Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 5: Artist-Programmer Era (1970s)

1978

Algorithmic Aesthetics: Computer Models for Criticism and Design in the Arts by George Stiny and James Gips

Publication

Cover of Stiny and Gips's Algorithmic Aesthetics: Computer Models for Criticism and Design in the Arts.
Cover of Stiny and Gips's Algorithmic Aesthetics: Computer Models for Criticism and Design in the Arts. Algorithmic Aesthetics: Computer Models for Criticism and Design in the Arts by George Stiny and James Gips, cover. Via Open Library

Suggesting an algorithmic approach to aesthetics and criticism, George Stiny and James Gips continue the tradition of Max Bense and François Morellet. They write: “What we do attempt in this study is to suggest, in very broad strokes, what an algorithm for criticizing or designing works of art might look like. In the process, we attempt to show how various approaches to art might be modeled using this structure and we investigate some traditional issues in aesthetics in terms of this structure.”

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

Sources

People

François Morellet, George Stiny, James Gips, Max Bense

Movements

computer art, generative art, information aesthetics

Filed under

Ideas
aesthetics, art criticism, design, generative art
Technologies
algorithms, computer art
People
François Morellet, George Stiny, James Gips, Max Bense

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