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Computer art is any
art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
in which
computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...
s play a role in production or display of the artwork. Such art can be an image, sound, animation,
video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syste ...
,
CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...
,
DVD-ROM The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
,
video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
,
website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...
,
algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specificat ...
, performance or gallery installation. Many traditional disciplines are now integrating digital technologies and, as a result, the lines between traditional works of art and new media works created using computers has been blurred. For instance, an artist may combine traditional
painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...
with
algorithm art Algorithmic art or algorithm art is art, mostly visual art, in which the design is generated by an algorithm. Algorithmic artists are sometimes called ''algorists''. Overview Algorithmic art, also known as computer-generated art, is a subset o ...
and other digital techniques. As a result, defining computer art by its end product can thus be difficult. Computer art is bound to change over time since changes in technology and
software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...
directly affect what is possible.


The term "computer art"

On the title page of the magazine ''Computers and Automation'', January 1963, Edmund Berkeley published a picture by
Efraim Arazi Efraim R. "Efi" Arazi ( he, אפי ארזי) (14 April 1937 – 14 April 2013) was an Israeli technology pioneer and businessman. Education Arazi enrolled as a cadet to study electronics in the Israel Defense Forces at the Air Force Techno ...
from 1962, coining for it the term "computer art." This picture inspired him to initiate the first ''Computer Art Contest'' in 1963. The annual contest was a key point in the development of computer art up to the year 1973.


History

The precursor of computer art dates back to 1956–1958, with the generation of what is probably the first image of a human being on a computer screen, a (
George Petty George Brown Petty IV (April 27, 1894 – July 21, 1975) was an American pin-up artist. His pin-up art appeared primarily in ''Esquire'' and Fawcett Publications's ''True'' but was also in calendars marketed by ''Esquire'', ''True'' and Ridgid T ...
-inspired)
pin-up A pin-up model (known as a pin-up girl for a female and less commonly male pin-up for a male) is a model whose mass-produced pictures see widespread appeal as part of popular culture. Pin-up models were variously glamour models, fashion models ...
girl at a
SAGE Sage or SAGE may refer to: Plants * ''Salvia officinalis'', common sage, a small evergreen subshrub used as a culinary herb ** Lamiaceae, a family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint or deadnettle or sage family ** ''Salvia'', a large ...
air defense installation. Desmond Paul Henry invented the Henry Drawing Machine in 1960; his work was shown at the Reid Gallery in London in 1962, after his machine-generated art won him the privilege of a one-man exhibition. By the mid-1960s, most individuals involved in the creation of computer art were in fact engineers and scientists because they had access to the only computing resources available at university scientific research labs. Many artists tentatively began to explore the emerging computing technology for use as a creative tool. In the summer of 1962,
A. Michael Noll A. Michael Noll (born 1939, Newark, New Jersey) is an American engineer, and professor emeritus at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. He served as dean of the Annenberg School from 1992 t ...
programmed a digital computer at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey to generate visual patterns solely for artistic purposes. His later computer-generated patterns simulated paintings by Piet Mondrian and
Bridget Riley Bridget Louise Riley (born 24 April 1931) is an English painter known for her op art paintings. She lives and works in London, Cornwall and the Vaucluse in France. Early life and education Riley was born on 24 April 1931 in Norwood, Londo ...
and became classics. Noll also used the patterns to investigate aesthetic preferences in the mid-1960s. The two early exhibitions of computer art were held in 1965: Generative Computergrafik, February 1965, at the Technische Hochschule in Stuttgart, Germany, and Computer-Generated Pictures, April 1965, at the Howard Wise Gallery in New York. The Stuttgart exhibit featured work by
Georg Nees Georg Nees (23 June 1926 – 3 January 2016) was a German academic who was a pioneer of computer art and generative graphics. He studied mathematics, physics and philosophy in Erlangen and Stuttgart and was scientific advisor at the SEMIOSIS, I ...
; the New York exhibit featured works by Bela Julesz and A. Michael Noll and was reviewed as art by ''The New York Times''. A third exhibition was put up in November 1965 at Galerie Wendelin Niedlich in Stuttgart, Germany, showing works by
Frieder Nake Frieder Nake (born December 16, 1938 in Stuttgart, Germany) is a mathematician, computer scientist, and pioneer of computer art. He is best known internationally for his contributions to the earliest manifestations of computer art, a field of co ...
and Georg Nees. Analogue computer art by
Maughan Mason Maughan may refer to: Places * Maughan, Alberta, Canada * Lake Maughan or Mount Parker (Cotabato), stratovolcano on Mindanao island in the Philippines Other uses * Maughan (surname) *The Maughan Library, a 19th-century neo-Gothic library of King' ...
along with digital computer art by Noll were exhibited at the AFIPS Fall Joint Computer Conference in Las Vegas toward the end of 1965. In 1968, the
Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch, the ICA c ...
(ICA) in London hosted one of the most influential early exhibitions of computer art called
Cybernetic Serendipity Cybernetic Serendipity was an exhibition of cybernetic art curated by Jasia Reichardt, shown at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, England, from 2 August to 20 October 1968, and then toured across the United States. Two stops in the United ...
. The exhibition, curated by
Jasia Reichardt Jasia Reichardt (born 1933) is a British art critic, curator, art gallery director, teacher and prolific writer, specialist in the emergence of computer art. In 1968 she was curator of the landmark ''Cybernetic Serendipity'' exhibition at London's ...
, included many of those often regarded as the first digital artists,
Nam June Paik Nam June Paik (; July 20, 1932 – January 29, 2006) was a Korean American artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the founder of video art. He is credited with the first use (1974) of the term "electronic super h ...
, Frieder Nake, Leslie Mezei, Georg Nees, A. Michael Noll, John Whitney, and
Charles Csuri Charles Csuri (July 4, 1922 – February 27, 2022), better known as Chuck Csuri, was an American artist and computer art pioneer, described by the '' Smithsonian'' magazine as the "father of digital art and computer animation." Biography Digita ...
.Raimes, Jonathan. (2006 ) The Digital Canvas, Abrams. One year later, the
Computer Arts Society The Computer Arts Society (CAS) was founded in 1968, in order to encourage the creative use of computers in the arts. Foundation The three founder members of the Society – Alan Sutcliffe, George Mallen, and John Lansdown – had been involved ...
was founded, also in London. At the time of the opening of Cybernetic Serendipity, in August 1968, a symposium was held in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, under the title "Computers and visual research". It took up the European artists movement of New Tendencies that had led to three exhibitions (in 1961, 63, and 65) in Zagreb of concrete, kinetic, and constructive art as well as op art and conceptual art. New Tendencies changed its name to "Tendencies" and continued with more symposia, exhibitions, a competition, and an international journal (bit international) until 1973. Katherine Nash and Richard Williams published ''Computer Program for Artists: ART 1'' in 1970. Xerox Corporation's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) designed the first
Graphical User Interface The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...
(GUI) in the 1970s. The first
Macintosh computer The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...
was released in 1984; since then the GUI became popular. Many graphic designers quickly accepted its capacity as a creative tool.
Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...
created digital art using a
Commodore Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...
where the computer was publicly introduced at the
Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...
, New York in July 1985. An image of Debbie Harry was captured in monochrome from a video camera and digitized into a graphics program called ProPaint. Warhol manipulated the image adding colour by using flood fills.


