A Machine That Makes Art: A History of Computer Art

The inspiration for this talk comes from the great conceptual artist Sol LeWitt’s statement, “The idea becomes a machine that makes the art” (Artforum, 1967). Although LeWitt’s ‘machine’ was metaphorical rather than literal, nevertheless this radical concept raised questions about art process and creative behaviour and challenged the notion of what art was or could be. This talk considers how the coding of algorithms has been used to make art since digital computing technology became accessible to artists from the 1960s. Learn about the origins of computer art - a rare and often overlooked example of inter‐disciplinary cooperation within the history of art.

Catherine Mason is an independent art historian and writer who has been focused on recovering the history of computer and digital art since 2002.

Her latest book Creative Simulations: George Mallen and the Early Computer Arts Society (Springer: 2024), presents new research on the origins of digital and generative art in the UK through the activities of George Mallen, a pioneer of cybernetic systems and cultural applications since 1962, and the Computer Arts Society that he co-founded in 1968. She is also the author of A Computer in the Art Room: The Origins of British Computer Arts 1950-80 (JJG: 2008 & eBook 2021) and the co-edited White Heat, Cold Logic: British Computer Art 1960-1980 (MIT/Leonardo imprint: 2009). She is on the board of the Computer Arts Society.