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H I S T O R I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E
Computer Graphic--Aesthetic
Experiments between Two Cultures
Christoph Klütsch
In looking back to the beginnings of computer
graphics in the mid-1960s, two main theoretical frameworks
must be considered: C.P. Snow’s widely discussed “two cultures”
thesis and that of the new information aesthetics.
Max Bense developed information aesthetics between
1954 and 1965. He used Hegel as a starting point, seeing art
as both a historical and an epistemic process. Bense defined
the aesthetic object as a material carrier connected to “co-
materiality” (Mitrealität), thus understanding the object as a
sign. In the early phase of his thought, he relied upon Charles
Morris’s sign theory, shifting in the 1960s to Pierceian sign the-
ory. By understanding aesthetic objects as signs, Bense framed
them within Shannon’s purely technical communication the-
ory, which he attempted to adapt to human communication.
As a link between the two notions of communication, he in-
terposed Norbert Wiener’s cybernetics, which he understood
as a model for the process of art production, consumption and
criticism. Within this theoretical frame, Bense aimed to cre-
ate a rational aesthetics, freed from subjective speculation and
grounded upon a scientific base [1].
As a cornerstone for a scientific aesthetics, Bense adopted
David Birkhoff’s method for measurement of aesthetics. In
the early 1930s, Birkhoff presented a simple formula to meas-
ure the aesthetic value of art: M = O/C, where the aesthetic
measurement M is defined by the ratio of order O to com-
plexity C [2]. At a time when other structuralistic approaches
were emerging, Bense combined Shannon’s theory and analy-
sis of the English language, Birkhoff’s mathematical analysis
of aesthetic measurements and Chomsky’s generative gram-
mar into a theory that allowed for the analysis of art objects
on a micro-aesthetic level by investigating the used sign reper-
toire in artworks. Having a repertoire and rules for combin-
ing its elements, Bense now had the tools to build a model for
the macro-aesthetic values of aesthetic objects.
The final aspect of Bense’s aesthetic theory is the notion of
negentropy. Bense saw in art a process going in the direction
opposite that of the physical process. While the physical world
moves toward chaos, the world of art moves toward order. Both
process and order are key terms in Bense’s aesthetic, delivering
the ontological basis for his scientific approach. Meanwhile,
in France, his friend and colleague Abraham Moles was work-
ing on an information aesthetic intended to explain the struc-
Christoph Klütsch (educator, researcher), Savannah College of Art and Design,
Savannah, GA 31402, U.S.A. E-mail: <c.kluetsch@computerkunst.org>.
This article is based on Christoph Klütsch’s doctoral thesis; the abstract for the
thesis received the highest ranking by the Leonardo Abstracts Service (LABS). Those
wishing to submit abstracts to LABS can find thesis abstract submission forms at
<leonardolabs.pomona.edu> (for English-language abstracts) and <www.uoc.edu/
artnodes/leonardolabs> (for Spanish).
©2007 ISAST
ture that allows the construction of
super signs in aesthetic perception
[3].
ABSTRACT
T
he author presents a summary
of his research on the Stuttgart
During the 1960s, information School and information aesthet-
aesthetics led to the formation of ics as developed by Max Bense
the Stuttgart school, which had in the 1950s and 1960s.
Three artists, Frieder Nake,
Bense at its intellectual center. The Georg Nees and Manfred Mohr,
statistical analysis of style, especially adopted the use of information
in literature, was not new [4]. In aesthetics in computer graph-
Stuttgart a generation of young sci- ics. The author investigates
the relation between artistic
entists examined different aspects
practice and aesthetic theory.
of the mathematical value of infor-
mation contained in aesthetic ob-
jects. Rul Gunzenhäuser applied
Shannon’s information theory to Birkoff’s concept of aesthetic
measurement, developing a theory of micro-aesthetics [5].
Helmar Frank focused on the perceptual aspects of aesthetics.
He wrote his Ph.D. under Abraham Moles in Paris before com-
ing to Stuttgart [6]. Georg Nees wrote his Ph.D. dissertation
“Generative computergrafik” under Bense in 1968, applying
his aesthetic explicitly to computer art [7]. Frieder Nake,
inspired by Bense’s lectures, proved the possibilities of a gen-
erative aesthetic with generative aesthetics I (1969). In 1971,
Siegfried Maser published his doctoral thesis, which presented
a rigorous formalization of Bense’s generative aesthetics [8].
In 1974, Nake published a book on aesthetics as information
processing, which connected aesthetic theory with formal com-
puter graphics and the history of computer art [9].
A MANIFESTO FOR COMPUTER ART
The key event in the development of computer graphics was
a 1965 exhibition at the Studien Galerie Stuttgart (see Table
1) [10]. Bense invited Georg Nees to exhibit his works, to the
dismay and fury of the public. Bense defended the exhibit by
stating that it was only “artificial art,” which on first glance
looks like an excuse, but referred implicitly to artificial intel-
ligence. This comparison, in combination with his manifesto
on “generative aesthetics” [11] and Bense’s reference to the
implications of Chomsky’s concepts, superseded the aesthetic
theories of his time. By 1965 Bense had transformed the purely
descriptive approach of information aesthetics into a genera-
tive aesthetic:
Generative aesthetics therefore implies a combination of all op-
erations, rules and theorems which can be used deliberately to
produce aesthetic states (both distributions and configurations)
when applied to a set of material elements. Hence generative aes-
thetics is analogous to generative grammar, in so far as it helps
to formulate the principles of grammatical schema-realization of
an aesthetic structure [12].
LEONARDO, Vol. 40, No. 5, pp. 421–425, 2007 421
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Table 1: Early computer art exhibitions
1965
Georg Nees, Computer-Grafik, Studiengallerie Technical University Stuttgart, 5–19 February 1965.
Michael Noll and Bela Julesz, Computer-Generated Pictures, Howard Wise Gallery, New York, 6–24
April 1965.
