Joan Truckenbrod Makes Coded Algorithmic Drawings

Friend of the Le Random Podcast, Joan Truckenbrod began her FORTRAN series Coded Algorithmic Drawings as an artist teaching at Northern Illinois University.

This work is indicative of the decade's deliberate turn away from hard-edged abstraction toward more natural computer-made work. This was possible because of the growing interest in computers of artists like Truckenbrod and Grace Hertlein, as well as an improving technical environment, especially in plotters. It's also indicative because it takes place in Chicago, probably art and tech's epicenter for the 1970s with EVL, Sonia Sheridan's Generative Systems and Truckenbrod.

Truckenbrod wrote FORTRAN programs on a university mainframe to model invisible natural phenomena, like the way light reflects off a surface. The artist then plotted the results. She wrote the code by hand on punched cards, one of a small number of artists programming directly in the 1970s.

Truckenbrod later taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she helped build its art and technology program. Her drawings today are held by the Victoria and Albert Museum. Listen to our conversation with Truckenbrod.