Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 2: Modern Era (1850–1949)

1936

Alan Turing Describes the Turing Machine

Invention · Europe

Original printed page with Turing’s name, On Computable Numbers title and the 1936 received and read dates above the introduction.
Alan M. Turing, On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem, opening page. Received May 28 and read November 12, 1936. Alan M. Turing. Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, series 2, vol. 42 (1936–37), p. 230. Original paper scan hosted by the University of Virginia. Image source.

Considered foundational to the development of computer science, Turing’s “automatic machines” were computational devices consisting of readable and writeable tape that could implement computer algorithms.

Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random, fact-checked September 2026.

Sources

People

Alan Turing, Turing

Movements

cybernetics, artificial intelligence, computer art, Computing Machinery

Filed under

Ideas
computation, computing history
Technologies
algorithms, computer, symbolic logic, Turing machine
People
Alan Turing, Turing

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