“Proto-Computational Arts and Photography” presented by Burbano

Keywords: Proto-computational Arts, Algorithmic Devices, Early Computers, Geraldo de Barros, Jose Oiticica Filho

How Geraldo de Barros obtained abstract photographs using disposed punched cards makes evident that the origins of the interaction between algorithmic devices and the arts are deep and there is a clear need to describe the visual artifacts, and the historical and technological contexts as well to better understand his work. José Oiticica Filho and de Barros expanded the use of photography beyond the camera operation focusing on experiments in the darkroom. I have proposed that Geraldo de Barros must be recognized as a pioneer of computational arts “because he developed a method for using punched cards instead of the negative Film in the darkroom, exposing the photographic paper several times while changing the distance of the enlarger lens to the photographic paper in order to magnify or minimize the size of the rectangles through which the light would pass creating complex abstract compositions in the photographic paper”.