Scratch Code – Manfed Mohr

January sees the opening of an important exhibition, at the Block Museum, Chicago, surveying the use of computers in printing making and drawing covering a span of around 60 years. The show focuses in on pioneering artist-programmers such as Manfred Mohr and Edward Zajec, artists who set an early trajectory for working with code to produce rule based artworks – often highly graphic in style and marked by geometric spatial composition. It also features works by artists who used other electronic means and devices such as Ben Laposky & Herbert Franke – both photographing the output of modified oscilloscopes. It also features some Dataisnature favourites such as Mark Wilson and Roman Verostko as well as completing the timeline survey with works by Joshua Davis and CEB Reas.

Related:
Oscillons & the art of Oscillography.

Marius Watz’s ambitions project Generator X containing exhibitions, workshops and presentations regarding computational art and generative design hits version 2.0 and goes ‘beyond the screen’ in Berlin. Generator X 2.0 is a production in collaboration with Club Transmediale and DAM, both organisations with strong allegiances to electronic and computational art. After the Success of 1.0 this new exhibition will concentrate on the process of Digital Fabrication, allowing for computational artists to produce tangible visualisations of their work.

‘Digital fabrication (also known as “fabbing”) represents the next step in the digital revolution. After years of virtualisation, with machines and atoms being replaced by bits and software, we are coming full circle. For artists and designers working with generative systems, digital fabrication opens the door to a range of new expressions beyond the limits of virtual space.’

The opening night happened on Thursday, but there is a feast of great work, presentations and performances in the coming days by well-know artists in the field, many of which have been featured on these pages before.

Up for a geeky twist in the world of gadget spotting? Waste some time perusing the fantastic collection of historical curios, objects and environments at OObject.com and know the truth that nerdiness is next to godliness. Dataisnature loves the Abandoned Technology pictures (whist still being aware of their terrible toxic consequences, perhaps this even goes to increasing their power). Being a massive fan of retro electronic watches, particularly those Casio calculator watches from the 70s, you might want to buy me this beauty for all the hard work I’ve put into dataisnature over the years ;) Elsewhere you’ll find incredible listening devices, top supercomputers and amazing planetarium projectors.