Output devices

Formerly, technology restricted output and print results. Early machines used pen-and-ink plotters to produce basic hard copy. In the early 1960s, the Stromberg Carlson SC-4020 microfilm printer was used at Bell Telephone Laboratories as a plotter to produce digital computer art and animation on 35-mm microfilm. Still images were drawn on the face plate of the cathode ray tube and automatically photographed. A series of still images were drawn to create a computer-animated movie, early on a roll of 35-mm film and then on 16-mm film as a 16-mm camera was later added to the SC-4020 printer. In the 1970s, the
dot matrix printer A dot matrix printer is an impact printer that prints using a fixed number of pins or wires. Typically the pins or wires are arranged in one or several vertical columns. The pins strike an ink-coated ribbon and force contact between the ribbon ...
(which uses a print head hitting an ink ribbon somewhat like a
typewriter A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectivel ...
) was used to reproduce varied fonts and arbitrary graphics. The first animations were created by plotting all still frames sequentially on a stack of paper, with motion transfer to 16-mm film for projection. During the 1970s and 1980s, dot matrix printers were used to produce most visual output while microfilm plotters were used for most early animation. In 1976, the
inkjet printer Inkjet printing is a type of computer printing that recreates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper and plastic substrates. Inkjet printers were the most commonly used type of printer in 2008, and range from small inexpensi ...
was invented with the increase in use of personal computers. The inkjet printer is now the cheapest and most versatile option for everyday digital color output. Raster Image Processing (RIP) is typically built into the printer or supplied as a software package for the computer; it is required to achieve the highest quality output. Basic inkjet devices do not feature RIP. Instead, they rely on graphic software to rasterize images. The
laser printer Laser printing is an electrostatic digital printing process. It produces high-quality text and graphics (and moderate-quality photographs) by repeatedly passing a laser beam back and forth over a negatively-charged cylinder called a "drum" to ...
, though more expensive than the inkjet, is another affordable output device available today.


