Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 5: Artist-Programmer Era (1970s)
1974
Muriel Cooper Founds the Visible Language Workshop
Derived from a course taught by Cooper at MIT, “Messages and Means,” the Visible Language Workshop (VLW) took a multi-disciplinary approach to design. It specifically examined interactive design, photography, typesetting and platemaking. The VLW would prove to be highly influential to both Casey Reas and Zach Lieberman in their creations of Processing and openFrameworks respectively. “The VLW was well-connected to both the Center for Advanced Visual Studies and the Architecture Machine Group; and it was one of the original research groups of the Media Lab at its founding in 1985.”
Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random, fact-checked September 2026.
Sources
- Kirkham, Pat, ed. Women Designers in the USA, 1900-2000: Diversity and Difference. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.
People
Casey Reas, Muriel Cooper, Zach Lieberman
Movements
digital art, generative art
Filed under
- Ideas
- design, digital art, generative art, graphic design, interactivity, photography, typography
- Technologies
- openFrameworks, platemaking, Processing, typesetting
- People
- Casey Reas, Muriel Cooper, Zach Lieberman
- Works
- Messages and Means, Studies
- Organisations
- Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS), MIT, MIT Architecture Machine Group, MIT Media Lab, Visible Language Workshop
Related moments
- 1967 · Gyorgy Kepes Establishes the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) at MIT
- 1994 · Information Landscapes by Muriel Cooper
- 1996 · John Maeda joins the MIT Media Lab
- 1985 · MIT Media Lab Opened by Nicholas Negroponte and Jerome Wiesner
- 2005 · Zach Lieberman releases OpenFrameworks v0.01
- 2001 · Casey Reas and Ben Fry Initiate Processing Project
Echoes across time
- 1994 · Information Landscapes by Muriel Cooper
- 1990 · Publications
- 1996 · John Maeda joins the MIT Media Lab
Le Random editorials
- Zach Lieberman on the Resonance of Generative Art, Peter Bauman, August 2, 2023
- The Zach Lieberman Commission, Peter Bauman, August 30, 2023
- Casey Reas, Lauren Lee McCarthy & Chandler McWilliams on Expanding Software, Peter Bauman, August 20, 2024
- Casey Reas on the History of Generative Art - Part 2, Peter Bauman, July 5, 2023
Le Random podcast
- Elevating the Generative Art Space (Launch Episode) with Casey Reas, ciphrd, Anne Spalter, Anika Meier & Georg Bak — listen with transcript on Le Random (28 Jun 2023, 52 min). Featuring Casey Reas. Apple Podcasts · Spotify
- Timeline Ch 8—Tooling Era (2000s) with Christiane Paul, Casey Reas, Christa Sommerer & Golan Levin — listen with transcript on Le Random (15 May 2024, 64 min). Featuring Casey Reas. Apple Podcasts · Spotify
- Timeline Ch 5—Artist-Programmer Era (1970s) with Joan Truckenbrod, Hans Dehlinger & Anika Meier — listen with transcript on Le Random (14 Jan 2024, 65 min). Chapter 5’s episode. Apple Podcasts · Spotify