Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 4: Digital Era (1960s)
1968
Schotter by Georg Nees

This iconic early computer-generated drawing features squares on a grid that become increasingly disordered from top to bottom, exploring what would become a central theme in computer generative art, the relationship between order and disorder.
Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random.
Sources
People
Movements
computer art, generative art
Filed under
- Ideas
- early computer art, generative art, geometry, grid, order and disorder, randomness
- Technologies
- computer art, computer-generated drawings, Plotter Art
- People
- Georg Nees
- Works
- Schotter
Echoes across time
- 1983 · Harold Cohen’s Arnolfini Series
- 1982 · L’Art et l’ordinateur in Paris
- 1984 · Divisibility II + III (1984-1986)
Le Random editorials
- Kate Vass on Rethinking Art Collecting, thefunnyguys, August 9, 2023
- Gottfried Jäger on a New Kind of Being, Anika Meier, March 2, 2026
- A. Michael Noll on When It All Started, A. Michael Noll, March 25, 2025
- Frieder Nake on “Machinic” Miracles, Peter Bauman, July 10, 2024
Le Random podcast
- Timeline Ch 3—Analog Era (1950s) with Georg Bak — listen with transcript on Le Random (10 Aug 2023, 65 min). Transcript mentions Georg Nees. Apple Podcasts · Spotify
- Timeline Ch 4—Digital Era Pt I (1960s) with Dr A Michael Noll — listen with transcript on Le Random (07 Sep 2023, 60 min). Transcript mentions Georg Nees. 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). Transcript mentions Georg Nees. Chapter 4’s episode. Apple Podcasts · Spotify