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red 40+1
Computer Art in Max Bense's and and Elisabeth Walther's »rot« edition.

Heike Werner
Summer 2012 / Spring 2026

The philosopher Max Bense (1910 - 1990) was a significant supporter of computer art, or rather: early digital art. That is why one of the earliest digital exhibits on this website, in 2012, focused on his »rot« edition by Bense and his co-editor Elisabeth Walther. The »red 40+1« displays the early copies of the »rot« (red) brochures, from the start of publication 1960 to 1970.

max bense & the red edition

Max Bense was professor of philosophy and technology at the TH Stuttgart and a major developer of the information aesthetics, providing the theoretical foundation for computer artists of his time. In his work he connected natural science, art, and philosophy.
He was the driving force of the Stuttgart School/Group, which was devoted to experimental literature, especially visual and concrete poetry, but also art in general (1).
Many »edition rot«-numbers – the earliest are on display here – contain experimental texts. But, as Reinhard Döhl describes, the numbers of the »red edition« were »slightly expanded catalogues of the exhibitions (...) Bense had been organizing in the (...) Studien-Galerie since the late 50s«, which were »simply "camouflaged" by a cover«.

As mentioned, Bense was a major supporter of computer art. He enabled the first exhibition displaying computer art in Germany in 1965, which was most likely the first show dedicated to early digital art worldwide: in February 1965 the mathematician Georg Nees presented his computer graphics at the gallery of TH Stuttgart for the first time.

No surprise that some texts important to computer art can be found in the »edition rot« edited by Max Bense and Elisabeth Walther, in German.
Besides #6, a publication which includes two early computer-generated texts in German, the most important editions are the German translation of Abraham A. Moles »First Manifesto of Permutation Art«, #8, and »computer-grafik« by Georg Nees, with a text on generative aesthetics by Max Bense in #19.

rot #6 – max bense: modelle

rot #6 max bense: modelle. verlag der augenblick, 1961 printing: cantz, cannstadt design: faigle stuttgart 1961, print run 512

In 1961 Max Bense published #6, where he presented experimental texts and poems (in German) describing their model character. Among these were two computer-generated texts generated by the main frame computer ZUSE Z22 in Stuttgart, Germany (2).
These two computer-generated texts are a stochastic text programmed by Theo Lutz (3), and a Markovian text.
The Markovian text was created with statistical convergence and probability calculations, according to the Markov chain (4). The data/words used were taken from a dictionary of frequent words in Francis Ponge's books (German editions), the data pool was assembled by Elisabeth Walther and the team of the Stuttgart computer center. Monika Bense conducted the technical realization of the literature experiment.

rot #8 – abraham a. moles: erstes manifest der permutationellen kunst

rot #8 abraham a. moles: erstes manifest der permutationellen kunst translation: monika bense, renate kübler, elisabeth walther editor: max bense, elisabeth walther printing: k. mayer k.g. stuttgart cover design: walter faigle typo with "IBM executive" by heide döhl 1962, print run 300

Abraham A. Moles (1920-1992) was a French engineer with a doctorate in physics and philosophy. Among other colleges and universities he held lectures at the TH Stuttgart and was professor at the Hochschule für Gestaltung (University for Design) in Ulm, Germany. Like Bense, Moles worked on information theory and aesthetic perception. His »Théorie de l'information et perception esthétique«, first released in 1958, is seen as a fundamental writing on information aesthetics. »rot #8« is the first German edition of his manifesto.

rot #19 – computer-grafik. georg nees: programme. computer: stochastische grafik. max bense: projekte generativer ästhetik.

rot #19 computer-grafik. georg nees: programme. computer: stochastische grafik. max bense: projekte generativer ästhetik. editor: max bense, elisabeth walther cover design: walter faigle printing: hansjörg mayer 1965, print run 300

»rot #19« belongs to the earliest publications on computer art. The brochure refers to the computer graphics exhibition initiated by Max Bense, the one of the first shows of digital art worldwide: Between February 5th and 19th the Studien-Galerie, a gallery space at TH Stuttgart, presented computer graphics by Georg Nees, a mathematician. Together with A. Michael Noll and Frieder Nake, Nees is one of the pioneers of computer graphics.

As the title of #19 reveals, the computer is mentioned as one of the authors of this book: »computer: stochastic graphics«. A machine equally ranking between the artist Nees and author Bense was a provocation which caused irritation: Reinhard Döhl described the exhibition as »turbulent«. Today, the exhibition as well as »rot #19« are widely regarded as milestones of computer art.

design: walter faigle

rot #1  max bense: grignan-serie. beschreibung einer landschaft.

The red publications were designed by Walter Faigle. In the 1960s Faigle ran a studio for visual communication and photography in Stuttgart, Germany, and Zurich, Switzerland.
His cover design, shown in the first number of the red brochures from 1960 above, resembles the computer graphics of the years to come.
There is an obvious similarity of early computer art to art movements of that time like Op art and Concrete art.
As can be seen in Faigle's cover design, the common ground seems to be the precision and particularly the invisible but noticeable mathematical structure the design is based on – no matter if it is a picture, a text, or a piece of music.

red secrets

»There are also red secrets in this world, yes, only red ones.« This Ernst Bloch quote is printed on the back of most red brochures in German. It was taken from the book »Heritage of our Times« which was published by the Marxist philosopher in 1935. (5, 6)

computer-generated texts

Like concrete and visual poetry, computer-generated texts belonged to the experimental field of the Stuttgart School. From the first stochastic poem in 1959 to the auto-poems (algorithmic poetry) of the 1960s and 70s, these computer-generated works are pieces of early computer art. (7)

40 + 1 = ten years of red (1960-1970)

rot #1 to #41, published between 1960 and 1970.

The last title of the red edition, #62, was published in 1997. (8)

This exhibit presents a shortened version of the virtual exhibition launched in 2012.

Notes:

(1) Read more on the Stuttgart School and on Max Bense online at www.stuttgarter-schule.de (in German), e.g. a text by Reinhard Döhl on Stuttgarter Schule.

(2) See the ZKM clip ZUSE Z22 on YouTube.

(3) More on Theo Lutz on Wikipedia.

(4) More on the Markov chain on Wikipedia.

(5) See Wikipedia for more on Ernst Bloch.

(6) There is an interesting and also critical article on Bloch in the German magazine »der Freitag«: Denken als Handgemenge (today, behind the paywall). Bloch's former assistant Hanna Gekle mentions the special relevance of this book for the analysis of art, literature and philosophy.

(7) Besides the German website www.stuttgarter-schule.de, you can find a lot of information on computer-generated texts and poetry on www.netzliteratur.net, a website also in German, e.g. a chronology of computer texts. A good read is Ralf Bülow's article on the history of mechanical and digital writings in the catalogue »Ex Machina« by Kunsthalle Bremen.
Reinhard Döhl, a member of the Stuttgart School, presents concrete and visual poetry, as well as computer poetry on his website www.reinhard-doehl.de.

(8) Find the complete list of edition rot at Stuttgarter Schule: rot.

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