Year 1 Unit 1: Introduction to Fine Art and Computational Arts (Human Computation) This unit explores the blurred boundary between human activity and computation. Before the invention of electronic machines, a "computer" was a job title, not a device. During this unit, we'll return to the core principles of computation, tapping into the power of algorithmic thinking to generate new meanings through the development of systems, process-driven explorations and collaborative methods.
By examining how patterns in nature or ancestral crafts have inspired contemporary computation, this unit investigates how process-based practices offers new perspectives on encoded knowledge.You will be introduced to different strategies in art, image-making, music, and poetry, in which artists design and carry out instructions and chance operations to generate outputs. From rolling dice, weaving, to writing out instructions for others, process-led art has inspired recent explorations in computational arts.
You will develop a research file containing references, ideas, and experiments related to these themes. Documentation of experimental work developed during the unit should include tests, processes, documentation, material investigations, sketches and works in progress. All material must be annotated, and you must reflect on why you have selected different methods and materials and how they connect with your ideas. These can be notes about subject matter, process, materials or concepts; anything to show how research has been conducted. In addition, you are expected to include notes about the unit lectures and events. This should include other artists, exhibitions, as well as other areas of research and/or reading.
Here you will find links to texts, videos, and art references related to computational arts and the unit 1 focus on 'human computation'.
Essay - Why love Generative Art? by Jason Bailey
Video essay - Goodbye Uncanny Valley - by Alan Warburton
Article - What is generative art? - Margaret A. Boden & Ernest A. Edmonds
Archive - Rhizome.org Artbase (digital-born and online artworks)
Archive - Spalter Digital (collection of early computational art)
Matteo Pasquinelli, Three Thousand Years of Algorithmic Rituals: The Emergence of AI from the Computation of Space
Roman Verostko discussing Algorithmic Art
Leslie Roberts Leslie Roberts | The Anne + Michael Spalter Digital Art Collection
Visual Art, Drawing, and Painting
Ellsworth Kelly Brushstrokes Cut into Forty-Nine Squares and Arranged by Chance. 1951
Sol Lewitt A Wall Drawing Retrospective | MASS MoCA
Conditional Design exercises Conditional Design Workbook and Exercises
Jim Melchert - ceramicist Jim Melchert
Frederic VanHoute - Generatice Dice archive
#generativedice hashtag on Instagram
Jeff Thompson - Human Computers
Pieterjan Ginckels - Spam Office
Marchel Duchamp - Three Standard Stoppages (Third Version) » Norton Simon Museum
Hanne Darboven - Month III (March) (1974)
Yoko Ono - Peel, Peek, Touch, Rub: Reading Yoko Ono’s “Grapefruit” | The New Yorker
Francois Morellet Random Distribution of 40,000 Squares Using the Odd and Even Numbers of a Telephone Directory
Brian Eno - Oblique Strategies - Wikipedia
Keith Tyson - Fractal Dice Sculptures FutureModern: Keith Tyson - Fractal Dice
Jonathan Chomko - A Heart From Space
Eltono - Detour (aleatory walking experiment)
Oulipo - A Brief Guide to OULIPO | Academy of American Poets
William Burroughs The Poetics of Minutes to Go – RealityStudio
Volvelles - The History of Text Generation | (mathesonmarcault.com)
Raymond Queneau, Cent Mille Milliards de poèmes
18th century musical dice game Musikalisches Würfelspiel - Wikipedia
Aleatoric music - Wikipedia
Terry Riley - In C In C - Wikipedia
John Zorn - COBRA https://youtu.be/yp-oZbmsQVw
Perrella, L. (2004). Artists Journals Sketchbooks. QuarryBooks.
Reas, C. (2010). Form and Code. Princeton Archit. Press.
Bentkowska-Kafel, A., Cashen, T. and Gardiner, H. (2005). Digital Art History: A Subject in Transition. Intellect Books
Maeda, J. (2001). Design by Numbers. MIT Press.
Tega Brain and Golan Levin (2021). Code as Creative Medium: A Handbook for Computational Art and Design. MIT
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/code-creative-medium
Christiane Paul (2015). Digital art. Thames and Hudson
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Art-World-Christiane-Paul/dp/0500204233
Beryl Graham and Sarah Cook (2010). Rethinking Curating: Art After New Media. MIT
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/rethinking-curating
Omar Kholeif. (2001). Art in the Age of Anxiety. MIT
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Age-Anxiety-Omar-Kholeif/dp/1907071806
Legacy Russell (2020). Glitch Feminism. Verso
https://www.versobooks.com/books/3668-glitch-feminism
Lauren Cornell and Ed Halter (2015) Mass Effect - Art and The Internet in Twenty First Century. MIT
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/mass-effect
Sarah Cook (2016). Information. MIT https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/information
McKenzie Wark (2021). Capital is Dead. Verso
https://www.versobooks.com/lists/3377-art-and-aesthetics-verso-student-reading
James Bridle (2019). New Dark Ages. Verso
https://www.versobooks.com/books/3002-new-dark-age
Hito Steyerl (2019). Art in the Age of Planetary Civil War. Verso
https://www.versobooks.com/books/2992-duty-free-art
Nathan Jurgenson (2020) The Social and Photography. Verso
https://www.versobooks.com/books/3159-the-social-photo
Sadie Plant (1997) Zeros and Ones : Digital Women and the New Technoculture
Sadie Plant, The Future Looms: Weaving Women and Cybernetics
Laura Tripaldi (2023) Parallel Minds Discovering the Intelligence of Materials