Frieder Nake and Georg Nees, “Computer-Grafik-Programme,” Galerie Niedlich Stuttgart, 5–26 No-
vember 1965.
1966
Frieder Nake, M.V. Mathews, Ben Deutschman (Bell Labs) and G. Stickel, Herstellung von zeich-
nerischen Darstellungen, Tonfolgen und Texten mit elektronischen Rechenanlagen, Deutsches
Rechenzentrum Darmstadt, 15 January–15 February 1966.
1971
Manfred Mohr Computer Graphics, “Une esthetique programmée,” Musée d’art moderne de la ville
de Paris, 11 May–6 June 1971.
In his manifesto on generative aes-
thetics, Bense claimed to speak of all op-
erations, rules and theorems. Just as
Chomsky was looking for the laws of nat-
ural language, Bense was looking for the
laws of aesthetics. These laws would be
applied to a set of material elements. Any
sign can function as a material element.
It is not enough, however, simply to de-
scribe the rules and the elements; one
has also to define the goal. Bense wrote,
“Any generative aesthetics which leads to
an aesthetic synthesis must be preceded
by analytical aesthetics” [13]. Analytical
aesthetics investigates existing works of
art and describes their mathematical
values, which a synthetic aesthetics can
then construct—-that is, generate. For
Bense, there are four methods for ab-
stract description of aesthetic states: the
semiotic method, the metrical (macro-
aesthetic) method, the statistical (micro-
aesthetic) method and the topological
(set of elements) method. In the de-
scription of aesthetic values, these meth-
ods descend from the meaning to the
used set of elements.
In the synthetic aesthetic, the goal is
to produce order based on rules. How-
ever, just as art is defined as a ratio be-
tween order and disorder (with a trend
towards order, i.e. negentropy), the ele-
ment of disorder comes into concrete
generative computer programs through
the pseudo-random-number generator.
This is a methodological shift in the pro-
duction of art works. While traditional
artists work under the dictum of “trial
and error,” computer artists follow the
principle of scientific experiments. Art
critics in the Stuttgart newspapers were
furious, and an article in Der Spiegel (Ger-
many’s most prominent weekly magazine
at the time) published a one-page article
about Bense’s aesthetic [14].
422 Klütsch, Computer Graphic–Aesthetic Experiments
SOCIOPOLITICAL CIRCUM-
STANCES IN THE 1960S
Cultural life and politics in the 1960s
were dominated by the debate over C.P.
Snow’s “two cultures.” Snow gave his
Cambridge Rede Lecture, “The Two Cul-
tures and the Scientific Revolution,” in
1959 [15]. The lecture was strongly in-
fluenced by the Sputnik shock of 1957
and full of political speculations. Snow’s
main claim was that the humanities and
natural sciences should bridge the abyss
between them; otherwise Russian tri-
umphs in engineering would continue
unbroken. Over the next decade, discus-
sion followed in nearly all parts of the in-
dustrialized world.
There is fascinating evidence of the in-
fluence of this debate on the self-per-
ception of pioneering computer artists,
especially in the United States. In 1961
Snow himself published an article in Com-
puters and Automation, a journal that
would hold the first worldwide computer-
art contest in 1963 [16]. In 1966 the
Hungarian computer artist Leslie Mezei,
living in Toronto, Canada, published a
call for a network of computer artists in
the same journal, and she referred to C.P.
Snow [17]. The opening ceremonies of
the Center for Advanced Visual Studies
by Gyorgy Kepes at the Massachusetts In-
stitute of Technology, as well as of Har-
vard’s Carpenter Center for Visual Arts,
referred specifically to Snow:
The science-humanities gap is being
closed at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and Harvard University.
Neighbors along Boston’s Charles River,
these venerable seats of learning are both
exploring new concepts of art education
that bring together students of the hu-
manities, social science, natural science
and advanced technology to create a new
kind of Renaissance man—the visual de-
signer of tomorrow [18].
With Kepes’s arrival from the New
Bauhaus in Chicago, the tradition of
the Weimar Bauhaus was brought into
elite research institutions, bridging C.P.
Snow’s two cultures. Of course Bauhaus
also played an important role in Ger-
many. Max Bense taught “information”
at the Hochschule für Gestaltung (School
of Design) in Ulm, Germany. The School
of Design was founded by Inge Scholl,
one of the Scholl sisters who played in
important role in the Munich resistance
in Nazi Germany; she wanted to found a
postwar institution connected explicitly
with the forbidden Weimar Bauhaus.
The concrete artist Max Bill, a friend of
Bense, invited him to the school shortly
after its opening in 1953. During his Ulm
period, Bense wrote the first part of his
aesthetics. For Bense, the bridging of the
gap between the two cultures was crucial.
ALGORITHMIC ART:
A FEW EXAMPLES
Perhaps the most radical computer
graphic artist of the Stuttgart school was
Frieder Nake. Born in 1938, he studied
mathematics in Stuttgart, where he re-
ceived his doctoral degree in mathe-
matics in 1967. The thesis was about a
problem in probability theory. Nake had
already begun his first graphical experi-
ment on a computer in 1963, having been
given the task of programming the new
Zuse Graphomat Z64 by Walter Knödel,
his academic teacher at the time. The ma-
chine came without any software, so Nake
had to write the control program in ma-
chine language. To test his program, he
soon began to experiment with drawings
for their aesthetic purpose rather than
their mathematical use (Figs. 1 and 2 and
Color Plate E). He used different kinds
of pseudo-random-number generators in
his programs. The relation of intuition,
chance and pseudo-random-number
generators is a deeply philosophical one,
which Nake investigated not only artisti-
cally but in numerous publications [19].
In 1968 he moved to Toronto and worked
with Leslie Mezei. There he wrote
the program “generative aesthetics I,” a
radical attempt to fulfill the goal set out
in the first computer art exhibition in
Stuttgart in 1965. This proof was given
in the year of two international exhibi-
tions of computer art in London and Za-
greb [20].
On 10 October 1964, a letter by Georg
Nees arrived at the relatively new journal
Grundlagenstudien aus Kybernetic und Gei-
stenwissenschaft, which was edited by Max
Bense, Gerhard Eichhorn, Hardi Fischer,
01-leo40-5.klutsch.ps - 8/30/2007 11:46 AM

