan 5. For a full list of the volumes, see www.stuttgarter-schule.de/rot.htm. Benthall referred to the Stuttgart school in a 1972 work.63 In 1997, Elisabeth Wal­ 6. Max Bense and Reinhard Dahl, "Zur Lage." 1964, www.stuttgarter-schule.de/zur_lage.htm ther edited selected works by Bense into four volumes.64 Only after this did criti­ (accessed September 4,2010). Some of the members published a map together: Max Bense. Reinhard Dahl. Helmut Heigenblittel, Yuksel Pazarkaya, Klaus Burkhardt. Hein Gravenhorst, Hansjorg cal review of Bense's philosophy really gain momentum, and only recently was it Maver, and Frieder Nake, 16466 (Stuttgart: Editionen Domberger und Hansjorg Mayer, 19 66). discussed in connection to the beginnings of computer art. '7. rasia Reichardt, Cybernetic Serendipity: The Computer and the Arts: A Studio Intemational The end of the mainframe computer art era in Stuttgart was silent. Max Bense Special Issue (London: Studio International, 1968). shifted more and more into a formalization of Charles Sanders Peirce's semiotics, 8. Max Bense, Aesthetische Information. Aesthetica II (Krefeld: Agis-Verlag, 1956); Abraham A. and the remaining scholars moved into other various fields. The collection of Moles. information Theory and A~sthetic Perception, trans. roe! F. Cohen (Urbana: University ofIl­ linois Press, 1968); the French version was published in 1958 by Flammarion Philosophic. prints Art ex lvIachina can be seen as a final collective statement.G5 The artists 9. For an early discussion of Bense's aesthetic in English, see Eva Schaper, "The Aesthetics of Frieder Nake and Manfred Mohr represent the two ends of the spectrum. When Hartmann and Bense," Review ofAfetaphysics 10, no. 2 (1956): 289-307· Another valuable source Nake went to Toronto in 196866 and later to Vancouver, where he wrote his book of information about the first decade of computer art. with a focus on Bense's aesthetics, is F. Diet­ Asthetik als Informationsverarbeitung,67 he brought information aesthetics to its rich. "Visual Intelligence: The First Decade of Computer Art, 1965-1975," Leonardo '9, no. 2 (1986): first theoretical peak. His book was a critical investigation of the achievements 159-69. 10. Birkhoffpublished a summary of his various experiments in Aesthetic Measure (Cambridge, and failures of the concepts developed in Stuttgart. He also gave a detailed de­ MA: Harvard University Press, 1933)· scription of a "generative aesthetics 1," indicating that he saw this project as the 11. Frieder Nake gives a comprehensive comparison of this problem in Asthetik als Infonna­ first of more to come. tionsverarbeitung: Grundlagen und Anwendul1gen del' Infonnatik im Bereich iisthetischer produk­ Mainframe computer art in Stuttgart was a "precise pleasure" (prdzises Vergnii­ tion und Kritik (Vienna et a1.: Springer, 1974). gen),68 cognitive in nature and radical in its challenge of aesthetic theory. An 12. Claude E. Shannon and Warren Weaver, The iVlathematical 7lzcory of Communication (Ur- appropriate aesthetic theory has to address the "pleasure" of thinking as well as bana: Universitv of Illinois Press, 1949)· 13. Noam Chomsky, Aspects of the Theory ofSYlltax: Special Technical Report, Research Labora­ the excitement of discovering new rules, laws, and limitations. The material work tory of Electronics of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1965)· of art is not an object of beauty, which affects our emotions. The algorithmic pro­ 14. Shannon and Weaver, The iVlathematical Theory of Communication: Birkhoff, Aesthetic cess is a processing of signs. The semiotic machine thus becomes what Mohr, in Measure: Chomsky. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. reference to Marshal McLuhan, characterized as the extension of ourselves. 15. While the Stuttgart school of mainframe computer art used the information aesthetic as a fundamental principle, the adoption of information theory into aesthetics in the United States was controversial (Shannon, "The Bandwagon," in: iRE Thl1lsactions-Information Theory 2. no. 3 [1956]: 3); it was adopted prominently only by Lejaren Hiller with his lliiac Suite: Lejaren A. Hiller rr., Infor­ NOTES mationstheorie und Computermusik: Zwei Vortriige, Gehalten aulden "Inte1'llationalen Feriel1kursen

