Le Random – Details, episodes & analysis

In this Le Random discussion we are so pleased to speak to a scholar of art history in Dr. Nancy Perloff from the Getty Research Institute. She joins Le Random's editor-in-chief Peter Bauman. Perloff recently curated Sensing the Future: Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), showing at the Getty Center as part of PST Art.

The pair explores E.A.T.’s influential role in merging art, technology and engineering, a movement founded in 1966 by Bell Labs engineer Billy Klüver and artists like Robert Rauschenberg and John Cage.

Dr. Perloff shares insights on E.A.T.’s success, including as an early digital art network, as well as its collaborations between artists and engineers (mostly from Bell Labs). This included performances like Nine Evenings: Theatre and Engineering and immersive experiences at the 1970 Osaka World Expo’s Pepsi Pavilion. They touch on curatorial challenges, EAT’s experimental nature, its role in building interdisciplinary networks, and its lasting, yet underappreciated, impact on art and technology.

In this Le Random Generative Art Timeline Artist Discussion, hosts Peter Bauman (Monk Antony), Conrad House (Nemocake) and thefunnyguys welcome four of this decade's most prominent voices and builders: Lauren Lee McCarthy, Erick Calderon, Itzel Yard and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. The artists explore themes like the rise of AI, NFTs, and the increased institutional interest in digital art, proposing names for the decade such as the "Normalization Era" or "Digital Dramaturgy Era." McCarthy and Lozano-Hemmer discuss the dual nature of technology, highlighting both its empowering and its potentially oppressive aspects, while stressing the importance of community and critical engagement. Erick Calderon and Itzel Yard emphasize the positive communal and creative impacts of digital platforms like Art Blocks and the significance of making art accessible through modern technology. We conclude with reflections on the growing acceptance of digital art by institutions, the importance of preserving digital art, and the powerful role of art in understanding and navigating contemporary life. Chapters: [00:00:05]: Introduction to Final Chapter Release Discussion [00:02:01]: Future Timeline Discussions and Cross-Generational Plans [00:03:39]: Generative Art Timeline's Completion and Future Plans [00:05:21]: Themes of the 2020s in Digital Art [00:07:07]: Introduction of Guest Artists and Their Achievements [00:10:03]: Naming the0s Decade in Digital Art [00:17:34]: Participation’s Role in Digital Art [00:28:20]: Artists’ Perspectives on Technology and Art [00:51:51]: Positive Trends in Digital Art and Museum Engagement [01:01:42]: Closing Thoughts and Gratitude

The Le Random team of ⁠⁠⁠thefunnyguys⁠⁠⁠, Peter Bauman (⁠⁠⁠Monk Antony⁠⁠⁠) and Conrad House (⁠⁠⁠Nemo Cake⁠⁠⁠) spoke to special guest and celebrated collector ⁠⁠⁠Michael Spalter about the dense history of the 1960s in generative art⁠, the Early Digital Era.

This episode corresponds with:

• ⁠⁠⁠Generative Art Timeline: Chapter 4⁠⁠

10 Significant Early Digital Era Moments (Covered in the talk)⁠

1. 1961: New Tendencies and Fluxus Begin

2. 1963: Nake begins making computer art + 1965: Homage a Paul Klee

3. 1965: First computer art exhibits (Computergrafik (Feb), Computer-Generated Pictures, and computer grafik (Nov))

4. 1966: CTG and generative systems

5. 1966: 9 Evenings and E.A.T. Forms

6. 1967: Sol LeWitt “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art” + 1969 Wall Drawings

7. 1967: Charles Csuri’s early work 

8. 1968: Cybernetic Serendipity 

9. 1968-9: Major international art and technology exhibitions: 

1. 1968: The machine as seen… (USA)

2. 1969: Tendencies 4 (Europe)

10. 1968: Molnar’s Interruptions: her first computer art

Peter Bauman (Monk Antony) speaks to the legendary computer artist Dr A Michael Noll about his time at Bell Labs, creating arguably the first digital computer art, North America's first computer art exhibit and much more!

The Le Random team of ⁠⁠thefunnyguys⁠⁠, Peter Bauman (⁠⁠Monk Antony⁠⁠) and Conrad House (⁠⁠Nemo Cake⁠⁠) spoke to special guest and acclaimed expert Georg Bak ⁠about the foundational significance of the 1950s in generative art history: The Analog Era.

