Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 4: Digital Era (1960s)

1968

Molnár’s Paris: First Computer Encounter: Bull-GE HQ

Invention · Europe · Women Artists

Vera Molnar's Interruptions (1969), the earliest of her computer-plotted works in the V&A, made in the year after she first gained access to a computer at the Bull-GE headquarters in Paris.
Vera Molnar's Interruptions (1969), the earliest of her computer-plotted works in the V&A, made in the year after she first gained access to a computer at the Bull-GE headquarters in Paris. Vera Molnar, Interruptions, 1969. (c) Victoria and Albert Museum, London / Vera Molnar.

Vera Molnár’s machine imaginaire became a machine réelle in 1968, when she gained access to her first computer through her friend Pierre Barbaud, a French algorithmic composer. Barbaud invited Molnár to the Bull-GE headquarters in Gambetta, where she created the work 1 des premieres images d’après listing – BULL 1968. Molnár generated the piece by having the computer print out numbers corresponding to colors, which she then colored by hand. Molnár would not soon forget this experience, as she would ensure she had regular access to a computer later in the year.

Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random, fact-checked September 2026.

Sources

People

Pierre Barbaud, Vera Molnár

Movements

computer art, generative art

Filed under

Ideas
access, color, generative art, machine réelle
Technologies
algorithmic composer, computer art
People
Pierre Barbaud, Vera Molnár
Works
1 des premieres images d'après listing – BULL 1968, la Machine Imaginaire
Organisations
Bull-GE
Places
Gambetta, Paris

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