L See Louis Couffignal and Max Bense, Denkmaschinell (Stuttgart: Kilpper, 1955). IiiI' Neue Musik," Darmstadt 1963. Darmstadter Beitrage zm Neuen Musik (Mainz et a1.: Schott. 2. The journal was edited by Max Bense. Gerhard Eichhorn, Hardi Fischer, Helmar Frank, Got­ 1964); Lejaren A. Hiller and Leonard Maxwell Isaacson, llliac Suite jcn String Quartet (New York: thard Gunther, Rul Gunzenhauser, Abraham Moles, Peter Muller, Felix von Cube, and Elisabeth New Music Edition, 1957)· Walther. Frank, Gunzenhauser, and von Cube were doctoral students ofBense's. At this same time, 16. For the most prominent pick-up of Bense's ideas, see Rudolf Arnheim, Entropy and Art: All Giinther was working in Illinois with Heinz von Forster. The two articles are Georg Nees, "Statist­ Essay on Disorder (/nd Order (Berkeley: University of California Press., 197 1); or Mihai N:din, "Aes­ ische Graphik," Grundlagenstudien aus Kybernetik ulld GeisteswissellSchaft 5, nos. 3-4 (December thetics as Information-Processing-Foundations and Applications of the Theory of Inlormat10n­ 1964): 67[, and, in the same issue, Georg Nees, "Variationen und Figuren in der statistischen Grafik," Processing in the Area of Aesthetic Production and Criticism," Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criti­ Grundlagenstudien aus Kybernetik und Geisteswissenschaft 5. nos. 3-4 (December 1964): 121-25· cism 34, no. 3 (1976): 341-43. 3. The history of Max Bense and the Stuttgart school are based on the memories of Elisabeth 17. Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology, Gifford Lectures De- Walther and Reinhard Dahl, www.stuttgarter-schule.de/(accessed September 4, 2010); a sympo­ livered in the University ofEdinbmgh (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1929). sium at the SchlaG Solitude in 2004. "Stuttgart 1960: Computers in Theory and Art" (the collected 18. For a detailed discussion of the philosophical concepts in Bense's information aesthetic, see papers were published as Barbara Buscher, Christoph Hoffmann, and Hans-Christian von Herrmann, Christoph Klutsch, Computergraphik. Asthetische Experimente zwischen zwei Kulturen (Vienna: eds .• Asthetik £lIs Programm: AJax Bense; Daten und Streuungen. Kaleidoskopien [: Vice Versa, Springer, 2007)· 2004]); and the author's personal conversation with Frieder Nake. 19. Rul Gunzenhauser, Asthetisches Mass ulld tlsthetische Information: Eirifiihnmg ill die 1heo- 4. Bense received his Dr. phil in December 1937 from Bonn University. The American Ph.D. is in rie G. D. Birkhoffs und die Redwulanztheorie dsthetischer Prozesse (Quickborn bei Hamburg: Germany divided into Dr. phil. (humanities), Dr. rer.nat. (natural sciences), Dr.-Ing. (engineer), etc. Schnelle. 1962). 86 INFORfv1AT10N !--\[STHETICS 87

20. Helmar Frank, "Grundlagenprobleme der Informationsasthetik und erste Anwendung auf tory we can witness a continuous move toward atonality: 'N. Fucks, "On Mathematical Analysis of die Mime Pure," PhD diss., Technische Hochschule Stuttgart, 1959. Style," Biometrika 39, nos. 1-2 (1952): 122-29· 21. Georg Nees, Generative Computergraphik (Berlin et al.: AG, 1969). 