---
title: PreComputationalGenerativeSystemsInArt
created: 2009-09-18 17:25
updated: 2009-10-13 08:53
revision: 2
author: Auriea
---

[[ElegantMedia]]

- Underweysung der Messung, mit dem Zirckel und Richtscheyt, in Linien, 
Ebenen unnd gantzen corporen
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Underweysung_der_Messung
http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Underweysung_der_Messung,_mit_dem_Zirckel_und_Richtscheyt,_in_Linien,_Ebenen_unnd_gantzen_corporen

- the "plan for a concept art book", and La Monte Young's  
"composition 1961", and Tristan Tzara's instructions for writing Dada  
poems…

- Another 1961 piece: Brecht's "Two Vehicle Events" (start and stop).
Roman Verostko's notes on algorithmic art and some 
non-computational "algorists" here:
http://www.verostko.com/algorithm.html
http://www.verostko.com/algorist.html

- Albrecht Dürer did some quite insane geometry tutorials in 1525.

- There were many musical games/toys. Mozart did one; you rolled dice.
Here's another example in the British Museum, pretty:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/85009674@N00/3037607129/
- And the Aolian harp, beloved of all Romantic poets.
- Do Ouija boards count?
- Look for "Mechanical Turks", too. Does being racist/fraudulent/containing a
small person disqualify?
- Is 3-point perspective generative? Lots of rules...
- richard paul lohse and max bill

- Duchamp springs to mind ofc
http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=79600
http://www.toutfait.com/issues/issue_1/News/stoppages.html

- steve reich might be useful too
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pendulum_Music

- in music:
guido d'arezzo: guidos method (11th century), a method to generate a 
melody from a text
athanasius kircher: arca musirithmica (1660)
dietrich nikolaus winkel: componium (1821) 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Componium
or some musical card games:
kaleidacousticon system (1822)
quadrille melodist (1865)

- in literature:
Georg Philipp Harsdörffer: "Fünffacher Denckring der Teutschen Sprache" 
(1651) a permutative scheme for generating poetry
the methods of the Oulipo. harry matthews "oulipo compendium" is quite a 
good resource for that.
for example: george perec: la vie mode d'emploi
or: Raymond Queneau – Un conte à votre façon

- Philip Galanter has written about pre-computer generative art strategies:
http://www.philipgalanter.com/academia/index.html
Also you might also find something useful in Holtzman's book "Digital Mantras".

- "Logical Conclusions: 40 Years of Rule Based Art", it's an excellent catalogue of pre-computational and non-computational strategies. There are some copies for sale on AbeBooks. 
if you include random to generative there are a lot of works from the dadaists: hans (jean) arp, marcel duchamp, man ray (Le retour à la raison), etc.
here you find a list of artists who used mathematic to create art works:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konkrete_Kunst
pre twelve-tone music composer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Matthias_Hauer