"Where is the Art?"

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.

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... 🫶🏻)

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.

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

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)

    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 * 
            }

• 📖️ Tracing the Line
• 📖️ Computational Drawing
• About Cistercian Numerals

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. 🎓