Computer Art 1972
In 2012, this was the first virtual exhibition by this Gallery, online today in a shortened version.
It presents the work of MBB Computer Graphics, a Computer Art group based in Munich in 1971/72.
These graphics were generated 1971/72 by the computer artists Frank Böttger, Sylvia Roubaud / Gerold Weiss, Aron Warszawski, and Rolf Wölk. They participated in an art project sponsored by the aircraft company Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB), initiated by Dr. Winfried Fischer, head of MBB s cultural department.
The computer-generated works of the project group were intended as a contribution to the cultural program of the 1972 Munich Olympics.
These computer graphics are works of algorithmic art, meaning they are based on programmed, coded algorithms: a machine-readable set of instructions. After being processed by a mainframe computer the graphics were drawn automatically by a pen plotter.
The plotter drawings then were reproduced in various printing techniques and print runs for exhibitions and the book »Computer Graphics« edited by Johann Willsberger in 1972.
Technology – Software
The key element of these computer-generated graphics is the algorithm – a mathematical formulated instruction – that describes a graphic or a sequences of it as a process. (See »Algorithm« on Wikipedia.)
The art project group used algorithms to research two fields: geometric graphics, including shifting coordinates, rotation, and distortion, and graphics generated using random generators, primarily to create stochastic conditions and progressions based on random numbers.
The algorithms were programmed in FORTRAN IV to be machine-readable. The program was then transferred to punch cards and subsequently to magnetic tapes. To produce a series of different graphics generated by one algorithmic structure, the program had to be rewritten with a modified set of parameters.
Johann Willsberger describes the computer graphics as »graphic manifestations of mathematical formulae«. In his book »Computer Graphics« he writes: »All computer graphics could in principle be drawn by hand – even those where random values play a part. True, it would take a lot longer: but given the knowledge of interpolation procedures, say, or of the algorithms needed to calculate the (pseudo-)random values, the information is there. The structures can be worked out without the computer and drawn – with perhaps a little less precision – by hand.«
Technology – Hardware
The technical equipment MBB provided was basically a mainframe computer, an IBM 360 Model 50 which calculated and generated the graphics, and a Kongsberg Kingmatic drawing machine.
The Kingmatic, a 2 x 6 meter flatbed plotter, was the largest computerized drawing machine of its time in Europe. It was able to produce high-precision pen plots and scored foil. Only a few of these plotters were built for the construction departments of industrial companies, such as the airplane manufacturer MBB.
There was no computer monitor that could be used to preview the graphics before they were drawn; the entire process was experimental. When a graphics program was fed to the drawing machine, especially those using random generators, the visual result came as a bit of a surprise.
To create the graphics according to the design intention of the artists the algorithm had to be widely preconceived. If the visual result was unsatisfactory, the program was rewritten using different parameters.
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Frank Böttger working on the Kongsberg Kingmatic.
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Technology – Printing
The Kongsberg Kingmatic plotter drawings were made on transparent paper. These transparencies were then used as masters for graphic prints and had to be reproduced photographically before being printed using different techniques.
That is why the graphics generated by the computer artist of MBB Computer Graphics can be found in various printing techniques.
The different editions of graphic prints – the book, the serigraph editions, as offset fine art prints and the selection for the exhibitions for the cultural program of the Munich Olympics – were compiled by Dr. Winfried Fischer and Johann Willsberger.
The Computer Artists
The members of the MBB Computer Graphics were Frank Böttger, Sylvia Roubaud / Gerold Weiss, Aron Warszawski, and Rolf Wölk.
This virtual exhibition originally included three additional sections showcasing the individual works of the three group members I had contacted prior to the launch. Today, each artist is briefly introduced alongside a serigraph. The motifs of these prints were each taken from a series of computer graphics generated with one program:
Sylvia Roubaud / Gerold Weiss
Sylvia Roubaud was the only trained artist in the project group. She had studied painting at the Munich College of Fine Arts under Guenter Fruhtrunk.
At her side she had the mathematician Gerold Weiss as technical assistant.
Roubaud developed the designs by creating sketches that Weiss transformed into algorithms and programs. Roubaud also worked on some of the master plots by manipulating the automatic drawing process.
The series »Explosion of ordered structures« uses algorithms including random numbers to break up orders and transform them in a pseudo-chaotic way.