37. See also Claus Pias, '''Hollerith 'Feathered Crystal': Art, Science, and Computing in the Era 22. Umberto Eco, The Open Work (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989). of CyberneticS," Grey Room, no. 29 (Fall 2007): 110-34· 23. The algorithm is described in Nees, "Statistische Graphik" (67): distribute and draw PI. For 38. Nake, Asthetik als Infonnationsverarbeitung. i from 2 till 40: draw the line Pi-lPi with distributed Pi and save Pi. (2) For i from 1 till 40: draw the 39. GUnther Vogt, "Computer vor den Galerien. Graphik und Gedichte des Elektronengehirns line Pi-Qi with distributed Qi and save Qi. (3) For i from 2 till 40: draw the line Qi-lQ1. in Darmstadt," Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, no. 33, February 9, 1966. 24. Furthermore, the drawing had been addressed in Max Bense and Georg Nees, Computer­ 40. Statement by Frieder Nake, London, April 16, 1970; see also Frieder Nake, "There Should Be grafik, rot, no. 19 (Stuttgart: Walther, 1965). An extended version is translated as "The Projects of No Computer Art," PAGE 18, Bulletin of the Computer A.rts Society (October 1971): 1. Generative Aesthetics" in jasia Reichardt, cd., Cybernetics, Art and Ideas (London: Studio Vista, 41. Umbro Apollonio, Luciano Caramel, and Dietrich Mahlow, "Ricerca € progettazione: pro­ 1971), 57-60. poste per una esposizione sperimentale. 35a biennale internazionale d'arte di Venezia" ('970): 295· 25. Nees, Generative Computergraphik. A reprint of the thesis was edited by Hans-Christian 42. Computer Graphics. Une esthetique programmce, exh. cat., May 5--June 6, 1971 (Paris: A-R-C von Hermann and Christoph Hoffmann (Berlin: Kaleidoskopien, 2006). Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1971). 26. Bense and Nees, Computer-grafik. 43. A famous computer music work by Barbaud is "Ludus Margaritis Vitreis," a program that 27. Translated in Reichardt, ed., Cybernetics, Art and Ideas, 57-60. produces music in the style of Anton Bruckner. 28. "Bald krumme Linien," Der Spiegel 18 ('965): 151-52. 44. Ruth Leavitt, Artist and C01llputer (New York: Harmony Books, 1976), 92f. 29. A class, by definition, defines what belongs to it and implies what does not belong to it. We 45. Max Imdahl, "Modi im Verhaltnis zwischen asthetischer und semantischer Information. can construct all kinds of classes: the class of beaches in Georgia, the class of Democratic presi­ Anmerkungen zu Max Benses 'Aesthetica' (1965)," in Information und Kommunilwtiol1. Re(emte dents, or the class of unicorns. The question is whether or not we have physical instantiations of und Berich;e del' 23. Intenwtionalell lIochschulwochen A.lpbach 1967, ed. Simon Moser (: certain class members. In the case of the class of art objects defined by an algorithm, certain class Oldenbourg Verlag, 1968), 145-49; Max Imdahl, Reflexion, Tileorie, lvIet/wde, ed, Gottfried Boehm members are instantiated by printouts. Those algorithms can be referred to as the foundational log­ (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1996), 281. ics of generative aesthetics. 46. Cumhur Erkut, "Abstraction Mechanisms in Computer Art," Art@Science (2000), www.tml 30. In Reichardt, ed., Cybernetics, Art and Ideas, 57. .tkk.fi/Studies/Tik-1l1.080/2000/papers/cumhur/arts_report.pdf (accessed January 22, 2012). 31. Siegfried Maser, "Kybernetisches Modell asthetischer Probleme (Ist Asthetik heute noch 47. J. H. Stiegler, "Transmutation," Alte und IVIodeme Kunst 109, 1970: 39--41. moglich?)," in A.sthetik Heute, ed. Anastasios Giannanis (Munich: UTB, 1974), 115-26. 