Graphic software

Adobe Systems, founded in 1982, developed the
PostScript PostScript (PS) is a page description language in the electronic publishing and desktop publishing realm. It is a dynamically typed, concatenative programming language. It was created at Adobe Systems by John Warnock, Charles Geschke, Doug Br ...
language and digital fonts, making drawing, painting, and image manipulation software popular.
Adobe Illustrator Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor and design program developed and marketed by Adobe Inc. Originally designed for the Apple Macintosh, development of Adobe Illustrator began in 1985. Along with Creative Cloud (Adobe's shift to month ...
, a vector drawing program based on the Bézier curve introduced in 1987 and
Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc. for Microsoft Windows, Windows and macOS. It was originally created in 1988 by Thomas Knoll, Thomas and John Knoll. Since then, the software has become the indu ...
, written by brothers Thomas and John Knoll in 1990 were developed for use on MacIntosh computers, and compiled for DOS/Windows platforms by 1993.


Robot painting

A ''robot painting'' is an artwork painted by a robot. Raymond Auger's Painting Machine, made in 1962, was one of the first robotic painters as was AARON, an
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
/artist developed by Harold Cohen beginning in the late 1960s.
Joseph Nechvatal Joseph Nechvatal (born January 15, 1951) is an American post-conceptual digital artist and art theoretician who creates computer-assisted paintings and computer animations, often using custom-created computer viruses. Life and work Joseph Ne ...
began making large computer-robotic paintings in 1986. Artist Ken Goldberg created an 11' x 11' painting machine in 1992 and German artist Matthias Groebel also built his own robotic painting machine in the early 1990s.


Neural style transfer

Non-photorealistic rendering Non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) is an area of computer graphics that focuses on enabling a wide variety of expressive style (visual arts), styles for digital art, in contrast to traditional computer graphics, which focuses on photorealism. NPR ...
(using computers to automatically transform images into stylized art) has been a subject of research since the 1990s. Around 2015, ''neural style transfer'' using
convolutional neural networks In deep learning, a convolutional neural network (CNN, or ConvNet) is a class of artificial neural network (ANN), most commonly applied to analyze visual imagery. CNNs are also known as Shift Invariant or Space Invariant Artificial Neural Networ ...
to transfer the style of an artwork onto a photograph or other target image became feasible. One method of style transfer involves using a framework such as VGG or ResNet to break the artwork style down into statistics about visual
features Feature may refer to: Computing * Feature (CAD), could be a hole, pocket, or notch * Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob * Feature (software design) is an intentional distinguishing characteristic of a software item ...
. The target photograph is subsequently modified to match those statistics. Notable applications include Prisma,
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
Caffe2Go style transfer, MIT's Nightmare Machine, and
DeepArt DeepArt or DeepArt.io was a website that allowed users to create artistic images by using an algorithm to redraw one image using the stylistic elements of another image. with "A Neural Algorithm of Artistic Style" a Neural Style Transfer algorith ...
.


See also

* 3D printing art *
Algorithm art Algorithmic art or algorithm art is art, mostly visual art, in which the design is generated by an algorithm. Algorithmic artists are sometimes called ''algorists''. Overview Algorithmic art, also known as computer-generated art, is a subset o ...
*
Artificial intelligence art Artificial intelligence art is any artwork created through the use of artificial intelligence. Tools and processes Imagery There are many mechanisms for creating AI art, including procedural 'rule-based' generation of images using mathemati ...
* ASCII art *
Digital painting Digital painting is an established art medium that typically combines a computer, a graphics tablet, and software of choice. The artist uses painting and drawing with the stylus that comes with the graphics tablet to create 2D paintings within ...
*
Digital art Digital art refers to any artistic work or practice that uses digital technology as part of the creative or presentation process, or more specifically computational art that uses and engages with digital media. Since the 1960s, various name ...
*
Fractal art Fractal art is a form of algorithmic art created by calculating fractal objects and representing the calculation results as still digital images, animations, and media. Fractal art developed from the mid-1980s onwards. It is a genre of compute ...
*
Generative art Generative art refers to art that in whole or in part has been created with the use of an autonomous system. An autonomous system in this context is generally one that is non-human and can independently determine features of an artwork that wo ...
* Glitch art * Internet art *
New media art New media art includes artworks designed and produced by means of electronic media technologies, comprising virtual art, computer graphics, computer animation, digital art, interactive art, sound art, Internet art, video games, robotics, 3D pri ...
*
Software art Software art is a work of art where the creation of software, or concepts from software, play an important role; for example software applications which were created by artists and which were intended as artworks. As an artistic discipline software ...
*
Systems art Systems art is art influenced by cybernetics, and systems theory, that reflects on natural systems, social systems and social signs of the art world itself. Systems art emerged as part of the first wave of the conceptual art movement extended i ...
*
Video game art Video game art is a specialized form of computer art employing video games as the artistic medium. Video game art often involves the use of patched or modified video games or the repurposing of existing games or game structures, however it re ...
/
Modding ''Modding'' is a slang expression derived from the English verb " to modify". The term refers to modification of hardware, software, or anything else, to perform a function not originally intended by the designer, or to achieve bespoke specif ...


