Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 4: Digital Era (1960s)
1969
Quad III by Robert Mallary
This computer-generated sculpture was first exhibited at the Whitney Museum and is now in the Tate collection; it was Quad I that was shown at Cybernetic Serendipity in London. It used the program TRAN2, developed by Mallary, the first program for computer-generated sculpture. With TRAN2 he generated 48 printed forms in sequence, the dimensions of which were used to cut plywood for the sculpture.
Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random, fact-checked September 2026.
Sources
People
Movements
computer art, generative art, Generative Sculpture
Filed under
- Ideas
- generative art, Generative Sculpture, sculpture
- Technologies
- computer art, programming
- People
- Robert Mallary
- Works
- Quad I, Quad III, TRAN2
- Exhibitions
- Cybernetic Serendipity
- Organisations
- Tate, Tate Modern, Whitney Museum of American Art
- Places
- London
Related moments
Echoes across time
- 2005 · Part Object Part Sculpture, Columbus, Ohio
- 1988 · Computers and Art at the IBM Gallery of Science and Art, New York
- 1987 · Computers and Art, Syracuse: Everson Museum of Art.
Le Random editorials
- Copper Giloth on Video Games to Video Art, Peter Bauman, September 22, 2025
- Colette Bangert on Growing Visually, Peter Bauman, May 7, 2024
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