48. Nake, A.sthetik als Infonnationsverarbeitung, 48f. 32. The communication theorist Abraham Moles (1920-92) in (France) worked on a 49. Max Bill, "Die mathematische Denkweise in der Kunst unserer Zeit," Das Wak 3 ('949): similar project more focused on perception theory: see Moles, Information Theory and Aesthetic 89-90. Perception. His theory tried to offer an explanation of super sign building in aesthetic perception: see 50. Max Bense, "Aesthetica: Metaphysische Beobachtungen am Schonen" (Aesthetica I. Meta­ Moles, Information Theory and Aesthetic Perception, both the 1958 French and the 1968 editions. He physical observations on beauty) (Munich: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1954); "Aesthetica II. Aesthe­ investigated the capability of the human brain to perceive information, looking for evidence as to tische Information" (Aesthetica II. Aesthetic information) (Baden-Baden: Agis-Verlag, 1956); "Aes­ which ratio between order and complexity would be perceived as pleasant. From here, Moles devel­ thetica Ill. Asthetik und Zivilisation: Theorie der asthetischen Kommunikation" (Aesthetica Ill. oped a theoretical framework for super signs. In his theory, elementary signs are combined in human Aesthetics and civilization: Theorv of aesthetical communication) (Baden-Baden: Agis-Verlag, perception with more complex signs (super signs). This approach not only derives from perceptual 1958); ''Aesthetica IV. Programmie;ung des Schonen: Allgemeine Texttheorie und Textasthetik" psychologist Rudolf Arnheim's gestalt theory, but also goes deep into contemporary psychological (Aesthetica IV. Programming of beauty: General text theory and text aesthetics) (Baden-Baden: theories. His student Helmar Frank later studied with Max Bense and tried to prove Moles's more Agis-Verlag, 1960). In 1965, the four volumes were published as a Single book, Aesthetica (Baden­ theoretical considerations empirically. Thus the more philosophical and art-theoretical approach of Baden: Agis-Verlag, 1965), along with the "manifesto" for computer graphics. Bense, coming from the concrete poetry school, was enriched by the psychological-empirical inves­ 51. Douglas Davis contextualizes computer art within the Nouvelle Tendance. See Douglas tigations of Moles and laid the groundwork for an all-embracing information aesthetics. Davis, "The Computer: [as the] Final Fusion," in Art and the Future: A History/Prophecy of the Col­ 33. The relation of New Tendencies in Zagreb to early computer art is best documented in the laboration between Science, Technology and Art (London: Thames and Hudson, 1973), 97-105. In journal Bit International 1-9 (1968-72), Galleries of the City of Zagreb, Izdavac, www.mi2.hr/alive/ 1966, Aldo Pellegrini, in New Tendencies in Art (New York: Crown, 1966), gave a reference for the bitinternational.htm (accessed September 4,2010). relation between "new tendencies and programmed art" (1871f) two years before the "International 34. Frieder Nake, "On the Inversion of Information Aesthetics," Bit International 7 (1969): 59- Colloquy, Computers and Visual Research" took place in Zagreb (Bit International 3). Radoslav 66; quotation 61. Putar best described the merging of art and technology, the evolving new artist, and the contextu­ 35. Frieder Nake, "Erzeugung asthetische Objekte mit Rechenanlagen," in Nichtnummerische alization of European mainframe computer art within the new tendencies: Datenvemrbeitung, ed. Rul Gunzenhauser (Vienna and New York: Springer, 1968), 465-72, quota­ tion 460. During the NT-2 [ ... ] everybody discussed the extinction of the meaning of the onefold 36. Wilhelm Fucks compared the stylistic characteristics of composers j. S. Bach, L. Beethoven, and the irreproducible creative act of an individual genius; they talked of team work which and A. Webern with a random distribution pattern of harmony, and discovered that in music his- would perform instances of visualization of plastic ideas; many followers of the NT have 88 CE>HEKS INFOR!'vlA,T!Oi'J /\ESTHETICS 89

