Robotics Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 39.
Computer Composition with Lines
(1964) Copyright c
A. Michael Noll 1965
(Courtesy of A. Michael Noll)
Lines
(see
Figure 40
).
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Noll created the vertical and horizontal bars in this image by a series
of parallel segments, the centers of which were spaced closely enough
that the segments slightly overlapped each other. Although Mondrian's
bars were apparently placed in a very orderly manner, Noll's program
was written to locate the bars randomly within a circle. Not only was the
location of each bar randomly chosen, but so was the choice of whether
a bar was horizontal or vertical, and their widths and lengths were also
randomly chosen within specified limits. If the program decided that it
wanted to put a bar inside a parabolic region at the top of the image, the
length of that bar was reduced by a factor proportional to the distance of
that bar from the edge of the parabola. With a little trial and error, Noll
was able to set the program to create effects similar to that of Mondrian's
original.
When Noll showed reproductions of both works to 100 people at
Bell Labs, only 28 of them were able to correctly identify the computer
generated picture, while 59 of them preferred the computer version and
believed that it was by Mondrian.
Largely because of their lack of access to computers, a few putative
computer artists of the 1960s designed and built their own creative ma-
chines. A few of these machines and some of their works of art were
33
This painting has been described by the prominent French art critic Michel Suphor as “the most
accomplished” of Mondrian's series of paintings based the horizontal-vertical theme.
