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

1968

Georg Nees Completes His PhD Thesis (In German), Generative Computergraphik

Publication · Top Moment

Ochre book cover with the title Generative Computergraphik and white angular computer-generated line figures.
Georg Nees, Generative Computergraphik. Cover of diaphanes’s 2006 reissue of the 1969 book. Georg Nees; cover image supplied by publisher diaphanes, 2006 reissue. Image source.

The pioneer’s doctoral thesis was instrumental in our continued association with computers and generative art. According to “What is Generative Art”:

“That thesis was soon widely consulted by the small but growing community, harnessing the words generative and computer together in its readers’ minds.”

One of the first book-length publications on computer art, this doctoral dissertation, completed with the guidance of Max Bense, was completed in 1968 and published in 1969.

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

Sources

People

Georg Nees, Max Bense

Movements

computer art, generative art, information aesthetics

Filed under

Ideas
community, generative art, terminology
Technologies
computer art, computer graphics
People
Georg Nees, Max Bense
Works
Generative Computergraphik

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