Fig. 1. Frieder Nake, Klee. 13/9/1965 Nr. 2, 40 × 40 cm, 1965. Fig. 2. Frieder Nake, Zufälliger Polygonzug (random polygon line)
(© Frieder Nake) 13/9/65 Nr. 3, 40 × 40 cm, 1965. (© Frieder Nake)

Helmar Frank, Gotthard Günther, Rul
Gunzenhäuser, Abraham Moles, Peter
Müller, Felix von Cube and Elisabeth
Walther [21]. Frank, Gunzenhäuser and
von Cube were doctorial students of
Bense’s. Günther was working in Illinois
with Heinz von Förster. Nees, who was
then working at Siemens in Erlangen,
read this journal regularly. In his letter,
he proposed a short article on “aesthetic
restlessness,” with reference to Bense’s
aesthetica III. Frank quickly introduced
Nees to Bense, and four months later the
Stuttgart exhibition was launched. Soon
Nees decided to write his Ph.D. thesis
with Bense as supervisor. The thesis,
“Generative Computergraphik,” was pub-
lished in 1969 and was probably the first
on this topic [22]. Nees’s goal in this book
can be described as a practical proof of
Bense’s aesthetic (Fig. 3). The computer
served Nees as an aesthetic laboratory to
test Bense’s theories. Nees described the
programs he used in great detail, set out
the aesthetic goal he had in mind, and
used numerous graphics as proofs. His
most well-known graphic from this pe-

