Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 2: Modern Era (1850–1949)
1938
Konrad Zuse Creates the Z1
Zuse would finish the motor-driven, mechanical computer in 1938. The first freely programmable binary computer, the Z1 laid the groundwork for modern computers by using Boolean logic and incorporating program control. The Z1 used moving rods and plates to represent 1s and 0s, reading instructions from punched tape.
Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random, fact-checked September 2026.
Sources
People
Movements
cybernetics, Technology and Art, Computing Machinery
Filed under
- Ideas
- computation, computing history
- Technologies
- binary, Boolean logic, computer, programming, punched tape, Z1
- People
- Konrad Zuse
Echoes across time
- 1968 · The Art of Computer Programming by Donald E. Knuth
- 1989 · Intel introduces the 80860 microprocessor chip-equivalent power of a Cray 1 supercomputer
- 1969 · Kunst Und Computer Exhibition at Vienna Sparkasse
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- Timeline Ch 2—Modern Era with Kate Vass — listen with transcript on Le Random (20 Jul 2023, 58 min). Chapter 2’s episode. Apple Podcasts · Spotify