Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 1: Pre-Modern Era (Pre-1850)
1440
Johannes Gutenberg’s Printing Press

Johannes Gutenberg begins developing the mechanised moveable type printing press that would kick off Europe’s Printing Revolution, capable of producing up to 3600 pages per day and significantly reducing the cost of publishing and distributing literature. This innovation would lead to the era of mass communication, enabling information and ideas to circulate widely and transcend the elite’s monopoly on literacy. -Sasha Stiles
Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random.
Sources
People
Johannes Gutenberg, Sasha Stiles
Movements
Computer Text, Generative Poetry
Filed under
- Ideas
- Computer Text, Generative Poetry, literacy, literature, mass communication
- Technologies
- movable type, printing press
- People
- Johannes Gutenberg, Sasha Stiles
- Places
- Europe
Echoes across time
- 1984 · The Policeman’s Beard is Half-Constructed Published
- 2021 · theVERSEverse Founded
- 1959 · Theo Lutz produces Stochastic Texts
Le Random editorials
- Sasha Stiles and Martha Joseph on Language as Technology, Peter Bauman, September 10, 2025
- Sasha Stiles on Writing Poets, Peter Bauman, January 25, 2024
Le Random podcast
- Timeline Ch 1—Pre-Modern Era with Marius Watz — listen with transcript on Le Random (06 Jul 2023, 46 min). Chapter 1’s episode. Apple Podcasts · Spotify