Karl Otto Götz Manually Anticipates Digital Generative Art

Karl Götz’s Statistisch-metrische Modulation (Statistical-metrical Modulation) is a series of hand-drawn Raster Pictures of 2 x 2 cm black and white squares on pieces of variously-sized cardboard. Götz was fascinated by the dematerialization of the art object that computers were enabling. He believed this was a paradigm shift. Statistisch-metrische Modulation was an attempt to explore this digital aesthetic (manually) before it was possible electronically. But Götz could clearly see what was coming: “When one thinks how much ‘easier,’ or less taxing, it would be to realize such [raster] pictures electronically, that is to say, that they would appear on the screen. It is obvious that these technical means will be used”(1963).