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Sylvia Roubaud / Gerold Weiss: »Explosion of ordered structures«, 1972
screen print after plotter drawing,
size 33 x 33 cm
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Frank Böttger
Böttger, a trained electrician and engineer, was fascinated by computer graphics. Even though, Böttger, like most members of the MBB Computer Graphics, had no opportunity for further artistic work with a mainframe computer after the project ended in 1972.
His »Square formations« is based on a step-by-step movement of square formations. Compressions and omissions within the process generate various surfaces.
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Frank Böttger: »Square formations«, 1972
screen print after plotter drawing,
size 33 x 33 cm
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Rolf Wölk
The algorithmic graphics created by Rolf Wölk explore the aesthetics of coincidence. As Herbert W. Franke wrote in »Computer-Grafik Galerie« the perceptibility of the algorithm, the generative process, in the graphic is important to Wölk.
Stochastic processes are the topic of many of his algorithmic works. The graphically manifested algorithms display the aesthetics of coincidence in a well planned and at the same time random way, which goes far beyond random experiments.
Rolf Wölk, who has a Ph.D. in abstract mathematics, had already created experimental computer graphics before the MBB art project: Besides generating own works, Wölk also had technically assisted his friend Gerhard von Graevenitz, when the renowned concrete and kinetic artist started his computer-based work phase in late 1970.
After the art group dissolved in 1972, Rolf Wölk continued working on Computer Art sporadically.
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Rolf Wölk: »Stochastic lines subjected to constraints«, 1972
screen print after plotter drawing,
size 33 x 33 cm
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Aron Warszawski
Little did I find out about this group member, who had left the MBB Computer Graphics shortly after the art project ended. He had been collaborating with Frank Böttger on several computer graphics.
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Aron Warszawski: »Families of circles«, 1972
screen print after plotter drawing,
size 33 x 33 cm
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Exhibitions and Literature
Exhibitions the MBB Computer Graphics participated in:
Two Computer Graphics exhibitions in the course of the cultural program of the Olympic Games in Munich, Germany 1972
tendencies 5, Section Computer Visual Research, MSU Zagreb, Croatia (formerly Yugoslavia), 1973
Ex Machina – Frühe Computergrafik bis 1979, Kunsthalle Bremen, Germany, 2007
bit international. [Nove] tendencije. Computer und visuelle Forschung Zagreb 1961-1973, Neue Galerie Graz at Landesmuseum Joanneum, Austria, 2007
bit international, ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany 2008-2009
Ghosts in the Machine, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, 2012 (a work by S. Roubaud)
Radical Software: Women, Art & Computing 1960–1991, at the Mudam Luxembourg – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean in Luxembourg, September 2024 to early February 2025 (works by S. Roubaud)
Radical Software: Women, Art & Computing (1960-1991), Kunsthalle Wien in Vienna, February 28, 2025 – May 25, 2025 (works by S. Roubaud)
Literature featuring works of the MBB Computer Graphics:
Computer Graphics. Edited by Johann Willsberger (1972)
tendencije. Computer und visuelle Forschung Zagreb 1961-1973. Edited by Bozo Bek, Boris Kelemen, Marijan Susovski - Galerija suvremene umjetnosti (Gallery of Contemporary Art) (1973)
Computerkunst. Edited by by IBM Deutschland GmbH (1978)
Computer-Grafik Galerie by Herbert W. Franke (1984)
Ex Machina – Frühe Computergrafik bis 1979. Edited by Wulf Herzogenrath and Barbara Nierhoff-Wielk. (2007)
bit international. [Nove] tendencije. Computer und visuelle Forschung Zagreb 1961-1973. Edited by Neue Galerie Graz (2007)
bit international. [Nove] tendencije. Computer und visuelle Forschung Zagreb 1961-1973. Edited by Peter Weibel and Margit Rosen. (ZKM, 2008)
A Little-Known Story about a Movement..., Edited by Margit Rosen (2011)
Ghosts in the Machine. Edited by Massimiliano Gioni and Gary Carrion-Murayari (2012) (with a work by Roubaud)
Radical Software: Women, Art & Computing (1960-1991), Michelle Cotton (ed.), 2024 (incl. S. Roubaud)
For the works of Sylvia Roubaud: © VG Bild-Kunst for Sylvia Roubaud
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