Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 3
Construction and Intuition: Creativity in Early
Computer Art
Frieder Nake
Abstract
This chapter takes some facets from the early history of computer art (or
what would be better called “algorithmic art”), as the background for a discussion
of the question: how does the invention and use of algorithms influence creativity?
Marcel Duchamp's position is positively referred to, according to which the spec-
tator and society play an important role in the creative process. If creativity is the
process of surmounting the resistance of some material, it is the algorithm that takes
on the role of the material in algorithmic art. Thus, creativity has become relative
to semiotic situations and processes more than to material situations and processes.
A small selection of works from the history of algorithmic art are used for case
studies.
3.1 Introduction
In the year 1998, the grand old man of German pedagogy, Hartmut von Hentig,
published a short essay on creativity. In less than seventy pages he discusses, as
the subtitle of his topic announces, “high expectations of a weak concept” (Hentig
1998
). He calls the concept of creativity “weak”. This could mean that it is not
leading far, it does not possess much expressive power, nor is it capable of drawing
a clear line. On the other hand, many may believe that creativity is a strong and
important concept.
Von Hentig's treatise starts from the observation that epochs and cultures may
be characterised by great and powerful words. In their time, they became the call
to arms, the promise and aspiration that people would fight for. In ancient Greece,
Hentig suggests, those promises carried names like
arete
(excellence, living up to
one's full potential), and
agon
(challenge in contest). In Rome this was
fides
(trust)
and
pietas
(devotion to duty), and in modern times this role went to
humanitas
,
enlightenment, progress, and performance. Hardly ever did an epoch truly live up
to what its great aspirations called for. But people's activities and decisions, if only
ideologically, gained orientation from the bright light of the epoch's promise.
