Regularity
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While the 10 PRINT program came out of the computer culture and not the art world, it has an uncanny visual resemblance to prior works of twentieth century art. The earliest related work we've tracked down is by Paul Klee, a Bauhaus professor and highly influential artist of his time (1879–1940). In his concise Pedagogical Sketchbook, Klee discusses… In ?? he implemented these ideas in Variations (Progressive Motif), painted in 1927. He divided the 40cm square canvas into a grid of 9 units. Each unit contains pattern of parallel lines, with some exceptions, that run vertical, horizontal, or diagonal. The painting has a very hand-drawn quality with wavy lines and the density of each pattern of lines is irregular. Despite it's intended imperfections, ??? | While the 10 PRINT program came out of the computer culture and not the art world, it has an uncanny visual resemblance to prior works of twentieth century art. The earliest related work we've tracked down is by Paul Klee, a Bauhaus professor and highly influential artist of his time (1879–1940). In his concise Pedagogical Sketchbook, Klee discusses… In ?? he implemented these ideas in Variations (Progressive Motif), painted in 1927. He divided the 40cm square canvas into a grid of 9 units. Each unit contains pattern of parallel lines, with some exceptions, that run vertical, horizontal, or diagonal. The painting has a very hand-drawn quality with wavy lines and the density of each pattern of lines is irregular. Despite it's intended imperfections, ??? | ||
| − | In France, a group of likeminded artists within and around GRAV (Groupe de Recherche d'Art Visuel) were exploring variations within grids. Francois Molnar and Vera Molnar worked on a series of images in 1959 which presented a visual system strikingly similar to 10 PRINT. In 1959, their in his essay ??, published in ??. [MORE] | + | In France, a group of likeminded artists within and around GRAV (Groupe de Recherche d'Art Visuel) were exploring variations within grids. Francois Molnar and Vera Molnar worked on a series of images in 1959 which presented a visual system strikingly similar to 10 PRINT. In Francois' essay “Toward Science in Art”, published in the anthology DATA: Directions in Art, Theory and Aesthetics in 1968, he published the images Simulation d'une série de divisions de Mondrian a partir de trois au hasard and Quatre éléments au hasard [Figure ??]. Both are 24 x 24 unit grids with one of a few possible forms painted into each grid unit with black gouache. As the titles suggest, the elements in each square were defined by a random process. Their Composition Stochastique of the same year systematizes the random component entirely and by producing a modular set of two elements, a left and right diagonal that are placed within a 10 x 10 unit grid. In the illustrations for the essay, they feature a 1%, 5%, 30%, and 50% ratio of left to right diagonal lines to show the result of chaos intruding upon order. Because it's a 100 unit grid, these percentages correspond to precisely 1, 5, 30, and 50 units in each figure. In the 50% figure, the only substantive different with our 10 PRINT program is the variation on the core elements (Figure ??). Because a team of artists working in Paris in 1959 produced the fundamental algorithm for 10 PRINT twenty-three years prior to the printing of the Commodore 64 User Guide, does that enhance or diminish the stature of our one-liner? When she wrote about this work in a 1990 essay titled Inconceivable Images, Vera Molnar wrote that she was thinking about this painting as a computer program, because she had access to a machine: |
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| + | To genuinely systematize my research series I initially used a technique which | ||
| + | I called machine imaginaire. I imagined I had a computer. I designed a programme | ||
| + | and then, step by step, I realized simple, limited series which were completed | ||
| + | within, meaning they did not exclude a single possible combination of form. | ||
| + | As soon as possible I replaced the imaginary computer, the make-believe machine | ||
| + | by a real one. | ||
Across the Atlantic in the 1960s the American artist Sol LeWitt embarked on decades of work exploring grids and regular structures. In 1968, LeWitt starting making drawings directly on walls, rather than on paper or canvas that would be placed on the wall. In this return to the scale of frescos, his drawings within grids integrated into architecture to transform the space. His Wall Drawing 291 from 1976 is a striking work, with a strong similarity to 10 PRINT. Instead of the binary decision within 10 PRINT, LeWitt's drawing allows for horizontal and vertical lines, to create four choices for each grid element. Also like 10 PRINT, LeWitt's work is encoded as an algorithm. Unlike 10 PRINT, the instructions are in English, rather than BASIC: | Across the Atlantic in the 1960s the American artist Sol LeWitt embarked on decades of work exploring grids and regular structures. In 1968, LeWitt starting making drawings directly on walls, rather than on paper or canvas that would be placed on the wall. In this return to the scale of frescos, his drawings within grids integrated into architecture to transform the space. His Wall Drawing 291 from 1976 is a striking work, with a strong similarity to 10 PRINT. Instead of the binary decision within 10 PRINT, LeWitt's drawing allows for horizontal and vertical lines, to create four choices for each grid element. Also like 10 PRINT, LeWitt's work is encoded as an algorithm. Unlike 10 PRINT, the instructions are in English, rather than BASIC: | ||