Fig. 3. Georg Nees, 8-Ecke (polygons of 8 vertices), 1964. Fig. 4. Georg Nees, Schotter (Gravel Stone),
(© Georg Nees) before 1968. (© Georg Nees)

Klütsch, Computer Graphic–Aesthetic Experiments 423

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CONCLUSION AND OUTLOOK

For an understanding of the beginning
of computer art in the Stuttgart school,
it is important to recontextualize the pi-
oneering work of Nake, Nees and Mohr
within the information aesthetics of Max
Bense and Moles. The discussion of the
abyss between the “two cultures” provides
a frame within which to formulate the
new artistic approach, which was based
on scientific methods and aesthetic ex-
periments. The experiments of the Stutt-
gart school were clearly a cornerstone of
the “algorithmic revolution,” which to-
day can be discussed as a “digital Bau-
haus” [24].

References
1. M. Bense, Aesthetica (Baden-Baden, West Germany:
Agis-Verlag, 1965).

2. G.D. Birkhoff, Aesthetic Measure (Cambridge, MA:

Harvard Univ. Press, 1933).

3. A. Moles, Information Theory and Esthetic Perception

(Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1966
[1958]).

4. W. Fucks, “On Mathematical Analysis of Style,”

Biometrika 39, Nos. 1–2, 122–129 (1952).
Fig. 5. Manfred Mohr, P-50 “Formal Language II,” India ink, paper, wood,
92 × 92 cm, 1970. (© Manfred Mohr) 5. R. Gunzenhäuser, Ästhetisches Mass und ästhetische
Information: Einführung in die Theorie G.D. Birkhoffs
und die Redundanztheorie ästhetischer Prozesse (Quick-
riod is Schotter (Gravel Stone) (Fig. 4), in database and then wrote programs that born bei Hamburg, West Germany: Schnelle, 1962).

which 22 rows with 12 squares are trans- reflected his own personal style. A good 6. H. Frank, Grundlagenprobleme der Informationsäs-
formed from a state of perfect order into example is Formal Language II, shown in thetik und erste Anwendung auf die Mime Pure (Quick-
born, West Germany: Schnelle, 1968 [1959]).
a chaotic pattern, illustrating the funda- Fig. 5. The comparison of a detail from
mental principle of negentropy. Formal Language II with the “classical” 7. G. Nees, Generative Computergraphik (Berlin: Sie-
mens AG, 1969).
Manfred Mohr had his first exhibition painting 16/469 from Mohr’s subjective
of computer graphics in Paris [23]. Mohr geometrical phase (Fig. 6) shows how 8. S. Maser, Numerische Ästhetik: Neue Mathematische
Verfahren zur Quantitativen Beschreibung und Bewertung
entered the computer-graphic world with Mohr used his own repertoire as a basis Ästhetischer Zustände (Stuttgart, West Germany:
a classical arts background. Born in 1938 for his generative art. Krämer, 1971).
near Stuttgart, he first learned to become
a goldsmith, but focused more on play-
ing the saxophone and oboe. In 1960 he
started painting in the tradition of the In- Fig. 6. Manfred Mohr, 16/469, tempera/canvas, 130 × 162 cm, 1969.
(© Manfred Mohr) Collection Branco Weiss, Zürich—subjektive Geometrie.
formell. He moved to Paris in 1963 and
visited the Ecole des Beaux Arts. The new
impressions gained there moved him to-
ward hard-edge painting. Listening to a
lecture by Pierre Barbaud in 1967, Mohr
realized that he could use the computer
for his artistic method, an idea that be-
came central in his artistic development.
The key notion was the repertoire.
Coming from a musical background,
and stylistically bound to hard-edge
painting, Mohr was used to working with
basic elements: notes, geometric forms
and distribution and composition of
well-defined objects. Mohr studied some
of Bense’s works and was fascinated by
the idea of an objective aesthetic based
on scientific principles made possible by
using the computer as a tool. He took
Bense literally, investigated his form lan-
guage, counted the occurrence of each
geographic element, fed them into a

