Generative Systems and Generative Art

A discussion of the relationship of generative art to generative systems with the artist’s personal vision as founder of the 1970-1980 Generative Systems program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.. Generative art is presented as primarily associated with the computer’s capacity for ‘setting in motion’ an automated system to create art. It is considered as a part of the artificial life, evolutionary art movement. Generative Systems artists, on the other hand, explored contemporary communication systems using manual, mechanical, electronic, photonic and biological tools. A focus on the art process rather than art making resulted in courses dealing with process, energy and the visualization of time.