Hello,

In response to Paul's request to say something about our current
projects, here is a show that we are working on at the Block Museum
(http://www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu). We are probably going to
change the title, but for the moment it makes a useful point of
reference.

-- Paul



Imaging by Numbers: A Historical View of the Computer Print
SEPTEMBER 24, 2004

Imaging by Numbers, a new exhibition organized by the Mary and Leigh
Block Museum of Art, will lay the foundation for understanding and
documenting the historical importance of computer-mediated art and
demonstrate the continued vitality of its concepts. As a relatively
new medium (mid-twentieth century), its impact on contemporary art
theory and practice is only now beginning to be understood. Focusing
on computer-mediated prints created between 1950 and 1980, this
exhibition and catalogue will investigate the artistic processes that
produced seminal digital artworks, the pioneers in digital
printmaking, and their ongoing legacy.

The goals of the project are:
o to organize a traveling exhibition of approximately 80 digital prints
o to produce an exhibition catalogue with interpretive essays and documentation
o to create a web-accessible digital archive as a source for future historians

Organized in conjunction with the scholarly journal Leonardo, an
international journal for the application of contemporary science and
technology to the arts, Imaging by Numbers will present a conceptual
framework that draws on both art and science. The exhibition, which
will open in the spring of 2006, will explore the mutual influences
of early computer art and the artistic avant-garde and trace these
through to current digital printmaking practices.

Chance operations, algorithmic composition, "alienated science," and
investigations into the nature of human creativity are just some of
the recurring themes in computer prints. Computers opened up a vast
new arena for chance operations and the emerging science of
complexity. Algorithmic composition manipulates or derives images
through mathematical processes, working in the same spirit as
compositional rules in conceptual art or physical processes in
color-field painting. Herbert Franke, whose 1971 publication Computer
Graphics, Computer Art  was a seminal study of computer generated
art, coined the term "alienated science" to describe scientific
imagery that has been displaced from its scientific context and
presented as art. Early aesthetic investigations have brought us both
meticulously synthesized fantasy worlds-a sort of "digital
sublime"-and programs that model human creativity to produce art
without direct human intervention.

Imaging by Numbers will emphasize qualities unique to digital prints
and the lasting influence of early endeavors. In particular, it will
explore the broad visual experimentation that took place, and
continues to take place, in digital printmaking: it goes beyond
novelty to constitute a meaningful and conceptually solid body of
work. Focusing on the medium of digital prints, Imaging by Numbers
will present a history of a period in art that is culturally
meaningful, intellectually engaging, and visually exciting, along
with the pivotal artworks that constitute a significant manifestation
of twentieth-century art history.

Curators:
Paul Hertz, Co-Director, Center for Art and Technology, Northwestern University
[log in to unmask]
Debora Wood, Associate Curator, Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University
[log in to unmask]


--
Paul Hertz <[log in to unmask]>
|(*,+,#,=)(#,=,*,+)(=,#,+,*)(+,*,=,#)|
              <http://www.northwestern.edu/people/paul-hertz>