Franco F. Generative Systems Art: The Work of Ernest Edmonds

New York: Routledge, 2017. — 175 p.In this unique book the author explores the history of pioneering computer art and its contribution to art history by way of examining Ernest Edmonds’ art from the late 1960s to the present day. Edmonds’ inventions of new concepts, tools and forms of art, along with his close involvement with the communities of computer artists, constructive artists and computer technologists, provides the context for discussion of the origins and implications of the relationship between art and technology. Drawing on interviews with Edmonds and primary research in archives of his work, the book offers a new contribution to the history of the development of digital art and places Edmonds’ work in the context of contemporary art history.Illustrations
Foreword
AcknowledgementsNotes
The 1960s:
From figurative art to colour abstraction“Art or mathematics?”
From figurative art to black and white abstraction (1960–1962)
From black and white to colour abstraction (1962–1966)
Consolidating a Constructivist approach: Nineteen (1967–1969)
Notes
The 1970s: Logic, computers and communicationThe Systems Group
Art, technology and participation in the United Kingdom
Malcolm Hughes
Edward Ihnatowicz
Roy Ascott
Stephen Willats
Ernest Edmonds’ early interactive art
1970: Computer Graphics ’70 – *Datapack and Jigsaw
1971: Invention of Problems II – Communications Game
1972: Cognition and Control – Communications Game 2
1974–1978: Systems approaches in Edmonds’ paintings and drawings
Notes
The 1980s: Constructivism and SystemsPersonal networks and connections
Ernest Edmonds’ themes
Structure
Time
Colour
Exhibiting Space, Duality and Co-existence (1985)
Null-Dimension (1988)
Constructivism: Man versus Environment (1989)
Notes
The 1990s: Correspondences and intersectionsA busy 1990
A key collaboration: Correspondences
Residencies and exhibitions in the 1990s
Notes
Interactive Generative art: 2000–20152000–2005
Expanding and evolving Video Constructs (2000–2003)
Audio-visual artworks: Ernest Edmonds with Mark Fell (2003–2004)
New interactive Generative works (2004–2005)
2005–2010
Tango Tangle (2006)
Shaping Form (from 2007)
Cities Tango: Between Belfast and Sydney (2009)
2010–2015
Automatic Art, London 2014
Primary Codes, Rio de Janeiro 2015
Notes
Structure and systemsStructure and interaction
Fifty Two (1980)
Four Shaped Forms (2014)
Notes
New media, new technologies and new systemsTechnical innovations
Iterative software design methods
Adaptable user interfaces
User interface architectures
Creativity support tools
Art and technology crossovers
Creativity and cognition
Living laboratories for interactive art
Logic, Constructive Mathematics and Generative art
Logic Programming for time-based Generative art
NotesEndorsements