Ken Knowlton Asks Why It Isn’t Art Yet?

In the SIGGRAPH 1986 Art Show Catalogue, Ken Knowlton wrote an essay that captured the frustration within computer art that legitimacy had continued to elude the community, according to Grant Taylor in When the Machine Made Art.

Taylor describes the article as Knowlton asking a question yet the article is actually an explanation, Knowlton telling us, “Why It Isn’t Art Yet.” There is no question mark at the end of the title.

Knowlton felt that, despite more than twenty years making the art himself and considering himself a computer artist:

“We are not yet beyond the gee-whiz stage of cuteness, of stunts, and of novelty for its own sake. In order for the artist to get into serious art, he/she must have a more nearly complete command of the tools, including the understanding and ability to build, redefine and/or augment them.”

He concludes the essay by saying: “At this point, it does not make much sense to me to be trying to produce better computer art. The more appropriate challenge is to create better environments for the development of art-making tools.”

This call for better tooling would take time to be answered but would be steadily developed over the next fifteen years, culminating in Processing.