tried to give their work the habit of the machine or else they have based their procedures on 1966. Another transatlantic bridge was the German Martin Krampen, who was working at the Uni­ the use of mechanical or electrical devices; they have all dreamt of the machines-and now versitv of Waterloo in Canada. He organized group exhibitions of early computer art in Stuttgart the machines have arrived. And they have arrived [rom a direction which was somewhat and DIm, and organized with Peter Se~itz the c~nference "Planning and Design" at his university in unexpected, and accompanied by people who were neither painters nor sculptors. (Radoslav June 1966. Putar, untitled, Tendencije 4 [1970]) 67. Nake, Asthetik als Inforll1atiol1sveral'beitung. 68. A symposium, "Prazise Vergniigen," had been held to honor Max Bense in 1994 at the Wi 1- For more information on the events in Zagreb, see Margit Rosen's contribution in this book (chap­ helmspalais Stuttgart. ter 5). 52. Jane H. Kay, "Art Science on the Charles," Art in America 55, no. 5 (1967): 62-67, quotation 62. 53. Charles Percy Snow, Ihe Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959; first printing, Snow, 1956). 54. Charles Percy Snow, "The Moral Un-Neutrality of Science (Reprint)," Computers and Auto­ mationlO, no. 5 (1961): 13-17. 55. The artists were Marc Adrian (Austria), Kurd Alsleben (Germany), Oskar Beckmann (Aus­ tria), Otto Beckmann (Austria), Dan Cohen (USA), John Cohen (UK), Alan Mark France (UK), Herbert W. Franke (Germany), Roland Fuchshuber (Germany), Suzanne Hanauer (USA), Frank Helmar (Germany), Anthony Hill (UK), Peter K. Kreis (Germany), Dick Land (USA), John Lans­ down (UK), George L. Mallen (UK), Maugham Mason (USA), Charles Mattox (USA), Alan Mayne (UK), Leslie Mezei (Canada), Frieder Nake (Germany), Katherine Nash (USA), Georg Nees (Ger­ many), Michael A. Noll (USA), Duane Palyka (USA), Jeff Raskin (USA), Richard Raymond (USA), Ronald D. Rech (USA), Manfred Schroeder (Germany), Lillian Schwartz (USA), Paul H. Sobel (USA), Josef Hermann Stiegler (Austria), Kerry Strand (USA), Gerald Strang (USA), Peter Struycken (Nether­ lands), Sultan (full name; Germany), Lloyd Sumner (USA), Alan Sutcliffe (UK), Michael Thompson (UK), Edward Zajec (USA), and Peter Zinovieff (UK): "Computer Art. Ergebnis einer Umfrage," Magazin Kunst. Das aktuelle Kunstmagazin. 10. Jahrgang. Nr. 39. 3. Quartal (1970): 1902-03. 56. Translated by Christoph Kliitsch. 57. Elisabeth Walther and Udo , eds., Zeichen von Zeichen fiir Zeichen: Festschrift fiir AJax Bense (Baden-Baden: Agis-Verlag, 1990); Elisabeth Walther, ed., Muster moglicher Welten: Eine AI1- thologie fiir AJax Bense (Wiesbaden: Limes-Verlag, 1970). For a complete list of the Festschrifts for Max Bense compiled by Elizabeth Walther, see "Festschriften fiir Max Bense" (2003), www.stutt garter-schule.deffestschriften.htm (accessed September 4, 2010). 58. Eva Schaper, "The Aesthetics of Hartmann and Bense," Review of /vIetaphysics 10, no. 2 (1956): 289-307. 59. Jacques Legrand, "Max Bense et Ie groupe de Stuttgart," Critique 218 (1965): 619-28. 60. Ferdinand Gowa, "New German Criticism: Max Bense," College Language Association Jour­ nal9 (1965): 51-60. 61. Rudolf Arnheim, review of Abraham Moles, Information Theory and Aesthetic Perception, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 26, no. 4 (summer 1968): 552-54. 62. Arnheim, Entropy and Art. 63. Jonathan Benthall, Science and Technology in Art Today (London: Thames and Hudson, 197 2). 64. Max Bense and Elisabeth Walther, eds., Ausgewiihlte Schriften in vier Biinden., 4 vols. (Stutt­ gart: J. B. Metzler, 1997). 65. The map contains six original computer art serigraphs by Bardillo, Kawano, Knowlton, Mohr, Nake, and Nees, with a statement by each artist and text by Abraham A. Moles. Manuel Bar­ badillo et aI., Art ex machina (Montreal: G. Gheerbrant, 1972). 66. Frieder Nake was accepting an invitation by Lesli Mezei, who organized the first computer graphics network in North America through the magazine Computers and Automation in January