Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 7: Net Era (1990s)

1990

Paul Brown’s 1990 essay Beyond Art

Publication

A photographic portrait of the artist and writer Paul Brown, author of 'Beyond Art', standing in front of one of his own multicoloured tiling works.
A photographic portrait of the artist and writer Paul Brown, author of 'Beyond Art', standing in front of one of his own multicoloured tiling works. Paul Brown, 2015. Courtesy of the artist, paul-brown.art.

Paul Brown’s 1990 essay “Beyond Art”, published in 21C, envisions the impact of information technology on the art world. It anticipates collaboration between artists and emerging technologies like supercomputing and artificial intelligence. Brown also speculates on a direct link between the brain and computers, emphasizing artists' role in shaping this interaction. The essay also calls for computer art to usher in a new era of democratization in art, offering an optimistic contrast to much of the pessimism surrounding computer art to close out the decade.

Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random.

Sources

People

Paul Brown

Movements

computer art

Filed under

Ideas
collaboration, democratization, human machine collaboration, society and technology, techno optimism
Technologies
artificial intelligence, brain computer interface, computer art, supercomputing
People
Paul Brown
Works
Beyond Art
Organisations
21C

Echoes across time

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