Theorie de l’information et perception esthetique (Information Theory and Esthetic Perception) by Abraham A. Moles

Information Theory and Esthetic Perception by Abraham A. Moles, later professor at Strasbourg University, was an early, important work on information aesthetics. Moles combined Shannon’s information theory with aesthetics. While Bense’s generative aesthetics focused on an artwork’s aesthetic value, Moles was interested in models of perception and semiotics or symbolic communication. This book posits that pleasure, beauty, and artistic response are the result of informational processes, which can be mathematically analyzed and understood. According to Margit Rosen, “it inspired the development of strategies to develop procedures of programming as a precondition for the production of art.”