[spectre] Exh/Perf/Lecture program 'Het Proces', generative art, Amsterdam

[Andreas Broeckmann]

Exhibition "Het Proces"
Performance/lecture program

The exhibition "Het Proces", now on view at Arti et Amicitiae until 
November 15, is devoted to "generative art", as exemplified by the 
work of Peter Struycken, Remko Scha, Driessens & Verstappen and 
Jochem van der Spek. Artists who embrace this approach, design 
physical or computational processes which generate images and objects 
in a largely autonomous way. Generative art has an intrinsically 
conceptual component; it tends to involve theory and to invite 
explicit reflection. The exhibition is therefore accompanied by a 
series of presentations which broach some relevant topics for 
discussion.

The presentations take place on Friday evenings from 8 p.m. until 10 
p.m. in the exhibition space of Arti et Amicitiae, Rokin 112, 
Amsterdam. Rooms are open from 7.30 p.m.

http://www.arti.nl/tentoonstelling.php?id=217

Friday October 23: Enumeration

Introduction by Remko Scha: Enumeration in Generative Art.

This talk discusses a particular genre within the generative 
approach: the enumeration, i.e., the systematic listing of all 
instances of a particular concept. The esthetic possibilities of this 
genre were demonstrated in the conceptual art of the 1970's. A very 
ambitious application of the enumerative method occurred already in 
early 20th-century literature: the library containing all possible 
books. An equally far-reaching project was actually realized in 
recent digital art: the program generating all possible images.

Performance by Samuel Vriezen (piano): "The Chord Catalogue" (1986) 
by Tom Johnson.

The American composer Tom Johnson wrote many systematic pieces. The 
Chord Catalogue is one of his most rigorous works: it sums up all the 
8178 distinct chords that the chromatic scale allows within an 
octave. Johnson: "It is not so much a composition as simply a list." 
Music critics have described this work as "a pointed lesson in music 
history and the relativity of perception" (Kyle Gann) and as "a 
transcendental experience" (Matthias Entress).


Friday October 30: History

Introduction by Remko Scha: The Prehistory of Process Art.

At the end of the 18th century, Ernst Chladni discovered his famous 
method for visualizing the oscillatory motions of metal plates. Since 
that time, many other mechanical image-generation techniques were 
developed. This talk reviews this research tradition, and its 
connection with contemporary art.

Lecture by Darko Fritz: Notions of the Program.

Darko Fritz curated the world's largest historic overview exhibition 
of programmed art, presenting the case study of the New Tendencies 
(1961-1973) at the ZKM in Karlsruhe in 2008/2009. In this lecture he 
will show how the idea of "programmed art" emerged in the course of 
the 1960's, out of three different artistic backgrounds: (1) 
neo-constructivism and lumino-kinetics, (2) computer-generated art, 
and (3) conceptual art. The presentation will be accompanied by 
audio-visual documentation from the 1960's and from the recent ZKM 
exhibition.


Friday November 13: Abstraction and Concept Art

Introduction by Remko Scha: Abstraction and the Image Ban.

The deep wisdom of the Biblical ban on mimetic representation becomes 
increasingly clear in today's image-based society. In this context, 
abstract art and concept art regain their original, socially relevant 
meaning.

Lecture by Taconis Stolk: Concept and context.

Concept Art aims at a purely mental esthetics, with its own 
principles of form and composition. This talk explores how conceptual 
art employs specific aspects of mathematical logic, and how a 
computational formulation of these practices may give rise to new 
forms of algorithmic conceptual art.



Enquiries: Arti et Amicitiae <Mirjam at arti.nl> or Remko Scha <scha at iaaa.nl>