This episode corresponds with:

• ⁠⁠Generative Art Timeline: Chapter 3⁠

10 Significant Modern Era Moments (Covered in the talk)⁠

1. 1951: MIT and the US Navy First Demonstrate the Whirlwind Computer ( + 1954: Whirlwind and SAGE Initiatives by US Military Funding Spark Computing Innovations)

2. 1952: Love-Letters by Christopher Strachey + 1959: Theo Lutz produces Stochastic Texts

3. 1952: Abstronic by Mary Ellen Bute + Electronic Abstractions by Ben Laposky

4. 1952: Birth of Neo-Dada + John Cage’s Theater Piece No. 1 + 1957: Allan Kaprow Begins Making ‘Environments’ + 1950: Happenings

5. 1953: Grace Murray Hopper Invents Programming Languages

6. 1954: Victor Vasarely’s Yellow Manifesto Lays Generative Art's Conceptual Foundation

7. 1956: CYSP by Nicolas Schöffer

8. 1957: John Backus Releases FORTRAN

9. 1957: Max Mathews Develops MUSIC I

10. 1958: John Whitney Makes First Computer Animation for Film Vertigo

The Le Random team of ⁠thefunnyguys⁠, Peter Bauman (⁠Monk Antony⁠) and Conrad House (⁠Nemo Cake⁠) spoke to special guest and acclaimed gallerist Kate Vass about a whirlwind ⁠one hundred years of generative art history (1850-1949)⁠,the Modern Era.

This episode corresponds with:

• ⁠Generative Art Timeline: Chapter 2

10 Significant Modern Era Moments (Covered in the talk)⁠

1. The Great Exhibition of London Lights Early Spark of the Arts & Crafts Movement (1851)

2. Modern art Begins: Manet’s Work Rejected by Paris Salon (1863) + Cézanne’s Mont Sainte-Victoire Series (1870-1906)

3. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by Picasso kicks off Cubism (1907)

4. The Ten Biggest, No 7 by Hilma af Klint (1907)

5. Tatlin and Rodchenko Found Constructivism and Malevich Stages the 0.10 Exhibition with Black Square. (1915)

6. Walter Gropius Founds Bauhaus (1919)

7. Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray Create Rotary Glass Plates (1920)

8. Gunta Stölzl Named Director of Bauhaus Weaving Workshop (1927)

9. Birth of digital computing: Konrad Zuse Completes the Z3 (1941) + ENIAC (1945)

   10. Cybernetics Is Born: Norbert Wiener's Cybernetics + Claude Shannon’s "A Mathematical Theory of Communication.” (1948)

The Le Random team of thefunnyguys, Peter Bauman (Monk Antony) and Conrad House (Nemo Cake) spoke to special guest Marius Watz about the ancient roots of generative art, the Pre-Modern Era.

This episode corresponds with:

• Generative Art Timeline: Chapter 1
• Article: Timeline Chapter 1's Ten Top Moments

10 Significant Pre-Modern Era Moments (Covered in the talk)

1. Blombos Cave Drawing (70,000 BCE)
2. I Ching Introduces Binary Concept (1,000 BCE)
   
3. Euclid’s Elements (300 BCE) 
4. Al-Khwārizmī’s Writes Concerning the Hindu Art of Reckoning (820 CE)
5. Albrecht Dürer Creates Engraving Melencolia I (1515)
6. Gottfried Leibniz Pioneers Computational Thinking (1666)
7. Johann Philip Kirnberger’s Musical Dice game (1757)
8. Joseph-Marie Jacquard Invents the Jacquard Loom (1804)
9. Nicéphore Niépce Produces First Permanent Photograph (1826)
10. Ada Lovelace Becomes First Computer Programmer (1843)
    

Originally Aired June 28, 2023, this episode features Casey Reas, ciphrd, Anne Spalter, Anika Meier and Georg Bak. We celebrate the full-launch of Le Random's website.

This is Le Random's discussion following the release of Chapter 9 of our Generative Art Timeline, which covered the decade of the 2010s. Le Random's Peter Bauman (Monk Antony), editor in chief at Le Random is joined by co-founder thefunnyguys and Content Lead Conrad House. Our guests today are some of the artists and thinkers who lived art history in the 2010s. They are Tyler Hobbs, Helena Sarin, Rhea Myers, and Gene Kogan. Join us as we discuss digital expression in a decade of major trends such as AI's rise and the invention of NFTs.

Algorithmic and digital art founder Frieder Nake joined Peter Bauman (Monk Antony) to continue their chat after the release of "Frieder Nake on 'Machinic' Miracles" at Le Random Editorials.

Chapters:

[00:00:29]: Introduction to Frieder Nake and his contributions to digital art

[00:02:32]: Computers and the concept of quality vs quantity

[00:03:26]: Quantity turning into quality

[00:05:31]: Pattern recognition and discovery of new quality

[00:07:07]: Connection to Max Bense's Generative Aesthetics

[00:09:13]: Intuition versus machine randomness

[00:12:15]: Creativity, emotion and the role of intuition

[00:24:53]: AI and human choices in art

[00:38:23]: Alienation and creativity in artistic expression