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Symposium:
Session Title:
- Arabesque, Mandala, Algorithm: A Long History of Generative Art
Presentation Title:
- Untitled
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Abstract:
Chairs: Kris Paulsen & Meredith Hoy
Presenters: Zabet Patterson & Laura U. MarksThis panel will investigate the history of abstract moving image work from early computer films, to the first video synthesizer images, to current work in generative, algorithmic art. Unlike typical images derived from film and video, which capture indexical traces of the scenes and objects in front of their lenses, these works generate imagery without referents and often without cameras. Early computer animations experimented with the translation of code into graphics, video synthesizers mapped electric impulses directly onto the scrolling field of the cathode ray tube, where as generative art uses computational algorithms to define a set of rules which automatically set into motion and ever changing visual landscape.
The papers on this panel challenge the particular model of visuality proposed by a traditional understanding of film. They trace out a long history of generative art, rooting new media practices in experimental work of the 1940s, 50s and 60s. The work of John and James Whitney, Stephen Beck, and Casey Reas model an alternative history of moving images that privileges abstraction over representation, and procedure over mimetic capture of the natural world. In an effort to make something radically new, these artists refer to older histories of knowledge and make explicit reference outside of the lexicon of Western visuality to the Eastern figures of arabesques and mandalas. Like these spiritual motifs, the artists aim to create types of imagery that exceed the visible material world by making works of pure light. In doing so, they not only author an alternative history of film, but also hypothesize a metaphysics of the screen. The papers on this panel challenge the particular model of visuality proposed by a traditional understanding of film.
