Artist Blogg #3

Georg Nees

Georg Nees is one of the three pioneers for computer art. They are otherwise known as the "3N."He was born in 1926 in Nurnberg, Germany and attended the University of Stuttgart. He studied mathematics, physics, and philosophy, and was the first too focus his doctoral dissertation on computer art. Nees started writing his own programs in a format known as ALGOL and "ALGOL used random number generations to automatically generate pictures by controlling a Graphomat Z64". The Graphomat Z64 is a primitive flat-bed pen plotter that was created by Konrad Zuse. Nees added commands to ALGOL in order to make it possible to control and generate the random numbers. In addition, he created the world's first graphics libraries (G1,G2,G3). 

"Gravel Stones"

             Georg Nees piece called "Gravel Stones" was created by using his programs and a method called "Locken," where the plots from the plotter's pen follow a pattern of randomly generated circular arcs, but are constrained within a rectangular frame. This piece begins at the top with evenly-spaced squares, but as you move to the bottom of the picture the squares become unorganized and disturbed. It seems as though it is a ripple effect because disrupting one square will make the rest out of whack.  This can be associated with a lot of things today. For example, disruption in our food chain. If we as humans wipe out one specie in the food chain it causes tremendous disarray for the rest of the chain just like the squares. Another huge art piece Nees created was "Sculpture" and this was the world's first computer generated sculpture. It was created by a "computer controlled automatic milling machine" that generated squares on a square wooden board.       

"Sculpture"

       Innovations always capture my attention and that is why I choose Georg Nees. He deviated from the norm and made something that people didn't believe could exist. Even though his work seems relatively simple nowadays, he was a main reason we even have computer art today. He completely changed the face of what can be created through computer programming.