Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 4: Digital Era (1960s)
1968
Leslie Mezei Develops SPARTA
In an attempt to make graphic design on computers more accessible to those without programming experience, Mezei developed the early computer graphics language SPARTA in 1968. SPARTA, a Procedure Oriented Programming for the Manipulation Language of Arbitrary Line Drawings consisted of “FORTRAN libraries of programs featuring graphic primitives and transformations like lines, polygons, rotation, and translation, and more sophisticated transformations, including a random number generator.”
Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random, fact-checked September 2026.
Sources
Movements
computer art, generative art
Filed under
- Ideas
- generative art, graphic design, tools
- Technologies
- computer art, computer graphics, Fortran, programming, random number generator, SPARTA
- Other subjects
- Mezei
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Le Random editorials
Le Random podcast
- Timeline Ch 4—Digital Era Pt I (1960s) with Dr A Michael Noll — listen with transcript on Le Random (07 Sep 2023, 60 min). Chapter 4’s episode. Apple Podcasts · Spotify
- Timeline Ch 4—Digital Era Pt II (1960s) with Michael Spalter — listen with transcript on Le Random (21 Sep 2023, 77 min). Chapter 4’s episode. Apple Podcasts · Spotify