NotesforlectureonComputerArt12-11-10-ComputerArts.docVIP

Notes for lecture on Computer Art Practices 1. Algorists and Algorithmic Art The Algorists are a loose affiliation computer artists who were forms which seem computer-specific rather than simply reapplying the methods and goals of traditional art media to the computer. Due to the length of time they have been working with the computer – up to twenty years in Hébert’s case, slightly shorter for Verostko – they have grown alongside their chosen programs. From Roman Verostko: By the 1980s a number of artists using original algorithms had achieved distinctive styles, each with a body of mature work. Working independently of each other, several found that they had shared similar experiences over the years. Since the 1960s artists had been creating their art with original algorithms implemented with computing power but there was no single term to identify these artists. Following the 1995 panel on Artists and Algorithms in Los Angeles, Jean Pierre Hebert, Ken Musgrave and I briefly discussed forming an informal group of artists who shared similar interests. Having engaged in algorithmic procedures for many years we had experienced a need to create an identity for those who shared this practice. For several months we corresponded in search of a term with possible ways to share views. Eventually we settled on the term algorist as proposed by JPH. This term most probably descended from the name of an Arabian mathematician who was active around 820 AD in Baghdad. It is believed that his surname, al-Khowarazmi is the source for the term algorism. The use of the term algorism appeared with various spellings in several languages and often with latinizing influence as in algorismus. In English the term algorism came to be replaced with the term algorithm which is more commonly used today. So one who employs algorithms (algorism) may be termed an algorist. […]The jewel of algorist art lies in the artists own form-generating algorithm, the artists unique procedure for creatin