Stuart Mealing (ed.): Computers and Art, 2nd ed (2002)

Computers & Art gathers together contributions from a broad, international spectrum of experts concerned with the computer as a tool for artists.

The approaches vary, with contributors looking at the historical, philosophical and practical implications of the use of computer technology in art practice. The variety of their approaches is matched by the diversity of backgrounds of the contributors who are artists, critics, educators, philosophers and researchers. Following the success of the first edition, this revised version includes three new chapters.

Publisher Intellect Books, 2002
ISBN 1841500623, 9781841500621
Pages 159

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Ira Greenberg: Processing: Creative Coding and Computational Art (2007)

This book is written especially for artists, designers, and other creative professionals and students exploring code art, graphics programming, and computational aesthetics. The book provides a solid and comprehensive foundation in programming, including object-oriented principles, and introduces you to the easy-to-grasp Processing language, so no previous coding experience is necessary. The book then goes through using Processing to code lines, curves, shapes, and motion, continuing to the point where you’ll have mastered Processing and can really start to unleash your creativity with realistic physics, interactivity, and 3D! In the final chapter, you’ll even learn how to extend your Processing skills by working directly with the powerful Java programming language, the language Processing itself is built with.

Foreword by Keith Peters
Publisher Springer, 2007
ISBN 159059617X, 9781590596173
Length 810 pages

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Casey Reas, Ben Fry: Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists (2007)

It has been more than twenty years since desktop publishing reinvented design, and it’s clear that there is a growing need for designers and artists to learn programming skills to fill the widening gap between their ideas and the capability of their purchased software. This book is an introduction to the concepts of computer programming within the context of the visual arts. It offers a comprehensive reference and text for Processing (www.processing.org), an open-source programming language that can be used by students, artists, designers, architects, researchers, and anyone who wants to program images, animation, and interactivity.

The ideas in Processing have been tested in classrooms, workshops, and arts institutions, including UCLA, Carnegie Mellon, New York University, and Harvard University. Tutorial units make up the bulk of the book and introduce the syntax and concepts of software (including variables, functions, and object-oriented programming), cover such topics as photography and drawing in relation to software, and feature many short, prototypical example programs with related images and explanations. More advanced professional projects from such domains as animation, performance, and typography are discussed in interviews with their creators. “Extensions” present concise introductions to further areas of investigation, including computer vision, sound, and electronics. Appendixes, references to other material, and a glossary contain additional technical details. Processing can be used by reading each unit in order, or by following each category from the beginning of the book to the end. The Processing software and all of the code presented can be downloaded and run for future exploration.

Essays by: Alexander R. Galloway, Golan Levin, R. Luke DuBois, Simon Greenwold, Francis Li, Hernando Barragán

Interviews with: Jared Tarbell, Martin Wattenberg, James Paterson, Erik van Blockland, Ed Burton, Josh On, Jürg Lehni, Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn, Mathew Cullen and Grady Hall, Bob Sabiston, Jennifer Steinkamp, Ruth Jarman and Joseph Gerhardt, Sue Costabile, Chris Csikszentmihályi, Golan Levin and Zachary Lieberman, Mark Hansen

Foreword by John Maeda
Publisher MIT Press, 2007
ISBN 0262182629, 9780262182621
Length 710 pages

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Anna Bentkowska-Kafel, Trish Cashen, Hazel Gardiner (eds.): Futures Past: Thirty Years of Arts Computing (2007)

Eleven contributors to this volume reflect upon the unprecedented ways in which digital media have been transforming art practice, study and education. The authors – researchers, teachers, custodians of art collections and picture libraries and an artist – cover a wide range of issues, arguing for a more profound understanding of digital culture.

With the benefit of hindsight it is now possible to look at ‘futures past’ and assess the disparities between earlier visions of the future and reality. Frank accounts are given of projects which had promised great advances but failed to deliver, and others that have not only survived but continue to flourish. Another account demonstrates how an individual can make a difference to students’ learning by applying new technologies in a very pragmatic way. One of the most exciting advancements hinted at in this volume is the way in which communities of interest are developing shared resources and cultivating a richer use of common vocabulary and standards to transmit an abundance of knowledge and experience. A look forward to the Semantic Web promises an even wider sharing of knowledge.

Publisher Intellect Books, 2007
ISBN 1841501689, 9781841501680
Length 128 pages

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George Stiny, James Gips: Algorithmic Aesthetics: Computer Models for Criticism and Design in the Arts (1978)

“Can a computer appreciate a work of art? Can a computer create a new work of art? What does it mean for an object to be a work of art? How are objects understood as works of art? Dozens of ways of understanding art have been proposed. Is there one true way to understand works of art? If not, what do the different ways of understanding art have in common? How might they be implemented in a computer? Does this “computer” or “algorithmic” approach have any contributions to make to the field of art and aesthetics?