424 Klütsch, Computer Graphic–Aesthetic Experiments

01-leo40-5.klutsch.ps - 8/30/2007 11:46 AM

9. F. Nake, Ästhetik als Informationsverarbeitung: Grund-
lagen und Anwendungen der Informatik im Bereich äs-
thetischer Produktion und Kritik (Vienna: Springer,
1974).
10. M. Bense and G. Nees, Computer-Grafik (Stuttgart,
West Germany: Walther, 1965).
11. Bense and Nees [10].
12. Bense and Nees [10], English translation in J. Re-
ichardt, Cybernetics, Art and Ideas (London: Studio
Vista, 1971) p. 57f.
13. Bense and Nees, in Reichardt [12] p. 57.
14. “Bald Krumme Linien,” Der Spiegel, Nr. 18/1965
S. 151f.
15. C.P. Snow, “The Two Cultures,” The New States-
man and Nation, No. 52, 413–414 (6 October 1956).
16. C.P. Snow, “The Moral Un-Neutrality of Science.
Reprint,” Computers and Automation 10, No. 5, 13–17
(May 1961).
17. L. Mezei, “Notes on the Computer and the Arts,”
Computers and Automation 15 (May 1966) p. 8.
18. J.H. Kay, “Art Science on the Charles,” Art in
America 55, No. 5, 62–67 (September–October 1967);
G.M. Spruch, “Two Contributions to the Art and Sci-
ence Muddle. 2. A Report on a Symposium on Art
and Science Held at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, March 20–22, 1968,” Artforum VII, No.
5, 28–32 ( January 1969).
19. F. Nake, “On the Inversion of Information Aes-
thetics,” bit international, No. 7 (1969) pp. 59–66.
20. For a comparison of the events of summer 1968
in London and Zagreb, see C. Klütsch, “The Sum-
mer 1968 in London and Zagreb: Starting or End
Point for Computer Art?” Creativity & Cognition. Pro-
ceedings 2005, pp. 109–117. See also the two exhibi-
tion catalogues: bit international, International
colloquy on computers and visual research, Zagreb,
3–4 August 1968 (Zagreb, Croatia: Galerije Grada Za-
greba, 1968) and Jasia Reichardt, ed., Cybernetic
Serendipity: The Computer and the Arts, exh. cat. (Lon-
don: Studio International Special Issue, 1968).
21. G. Nees, “Variationen und Figuren in der statis-
tischen Grafik,” Grundlagenstudien aus Kybernetik und
Geisteswissenschaft 5, Nos. 3–4, 121–125 (1964); see
also “Statistische Grafik,” in the same issue, p. 67f.
22. G. Nees, Generative Computergraphik (Berlin: Sie-
mens AG, 1969).
23. A-R-C Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris,
“Manfred Mohr: Computer Graphics. Une esthétique
programmée” (Paris, 1971).
24. P. Ehn, “Manifesto for a Digital Bauhaus,” Digi-
tal Creativity 9, No. 4, 207–216 (1998); J. Maeda, Cre-
ative Code (London: Thames & Hudson, 2004).
Christoph Klütsch is a professor of contempo-
rary art history at the Savannah College of
Art and Design in Savannah. His Ph.D. dis-
sertation “Computergraphik. Computerkunst
in den 60er Jahren, Ästhetische Experimente
zwischen zwei Kulturen” (Computer graphic.
Aesthetic experiments between two cultures)
was published in German with Springer Wien
New York in 2007.

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Klütsch, Computer Graphic–Aesthetic Experiments 425