This paper aims to discuss algorithmic art (also known as computer-generated or generative art) in a comparative perspective with artistic practices generated by means of non-computer-based methods. More precisely, it seeks to trace arthistorical relationships between algorithmic art and certain examples from modern art movements. The artist whose works are chosen as the starting point for this investigation is the German artist Manfred Mohr. The investigation will firstly attempt to identify key features of algorithmic art based on its formal visual properties as well as production techniques involved. In the second step, it will discuss these observed characteristics in a comparative perspective with historical precedents and contemporary practices from non-computer art. By comparing aesthetic principles and techniques used by selected artists, the paper seeks to contribute towards a growing awareness that it is necessary to consider algorithmic art within the broader historical context of its relationships with non-digital art forms.
Over the past decades, digital technology and media had firmly integrated into almost all areas of contemporary culture and society. In this context, the Internet, computers or mobile phones are no longer considered products of new media, but instead are taken for granted. With this background in mind, this paper suggests taking a post-digital perspective on today's media society. The concept of post-digital refers to an aesthetics that no longer regards digital technology as a revolutionary phenomenon, but instead as a normal aspect of people's daily life. More precisely, post-digital aesthetics deals with an environment where digital technology became such a commonplace that its existence is frequently no longer acknowledged. Based on the analysis of contemporary artworks and practices inspired by their surroundings, this paper aims to bring those phenomena into consciousness that became unnoticeable in the contemporary digital environment. For this purpose, this investigation goes beyond the formal-aesthetic analysis, but instead focuses on the investigation of the receptive act. Concretely, post-digital aesthetics seeks to describe and analyze the changing modes of perception affected by the increased digitization of one's surroundings. In the context of this analysis, aesthetics is thus understood not as the goal per se, but rather as the means to enhance the understanding of contemporary digital culture.
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