The book was written between 1974 and 1976 in Los Angeles. We had no access to a computer so we employed a typist to translate our hand written pages into typed manuscript.”

Published by University of California Press, 1978.
ISBN 0-520-03467-8
220 pages

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Jasia Reichardt (ed.) – Cybernetic Serendipidity. The Computer and the Arts (1968)

Cybernetic Serendipity was an exhibition of computer art by Jasia Reichardt, shown at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London in 1968, and then touring the United States.

a Studio International Special Issue
Published by Studio International, London
1st edition July 1968
2nd edition (revised) Sept. 1968

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Radical Software magazine (1970-1974)

The historic video magazine Radical Software was started by Beryl Korot, Phyllis Gershuny, and Ira Schneider and first appeared in Spring of 1970, soon after low-cost portable video equipment became available to artists and other potential videomakers. Though scholarly works on video art history often refer to Radical Software, there are few places where scholars can review its contents. Individual copies are rare, and few complete collections exist.

Radical Software was an important voice of the American video community in the early 70s; the only periodical devoted exclusively to independent video and video art at the time when those subjects were still being invented. Issues included contributions by Nam June Paik, Douglas Davis, Paul Ryan, Frank Gillette, Beryl Korot, Charles Bensinger, Ira Schneider, Ann Tyng, R. Buckminster Fuller, Gregory Bateson, Gene Youngblood, Parry Teasdale, Ant Farm, and many others.

Eleven issues of Radical Software were published from 1970 to 1974, first by the Raindance Corporation and then by the Raindance Foundation with Gordon and Breach Publishers.

Radical Software, Volume I, Number 1
The Alternate Television Movement,
Spring 1970
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Radical Software, Volume I, Number 2
The Electromagnetic Spectrum,
Autumn 1970
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Radical Software, Volume I, Number 3
Untitled, Spring 1971
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Radical Software, Volume I, Number 4
Untitled, Summer 1971
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Radical Software, Volume I, Number 5
Realistic Hope Foundation,
Spring 1972
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Radical Software, Volume II, Number 1
Changing Channels, Winter 1972
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Radical Software, Volume II, Number 2
The TV Environment, Spring 1973
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Radical Software, Volume II, Number 3
Videocity, Summer 1973
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Radical Software, Volume II, Number 4
Solid State, Autumn 1973
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Radical Software, Volume II, Number 5
Video and Environment, Winter 1973
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Radical Software, Volume II, Number 6
Video and Kids, Summer 1974
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Christoph Klütsch: Computergrafik: Ästhetische Experimente zwischen zwei Kulturen. Die Anfänge der Computerkunst in den 1960er Jahren (2007) [German]

“Computergrafik” ist ein innovativer Beitrag zur ungeschriebenen Geschichte der Computergrafik der 60er Jahre. Vor dem Hintergrund C. P. Snows “zwei Kulturen” Diskussion entwickelte sich in der Stuttgarter Schule um Max Bense eine neue Form generativer bzw. algorithmischer Kunst, die die AnfAnge der digitalen Computergrafik markieren. Zentrale theoretische und kA1/4nstlerische Konzepte werden anhand der Werke von Frieder Nake, Georg Nees, A. Michael Noll und Manfred Mohr diskutiert. Pionierleistungen, theoretische Diskussionen und die BezA1/4ge zu zeitgenAssischen Kunstbewegungen sind systematisch aufgearbeitet und ermAglichen die Einordnung einer Asthetischen Debatte, wie sie bisher weder im Kontext einer neuen InformationsAsthetik noch in der Kunstgeschichte oder in medienwissenschaftlichen Untersuchungen geleistet worden ist. Interviews mit Pionieren der Computergrafik in Deutschland und den USA, die Aufarbeitung schwer zugAnglichen Quellenmaterials und eine umfangreiche Bibliographie runden das Werk ab.

Published by Springer, 2007
ISBN 3211394095, 9783211394090
288 pages

Key terms: Computerkunst, Frieder Nake, Max Bense, Manfred Mohr, Computergrafik, Informationsästhetik, Bell Labs, Zagreb, Serendipity, Op-Art, C. P. Snow, Informationstheorie, Konkrete Kunst, Semiotik, Kybernetik, Helmar Frank, Computerkünstler, Bridget Riley, Turingtest

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Paul A. Fishwick (ed.): Aesthetic computing (2006)

In Aesthetic Computing, key scholars and practitioners from art, design, computer science, and mathematics lay the foundations for a discipline that applies the theory and practice of art to computing. Aesthetic computing explores the way art and aesthetics can play a role in different areas of computer science. One of its goals is to modify computer science by the application of the wide range of definitions and categories normally associated with making art. For example, structures in computing might be represented using the style of Gaudi or the Bauhaus school. This goes beyond the usual definition of aesthetics in computing, which most often refers to the formal, abstract qualities of such structures—a beautiful proof, or an elegant diagram. The contributors to this book discuss the broader spectrum of aesthetics—from abstract qualities of symmetry and form to ideas of creative expression and pleasure—in the context of computer science. The assumption behind aesthetic computing is that the field of computing will be enriched if it embraces all of aesthetics. Human-computer interaction will benefit—”usability,” for example, could refer to improving a user’s emotional state—and new models of learning will emerge.

