"Where is the Art?"
This is the resources page for Andy Piper's talk on the history of Computer Art, pen plotters, and more.
Computer Art has a rich and diverse history from the 1960s to today. Here are some links I recommend for you to explore further.
👤 About me
Links to things I've been working on in this space. Follow me on Mastodon for more, or to ask questions.
- My website.
- My newsletter issue about "The Event", a post explaining why you will not find me on X, and another about the (better) alternatives.
- Our maker studio,
Forge & Craft.
- Check out our shop to browse and buy our artwork.
- 🎟️ Visit us during Wimbledon Art Fair, May 9-12 - it's free (nearest train station is Earlsfield).
- Heidi's other site (genealogy research).
-
My blog post on
Making the BrachioGraph.
- Original BrachioGraph project by Daniele Procida.
- My Hackaday.io project documenting the hanging polargraph.
🎞️ Some plot videos
🛠️ Make Something!
There's a huge array of technologies available, both hardware and software. This is a non-exhaustive list of things to look into, I'm happy to suggest even more!
- DrawingBots is the "motherlode" for content!
- AxiDraw was recently acquired, but should continue to be manufactured under a new name. The support is fantastic.
- Whiskers is a Rust framework for generative art.
- Processing is a creative coding development environment.
- vpype is a self-described "Swiss Army knife for creating, modifying and/or optimizing plotter-ready vector graphics".
- OpenProcessing is a community where you can explore and learn p5.js.
- TurtleToy is a minimal JavaScript turtle graphics environment.
- DrawingBotV3 is a desktop application for image processing for plotters.
-
Chiplotle is a
Python library for talking to vintage HPGL plotters like my Roland
DXY-1100.
(also: can we take a moment to admire this name for a software project... 🫶🏻)
🖼️ Museums and exhibitions
Physical places where you can explore computer art today.
- Gazelli Art House in London (representing the Harold Cohen estate).
- 🎟️ Harold Cohen: AARON exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City (until mid-May 2024).
-
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London (aka the V&A South Kensington) has a significant
collection of computer art
viewable by appointment.
- The V&A blog published a post about the recent passing of Vera Molnár, one of the pioneers.
- There is also 🎟️ a generative art workshop with one of the creators of Processing coming up at the V&A later this month (April 2024).
- Tate Britain has a website section on Frieder Nake.
- The Computer Arts Society is a specialist group of the bcs Chartered Institute for IT, and holds regular events both online and in-person.
🖋️ Contemporary artists
A short list of just a small number of talented contemporary artists using pen plotters: data driven, generative, AI-adjacent, retro, and more.
- Tiziana Alocci
- Bleeptrack
- Rev Dan Catt
- Michelle Chandra
- Licia He
- Liz Melchor
- Sean M Puckett
- Paul Rickards
- Marcel Schwittlick
📚 Reading list
Books and articles for further reading.
- 📄️ "There Should Be No Computer Art"
-
📄️
"The Algorists" - containing substantial information about the "original" 1960s cohort of computer art pioneers.
(i.e. Csuri, Franke, Hébert, Kawano, Mohr, Molnár, Nake, Nees, Verostko, Wilson, Zajec; also, Cohen)
Hébert Algorithm
if (creation && object of art && algorithm && one's own algorithm) { include * an algorist * } elseif (!creation || !object of art || !algorithm || !one's own algorithm) { exclude * not an algorist * }
⁉️ About this page
I made this as a static single page resource, using Glitch.
The page design intentionally mimics the slide template used in the associated talk.
The header font - that I also also used in my talk - is Orbitron, an OpenType font analogous to EMSOsmotron, a single-line, easy-to-plot SVG font suitable for use as a Hershey font (available from Evil Mad Scientist Labs, makers of the AxiDraw).
Remember: pen plotters need vector line art! Single line fonts are much simpler to plot than traditional typefaces, which need to be outlined or hatch filled. 🎓