Computers + math = art

Whoever views math and computer coding as colorless should check out the rapidly evolving world of digital art.

Black and white circles that seem to spiral into infinity as you pass by and an enormous image of vibrant green, yellow and pink geometric shapes in seemingly random order can be seen in an exhibit documenting the history of applying computers to create art.

The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art in Evanston is hosting "Imaging by Numbers: A Historical View of the Computer Print" through April 6.

The exhibit features North American and European artists who invented and used computer processes to create art since the 1950s. It "explores the development of computer programming as a medium for artistic expression in creating prints, drawings, photographs and artists' books," notes an exhibit panel.

Museum co-curator Debora Wood hopes the exhibit will break through the prejudice surrounding creativity and this form of art.

People think the computer is doing all the work rather than the artist, she said.

Wood pointed to a piece by artist Joan Truckenbrod, who wrote a trailblazing computer program in the 1970s to generate variable images on an early Apple computer screen. Those images were photocopied onto paper directly from the monitor, heat transferred to a cloth, and finally sewn together into a quilt-like display.

The piece is quite a remarkable achievement for its time, in a field that was dominated by men and industrial applications, said Wood. But the work remains beautiful in our own time.

Computer art innovator, the late Ben F. Laposky, created works from the wave-forms displayed on a cathode-ray oscilloscope screen that he called, "Oscillons."

"Oscillons are, I believe, an excellent example of the possibility of employing modern technology in art and of demonstrating a relationship between science and art. They are also visual manifestations of some of the basic invisible aspects of nature, such as the movement of electrons and energy fields" Laposky wrote of his work.

C. E. B. Reas uses technology as an artistic medium for the purpose of investigating scientific principles. Reas, another artist whose work is featured on exhibit, combines art and science to visualize the interaction of elements in "Image 3" from "Process 6," created in 2005. His interest in artificial intelligence and robotics served as motivation for learning how to write software and build with electronics, according to Reas, .

The Block Museum also showcases "generative art" in which artists create computer-generated patterns of motion inspired by natural semi-random processes like flowing water and animal movements. The exhibit "Space, Color, and Motion" offers a compliment to the main exhibit.

"The next step to all of this is creating live art in motion," said Wood.

For information, click www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu or call 847-491-4000.