Tyler Hobbs Starts Writing About Generative Art

With his essay “Randomness in the Composition of Artwork,” Tyler Hobbs began a period of influential writing on generative art that continues to this day. Fittingly for Le Random and this Timeline, the first word published by Hobbs was “randomness.” These are some of the earliest attempts by the upcoming generation of generative art to describe generativity as we know it today. The essay highlights what’s exciting and compelling about generative art—emergence, surprise and endless experimentation—setting up Hobbs as a leading voice in the movement nearly a decade before an increase in his popularity. His Continuity series, also from 2014, represents the earliest state of the artist’s visual practice.