This Digital Mondrian Was Made In 1964

This Digital Mondrian Was Made In 1964

Piet Mondrian sits well in the world of science and technology, his clear geometric forms so neatly and rationally ordered. But perhaps the earliest example of technology and Mondrian intersecting is in these images, created digitally way back in 1964.

Overhead Compartment explains how Japanese philosopher-programmer Hiroshi Kawano set to recreating Mondrian’s work in algorithmic form back in the ’60s:

Kawama spoke of his work in precise and programmatic terms, seemingly adopting a physics of predictive lab experimentation at the exclusion of messy empirical studies undertaken en plein air. The syntax and logical operators of the OKI symbolic input programming language, which served as his medium, constitute an experimental “style” in the artisanal, perhaps even botanical sense — a meaning retained in the Dutch “De Stijl” — and thereby invoke a rodlike connection, jamb, joint, or post. If algorithmic art hinges along such vertices, Kawano’s fascination is with its pivotal motion.

Quite. In fact, the whole Overhead Compartment article is worth a read if you’re into tech-art overlap. [Overhead Compartment via Boing Boing]


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