Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 4: Digital Era (1960s)

1969

Computer Technique Group (CTG) Disbands

Event · Japan · Top Moment

CTG's APM (Automatic Painting Machine) No. 1 of 1968, a four-colour spray gun on an X-Y arm driven by its own logic unit — the group's clearest statement of the artist as builder of a form-making system.
CTG's APM (Automatic Painting Machine) No. 1 of 1968, a four-colour spray gun on an X-Y arm driven by its own logic unit — the group's clearest statement of the artist as builder of a form-making system. Computer Technique Group (CTG), APM (Automatic Painting Machine) No. 1, 1968. Image: compArt database of digital art (dada), University of Bremen.

At the end of 1969 the group decided to disband citing difficulties collaborating with each other. According to Grant Taylor, “Haruki Tsuchiya said that the collaborative effort had not been as easy as expected and that ultimately artists and technologists are essentially different.” The end of the ’60s saw interest in technology and art peak before quieting down in the ’70s. The dissolution of CTG was indicative of this sentiment reversal. The group’s legacy remains immense, as CTG can be seen as the first modern digital generative artists for thinking of their work in terms of art-making systems. Grant Taylor explains their defining impact: “Most importantly, though, CTG was the first to envisage the artist as a constructor of a system—a system that would create large amounts of form rather than individual artworks.”

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

Sources

People

Grant Taylor, Haruki Tsuchiya

Movements

computer art, generative art

Filed under

Ideas
collaboration, generative art, systems, systems art, Technology and Art
Technologies
computer art
People
Grant Taylor, Haruki Tsuchiya
Organisations
Computer Technique Group

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