Robert E. Mueller Pans Computer Art

Publication · North America

Magazine opening page headed Idols of Computer Art by Robert E. Mueller, with four dense wave diagrams credited to Bruno Sonderegger and text noting the original 1972 publication. — Opening page of Robert E. Mueller’s “Idols of Computer Art,” as reprinted in *Creative Computing*, May–June 1978, p. 100. The article first appeared in *Art in America*, May–June 1972. Robert E. Mueller, “Idols of Computer Art,” © Robert E. Mueller, 1972. Shown: *Creative Computing* 4, no. 3 (May–June 1978), p. 100. The illustrated Lissajous variations are credited on the page to Bruno Sonderegger. Source scan.

Writing in Art in America and one of the few times computer art is mentioned by a major mainstream art publication, Mueller describes visual outputs from computers as “exceedingly poor and uninspiring.” This sentiment reflects the growing skepticism of the times regarding technology and art.

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

Sources

Grant D. Taylor, When the Machine Made Art (Bloomsbury Academic, 2014), pp. 144–145 and p. 286, note 122; quoting Robert E. Mueller, “Idols of Computer Art,” Art in America (May–June 1972), p. 68.

People

Robert E. Mueller

Movements

computer art

Filed under

Ideas: art criticism, Technology and Art
Technologies: computer art
People: Robert E. Mueller
Organisations: Art in America
Places: America

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