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Historical Pers P e c t i v e The Art of Computing as Frieder Nake’s Response to the Problem of “Mechanized Mental Labor” The Early Debates Revisited J o anna Wal e W s k A This paper discusses the process of recognition of early computer art then that he realized that as a “political animal” he should not as iconic but as a purely intellectual or conceptual form as it took no longer support the capitalist market and the use of killing TRACT place during a debate on the pages of PAGE, initiated by Frieder machines, as he used to describe computers [3]. Feeling a BS Nake’s “Statement for PAGE” and his seminal text “There Should Be No A Computer Art.” dissonance between his roles as artist and as political person, he decided to give up computer art to become a categorical voice against “art which amounts to indirect support of the When asked about the political dimension of his art, Frieder bourgeoisie and capitalist production” [4]. Nake said that although artists gathered around Max Bense The Debate iN PAGE belonged to a generation born before World War II, their In the May 1970 issue of PAGE, the bulletin of the Computer main concerns were purely aesthetic [1]. Although this first Arts Society (CAS), Nake published the following declara- generation of German computer artists had an opportunity tion: to refer to the German experience of Nazism, they consid- ered their art as purely mathematical, organized, rational and I stop exhibiting for the present . [as] it looks as if the cap- completely detached from the social or political dilemmas italist art market is trying to get hold of computer produc- of their times [2]. tions. This would mean a distraction from visual research. Nake himself felt that the historical context in which he Exhibiting in universities etc., is different as it helps to and his colleagues were immersed raised an emotional re- communicate; communication is essential to research [5]. sponse neither in him nor in them; however, by the late 1960s The artist followed this rather laconic statement with an ar- his attitude had changed dramatically. As a young man he ticle titled “There Should Be No Computer Art,” written a witnessed the student movement at Berkeley and protests few months earlier for the occasion of the International Col- against the war in Vietnam, and it was then that he took an loquium on Art and Computers in Zagreb [6]. In the face of active part in the protests in Stuttgart against the aggres- such radically outlined positions, already expressed in the sion of the Soviet Union. Nake also joined student protests title of his short text, one needs to ask: In what sense should against changes to the constitution of the Federal Republic computer art not exist? Of many possible interpretations, at of Germany. The so-called German Emergency Acts (Not- least two of them appear worth further consideration. First, standsgesetze), passed on 30 May 1968, allowed the govern- we can assume that Nake was referring not to the phenom- ment to limit civil rights in emergency situations. In 1968 enon as such but to the actual name “computer art.” On the Nake accepted Leslie Mezei’s invitation to Toronto, where he one hand, given that computer art has developed on the mar- had the opportunity to experiment with computer graphics gins of the art world, its name could have been perceived as and participate in several demonstrations against the pro- too stigmatizing, while on the other hand, it did not fully longation of the war in Vietnam. Paradoxically, his departure express the essence of the phenomenon. Second, a more from Germany coincided with the introduction of a state radical interpretation of Nake’s argument would be to say of emergency in Canada, due to the terrorist attacks of the that in general one should not create art using a computer Quebec Liberation Front on an information center. It was or, in a weaker version, to claim that one may use a computer but only in a completely different manner than before. In my opinion, both the construction of Nake’s arguments and Joanna Walewska (media historian), Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toru´n, Fosa Staromiejska 3, 87-100 Torun, Poland. Email: [email protected]. the extremely rhetorical language of his text make all these See www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/leon/52/1 for supplemental files associated interpretations equally plausible, at least at first glance. with this issue. Nake begins by saying that at this very early stage of the 54 LEONARDO, Vol. 52, No. 1, pp. 54–59, 2019 doi:10.1162/LEON_a_01345 ©2019 ISAST Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon_a_01345 by guest on 29 September 2021 development of computer technology, it was clear that it that the scrutiny of computer procedures is the only way of had great potential for use in the field of art. The Cybernetic producing artworks complex enough to satisfy one’s sensibil- Serendipity exhibition (1968) launched a heated debate on ity. Nake’s article from 1972, titled “Technocratic Dadaists,” the consequences of the introduction of computers into the appears to be the turning point of the discussion, the char- art world; however, the central question of this discussion, acter of which had unexpectedly changed from an exchange whether computer art is art, was, according to Nake, ill posed. of opinions on the purely aesthetic and artistic values into a He claimed that although the temperature of these discus- debate on the political dimension of art [11]. What is surpris- sions had not dropped, their quality left much to be desired, ing is the fact that both the aesthetic and political dimensions as the debaters very often exhibited signs of ignorance and are interwoven at the point where Nake explains that what prejudice toward computer art and this made the progress he meant in his first article was not that one should not use in understanding the phenomenon very slow. computers in the field of art but quite the opposite; however, he emphasizes that “one should not use them to create art.” Art magazines are full of articles, exhibitions are held ev- Nake, aware of the gravity of his words, added that his erywhere, seminars are offered by art schools. Computer intention was not to erase completely the concept of art but scientists are flattered by the little public success they make rather to draw attention to the impossibility of its existence and amused by the interest artists develop [7]. in its present form. Nake protested the use of the new me- Nake wrote that although he had been engaged in the de- dium to create conventional artworks suitable for hanging in velopment of computer art almost from the beginning, he a gallery or museum. According to Nake, computers should easily came to the conclusion that the use of computers made be used as a tool for the liquidation of art; he described the only a very small contribution to the development of art, artists who used them as if nothing had changed as “techno- since the repertoire of aesthetic functions of computer art- cratic dadaists.” work did not differ dramatically from traditional techniques. He concluded by saying that computer art had a significant Therefore, the use of computers did not make sense, since role to play, as he was convinced that computers had the po- artists were able to achieve the same or even better effects tential to allow one to expand the repertoire of artistic means by using a chisel or a ruler and pencil. It seems that the CAS used in contemporary art. However, he was inclined to see members, whose follow-up articles appeared in subsequent their role in quite a different way, most of all as a tool of social issues of PAGE, paid particular attention to the statement on change. Nake claimed that if artists were unable to use the the arrested development of aesthetic functions. However, art as a tool for social change, the result would have a merely in my opinion the whole discussion was based on a misun- quantitative not qualitative character. He wrote: derstanding of Nake’s original intuition. Although it is hard Many computer artists we can call technocratic dadaists. to believe that the artist decided to join the chorus of art They deny and replace the traditional ways of artistic pro- critics who were often outraged by the mere existence of art duction and see this as a revolutionary step; but, in effect, made by means of computer, the leading computer artists, they only create a new artistic style—nothing more [12]. who perceived Nake as an author of algorithmic, geometric works referring to Paul Klee, considered his statement an This response was followed by a series of articles in subse- insult without taking into account the primary political di- quent issues of PAGE. One such text, a more polemical essay mension of his so-called manifesto. A number of replies to by Gary William Smith titled “Computer Art and Real Art,” his article appeared in the next issue of the bulletin, in which requires particular attention. In it, Smith made an argument John Lansdown published his article “Computer Graphics # that some of Nake’s most notable works, for instance Hom- [does not equal] Computer Art” [8]. In it, Lansdown tried mage à Paul Klee, were merely pictorial and therefore could to prove that while Nake’s statement was true in relation to easily be executed manually [13]. computer graphics, one could not evaluate all branches of computer art in such a way.

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