Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 4: Digital Era (1960s)
1966
Herstellung von zeichnerischen Darstellungen, Tonfolgen und Texten mit elektronischen Rechenanlagen (Production of graphic renderings, audio sequences, and texts by electronic computers) Exhibition

This exhibition at the Deutsche Rechenzentrum (German Computing Center) in Darmstadt featured computer music, drawings and text. It helped to popularize computer art in Germany and beyond. It’s also important showing of several (~21) early Frieder Nake works. Released with the exhibition was “Programm-Information Pl-21” a booklet that was one of the first publications explicitly dedicated to computer art and included an essay by Nake on computer graphics.
Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random, fact-checked September 2026.
Sources
People
Movements
computer art, Computer Music, Computer Text
Filed under
- Ideas
- Computer Music, Computer Text, generative art
- Technologies
- computer art, computer graphics, computer-generated drawings
- People
- Frieder Nake
- Works
- Programm-Information PI-21
- Exhibitions
- Information
- Organisations
- Deutsches Rechenzentrum
- Places
- Darmstadt, Germany
Echoes across time
- 1980 · Art In/Art Out at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago
- 1982 · L’Art et l’ordinateur in Paris
- 1981 · SIGGRAPH 1981 Computer Culture Art Show
Le Random editorials
- Frieder Nake on “Machinic” Miracles, Peter Bauman, July 10, 2024
Le Random podcast
- Interview with Frieder Nake — listen with transcript on Le Random (16 Jul 2024, 41 min). Featuring Frieder Nake. Apple Podcasts · Spotify
- Timeline Ch 4—Digital Era Pt I (1960s) with Dr A Michael Noll — listen with transcript on Le Random (07 Sep 2023, 60 min). Chapter 4’s episode. Apple Podcasts · Spotify
- Timeline Ch 4—Digital Era Pt II (1960s) with Michael Spalter — listen with transcript on Le Random (21 Sep 2023, 77 min). Chapter 4’s episode. Apple Podcasts · Spotify