Regularity

The ways in which 10 PRINT repeats are connected to two major types of artistic tradition and to the flow of control in computer programs. The first tradition of art is seem in the world of craft, particularly pattern-based crafts such as needlework and ornamental design. The second is a movement within the fine arts in the twentieth century to create complex patterns out of repeated procedures upon very basic units. In this way, the aesthetic of 10 PRINT parallels experiments in painting, sculpture, sound composition, video art, performance, experimental animation, and dance, much of which was seen in the decade immediately prior to 10 PRNT. In both cases, the success of these art forms is due to factors that make 10 PRINT compelling: a continual repetition of a simple rhythmic procedure or rule across a regular space or time signature creating a complex and stimulating gestalt. The other perspective on regularity that 10 PRINT employs is the perspective from computer programming, which allows a formal definition of a repeating process that a computer can carry out.

The ways in which 10 PRINT repeats are connected to two major types of artistic tradition and to the flow of control in computer programs. The first tradition of art is seem in the world of craft, particularly pattern-based crafts such as needlework and ornamental design. The second is a movement within the fine arts in the twentieth century to create complex patterns out of repeated procedures upon very basic units. In this way, the aesthetic of 10 PRINT parallels experiments in painting, sculpture, sound composition, video art, performance, experimental animation, and dance, much of which was seen in the decade immediately prior to 10 PRNT. In both cases, the success of these art forms is due to factors that make 10 PRINT compelling: a continual repetition of a simple rhythmic procedure or rule across a regular space or time signature creating a complex and stimulating gestalt. The other perspective on regularity that 10 PRINT employs is the perspective from computer programming, which allows a formal definition of a repeating process that a computer can carry out.

In his classic yet provocative text, E.H. Gombrich wrestles with the tensions between repetition and redundancy that can lead to either stimulation or boredom. As he reflects on pavement designs he notes the pleasure in the encountering the pavement whose pattern one cannot fully grasp. Gombrich explains this desire for new information through information theory emerging at the time, where information increases in tandem with unpredictability (9). He goes on to speculate that the viewer examines patterns by trying to anticipate what comes next. “Delight,” he writes, “lies somewhere between boredom and confusion” (9). 10 PRINT no doubt offers similar delights, resulting from its creation of a complex pattern from a simple random alternation. As Gombrich later argues, the greatest novelty computers bring to visual design and variation is not only its ability “to follow any complex rule of organization but also to introduce an exactly calculated dose of randomness” (94). Computers then become entrancing pattern weavers.

In his classic yet provocative text, E.H. Gombrich wrestles with the tensions between repetition and redundancy that can lead to either stimulation or boredom. As he reflects on pavement designs he notes the pleasure in the encountering the pavement whose pattern one cannot fully grasp. Gombrich explains this desire for new information through information theory emerging at the time, where information increases in tandem with unpredictability (9). He goes on to speculate that the viewer examines patterns by trying to anticipate what comes next. “Delight,” he writes, “lies somewhere between boredom and confusion” (9). 10 PRINT no doubt offers similar delights, resulting from its creation of a complex pattern from a simple random alternation. As Gombrich later argues, the greatest novelty computers bring to visual design and variation is not only its ability “to follow any complex rule of organization but also to introduce an exactly calculated dose of randomness” (94). Computers then become entrancing pattern weavers.