References


Further reading

*Honor Beddard and Douglas Dodds. (2009). ''Digital Pioneers''. London: V&A Publishing. *
Timothy Binkley Timothy Binkley (born Timothy Glenn Binkley on September 14, 1943, in Baltimore, MD), is an American philosopher, artist, and teacher, known for his radical writings about conceptual art and aesthetics, as well as several essays that help de ...
. (1988/89). "The Computer is Not A Medium", ''Philosophic Exchange''. Reprinted in ''EDB & kunstfag'', Rapport Nr. 48, NAVFs EDB-Senter for Humanistisk Forskning. Translated as "L'ordinateur n'est pas un médium", ''Esthétique des arts médiatiques'', Sainte-Foy, Québec: Presses de l'Université du Québec, 1995. *
Timothy Binkley Timothy Binkley (born Timothy Glenn Binkley on September 14, 1943, in Baltimore, MD), is an American philosopher, artist, and teacher, known for his radical writings about conceptual art and aesthetics, as well as several essays that help de ...
. (1997)
"''The Vitality of Digital Creation''"
''The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism'', 55(2), Perspectives on the Arts and Technology, pp. 107–116.

*

(
MIT Press The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962. History The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publish ...
/Leonardo Books) by Oliver Grau * *
Charlie Gere Charlie Gere is a British academic who is professor of media theory and history at The Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts, The University of Lancaster and previously, director of research at the Institute for Cultural Research at The U ...
. (2006)
White Heat, Cold Logic: Early British Computer Art
co-edited with Paul Brown, Catherine Mason and Nicholas Lambert, MIT Press/Leonardo Books. *Mark Hansen. (2004). ''New Philosophy for New Media''. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. *
Dick Higgins Dick Higgins (15 March 1938 – 25 October 1998) was an American artist, composer, art theorist, poet, publisher, printmaker, and a co-founder of the Fluxus international artistic movement (and community). Inspired by John Cage, Higgins was an ...
. (1966). Intermedia. Reprinted in Donna De Salvo (ed.), ''Open Systems Rethinking Art'' c. 1970, London: Tate Publishing, 2005. *Lieser, Wolf. ''Digital Art''. Langenscheidt: h.f. ullmann. 2009 *Lopes, Dominic McIver. (2009)
''A Philosophy of Computer Art.''
London: Routledge * *
Lev Manovich Lev Manovich ( ) is an author of books on digital culture and new media, and professor of Computer Science at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Manovich's current research and teaching focuses on digital humanities, social computin ...
. (2002, October). Ten Key Texts on Digital Art: 1970–2000
Leonardo - Volume 35, Number 5
pp. 567–569. *
Frieder Nake Frieder Nake (born December 16, 1938 in Stuttgart, Germany) is a mathematician, computer scientist, and pioneer of computer art. He is best known internationally for his contributions to the earliest manifestations of computer art, a field of co ...
. (2009, Spring). The Semiotic Engine: Notes on the History of Algorithmic Images in Europe. ''Art Journal'', pp. 76–89. *Perry M., Margoni T., (2010
''From music tracks to Google maps: Who owns computer-generated works?''
in ''Computer Law and Security Review'', Vol. 26, pp. 621–629, 2010 * Edward A. Shanken. (2009). ''Art and Electronic Media''. London: Phaidon. *Grant D. Taylor (2014). When The Machine Made Art: The Troubled History of Computer Art. New York: Bloomsbury. *


External links

* {{Digital art Postmodern art Contemporary art movements Creativity techniques The arts Multimedia