Aesthetic Computing approaches its subject from a variety of perspectives. After defining the field and placing it in its historical context, the book looks at art and design, mathematics and computing, and interface and interaction. Contributions range from essays on the art of visualization and “the poesy of programming” to discussions of the aesthetics of mathematics throughout history and transparency and reflectivity in interface design.

Contributors: James Alty, Olav W. Bertelsen, Jay David Bolter, Donna Cox, Stephan Diehl, Mark d’Inverno, Michele Emmer, Paul Fishwick, Monica Fleischmann, Ben Fry, Carsten Görg, Susanne Grabowski, Diane Gromala, Kenneth A. Huff, John Lee, Frederic Fol Leymarie, Michael Leyton, Jonas Löwgren, Roger F. Malina, Laurent Mignonneau, Frieder Nake, Ray Paton, Jane Prophet, Aaron Quigley, Casey Reas, Christa Sommerer, Wolfgang Strauss, Noam Tractinksy, Paul Vickers, Dror Zmiri

Published by MIT Press, 2006
Original from the University of Michigan
Digitized Nov 16, 2007
ISBN 026206250X, 9780262062503
457 pages

Key terms: graph drawing, human-computer interaction, Christa Sommerer, Mixed Reality, mathematical beauty, computer science, Scientific Visualization, identity element, Ars Electronica, digital art, SIGGRAPH, information visualization, interaction design, computer graphics, Leonardo Journal, semiotic, aesthetic computing, series-parallel graph, Frieder Nake, Manfred Mohr

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Ruth Leavitt (ed): Artist and Computer (1976)

Issued in place of v.2, no.3-4 of Creative computing.

Compiled by Ruth Leavitt
Edition: illustrated
Published by Harmony Books, 1976
Item notes: no. 7433
Original from the University of Michigan
Digitized Nov 12, 2007
ISBN 0517527871, 9780517527870
121 pages

Key terms: computer graphics, oscillons, Aldo Giorgini, Creative Computing, Michael Noll, Ken Knowlton, Lillian Schwartz, cathode ray tube, line printer, Edward Ihnatowicz, Der Blaue Reiter, serigraph, weft, Wassily Kandinsky, Amherst College, acrylic paint, moire patterns, VERA MOLNAR, artificial creativity

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Taylor, Grant D. – The machine that made science art : the troubled history of computer art 1963-1989

[Truncated abstract] This thesis represents an historical account of the reception and criticism of computer art from its emergence in 1963 to its crisis in 1989, when aesthetic and ideological differences polarise and eventually fragment the art form. Throughout its history, static-pictorial computer art has been extensively maligned. In fact, no other twentieth-century art form has elicited such a negative and often hostile response. In locating the destabilising forces that affect and shape computer art, this thesis identifies a complex interplay of ideological and discursive forces that influence the way computer art has been and is received by the mainstream artworld and the cultural community at large. One of the central factors that contributed to computer art’s marginality was its emergence in that precarious zone between science and art, at a time when the perceived division between the humanistic and scientific cultures was reaching its apogee. The polarising force inherent in the “two cultures” debate framed much of the prejudice towards early computer art. For many of its critics, computer art was the product of the same discursive assumptions, methodologies and vocabulary as science. Moreover, it invested heavily in the metaphors and mythologies of science, especially logic and mathematics. This close relationship with science continued as computer art looked to scientific disciplines and emergent techno-science paradigms for inspiration and insight. While recourse to science was a major impediment to computer art’s acceptance by the artworld orthodoxy, it was the sustained hostility towards the computer that persistently wore away at the computer art enterprise. The anticomputer response came from several sources, both humanist and anti-humanist. The first originated with mainstream critics whose strong humanist tendencies led them to reproach computerised art for its mechanical sterility. A comparison with aesthetically and theoretically similar art forms of the era reveals that the criticism of computer art is motivated by the romantic fear that a computerised surrogate had replaced the artist. Such usurpation undermined some of the keystones of modern Western art, such as notions of artistic “genius” and “creativity”. Any attempt to rationalise the human creative faculty, as many of the scientists and technologists were claiming to do, would for the humanist critics have transgressed what they considered the primordial mystique of art. Criticism of computer art also came from other quarters. Dystopianism gained popularity in the 1970s within the reactive counter-culture and avant-garde movements. Influenced by the pessimistic and cynical sentiment of anti-humanist writings, many within the arts viewed the computer as an emblem of rationalisation, a powerful instrument in the overall subordination of the individual to the emerging technocracy

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