II.

The computer, in response to appropriate programmed instructions, offers to the artist the following possibilities :

1. Line drawings and compositions made up of typed symbols, in black and white or in color, on paper or a similar material, ready for framing

Variations of these kinds of output of a computer can easily be made by changes in the instructions. One should bear in mind that these outputs can be produced without the computer, as far as the basic artistic conceptions of content are concerned. For example, the line drawings of a computer can be made by hand with a pen or pencil or by means of simple mechanical devices, such as the double pendulum [12]. Compositions of typed symbols can be made on a manually operated typewriter [7, 8, 11]. The advantage of computer graphic art is in the speed and quantity of copies that can be produced, perhaps at a lower price than by other traditional methods. This would allow a larger number of persons to purchase an example.

2. Sculpture made by automatic machines controlled by a computer

To make three-dimensional objects, a computer is provided with a program of instructions for conversion into commands to an automatic machine. A simple example is a symmetrical object turned in a wood or metal lathe. More complex cutting machines are available in industry for making irregular forms. Whether the traditional method in which the artist makes a prototype by hand, from which copies can be cast in plaster or metal, will be displaced by the new method is not obvious.

3. Paintings made by an automatic machine controlled by a computer

A computer would be used in the same manner as for making a sculpture, except that a special automatic machine would be required to apply paints to a surface. A painting machine is not at present available but perhaps a sufficiently flexible one could be constructed to give interesting results.

4. Displays on a screen of a cathode ray tube

A computer can be instructed to command the formation of black and white or colored, static or kinetic images on the screen of a cathode ray tube similar to that used in television sets. The images may be viewed directly or recorded on still photographs, cinema film or video tape. It is also possible to give a viewer the visual experience of three dimensions by stereoscopic separation of images through the use of auxiliary devices [6]. One can expect in the near future computer-produced visual art recorded on video tape for projection on the screen of a television set in the home, whenever desired. This kind of application of a computer may be the most promising one for the future of the visual arts.

5. Compositions made up of a number of basic elements arranged according to a predetermined combinatorial principle

A computer would provide instructions on the location of each basic element on a surface according to prescribed rules, for example, to avoid the same color in apart of an element touching the same color in neighbouring elements and to avoid the same shape in a part of an element touching the same shape in neighbouring elements. The artist (perhaps one should say craftsman) then takes the computer instructions and paints the composition or assembles previously prepared elements made to the desired scale. The computer only serves as a labor-saving device in arriving at combinations prescribed by the artist [10].

III.

By the time computers became available to them, artists had already used other means to make static and kinetic, two and three-dimensional visual art, including audio-visual kinetic art. Since a computer must be told what to do in detail, artists are forced to fall back on images with visual conceptions of content that have already existed before - the computer then makes imitations of them. It does permit the production of many variations of the components of the programmed image or object - lines, areas, volumes and color, and time sequences, if they are kinetic, can theoretically be varied endlessly.

The capability of a computer to produce easily variations of an artist's basic artistic conception may be a blessing for some artists. The artist in the past, in order to earn his livelihood, has been forced to make by hand a large number of art objects that are but minor variations of a given prototype. The pressures on the artist from the commercializes of art to make quantities of variants of a prototype bearing a clearly recognizable ‘trade-mark’ further aggravate the ‘production’ dilemma of the creative artist. This consideration is based on the conviction that only the prototype can be considered a significant creative act and that the artist becomes frustrated when he must make repetitions of the prototype with only minor variations. The fact that the works of an artist are divided into ‘periods’ can be blamed on the above considerations, although it is quite possible that The very nature of the human brain limits an artist to one or very few significant creative visual ideas during his lifetime.

No computer exists today that can be told to produce an image containing a specific content, say a reclining nude or a geometrical ‘landscape’, with an original visual conception of its own invention or vice-versa that will be aesthetically satisfying, If a computer is given instructions that exceed its capability, it may either come to a stop or make something classifiable only as ‘garbage’. Furthermore, a computer can neither provide the artist with any new physical dimension beyond the two dimensions of drawings and paintings, the three dimensions of sculptures and constructions, and the added time dimension of kinetic art, nor make available new optical illusions.

In spite of the limitations of present day digital computers, artists will and, I believe, should make use of them. One cannot expect that, in the short time that a very few artists have had access to them, all of their possibilities have been explored. This exploration is severely limited by the high cost of computer time and by the reluctance of artists to learn the intricacies of computer operation and programming. Those artists who are interested in taking advantage of developments in modern technology generally look upon scientists and engineers as magicians who can do anything imaginable. From my experience, artists consider them as uncooperative because they tell the artist that their ideas violate the laws of nature, demand invention that have not been made or would cost vast sums of money to be accomplished. There are, of course, scientists and engineers who mislead the artist by telling him that ‘the difficult we will do immediately, the impossible will take a little longer’.

I believe the most important benefit to be expected from the use of computers by artists will be sociological. They will help to dispel the not uncommon view that computers are monsters rather than highly sophisticated devices that can serve man, if intelligently used.

REFERENCES

1. H. L. Dreyfus, Philosophic Issues in Artificial Intelligence, Publications in the Humanities, No. 80, Mass. Inst. of Tech., 1967.
2. L. Summer, Computer Art and Human Response (Charlottesville, Virginia: P. B. Victorius, (1968).
3. L. D. Harmon and K. C. Known, Picture Processing by Computer, Science 164, 19 (1969)
4. H, von Foerster and J. W. Beauchamp, Eds., Music by Computers (New York: John Wiley, 1969).
5. M. J. Apter, The Computer Simulation of Behaviour (London: Hutchinson University Library, 1970).
6. R. 1. Land, Computer Art: Color-Stereo Displays, Leonardo 2, 335 (1969). `
7. F. Hammersley, My First Experience with Computer Drawings, Leonardo 2, 407 (1969).
8. J. Hill, My Plexiglas and Light Sculptures, Leonardo 3, 9 (1970).
9. R. Mallary, Notes on Jack Burnham's Concepts of a Software Exhibition, Leonardo 3,
189 (1970).
10. Z. Sykora and J. Blazek, Computer-Aided Multi-Element Geometrical Abstract Paintings, Leonardo 3, 409 (1970).
11. K. Nash and R. FL Williams, Computer Program for Artists: ART 1, Leonardo 3, 439 (1970)
12. S. Tolansky, Complex Curvilinear Designs from Pendulums, Leonardo 2,267 (1969).

* Text based on a talk given at the Décade: L'homme devant l'informatique at the Centre Culturel International dc Cérisy-la-Salle, Manche, France on 18 July 1970.

© Frank J. Malina & Leonardo, 1971 & Leonardo/Olats, 2007