Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 4: Digital Era (1960s)

1962

Umberto Eco Coins Programmed Art

Event · Europe

Brown exhibition poster with a grid of changing black-and-white squares and the title Arte Programmata.
Enzo Mari, Arte Programmata exhibition poster, Düsseldorf, 1963—a later presentation of the programmed-art exhibition launched in 1962. Design: Enzo Mari for Olivetti and Göppinger Galerie, 1963. Image: Archivio Grafica Italiana; photograph not credited by the archive. Image source.

Eco used the term “programmed art” for the Italian kinetic works shown at Olivetti by Gruppo T, Gruppo N, Enzo Mari and Bruno Munari. Programmed art extended the aesthetics and concepts of Constructivism and Neo-Plasticism. According to Grant Taylor, “computer art appealed to the same concepts of objectivity and the will to detach the art object from the idea.” This work thus played an important in calling for the dematerialization of art, which was a profound leap that art undertook, in this time period.

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

Sources

People

Bruno Munari, Enzo Mari, Grant Taylor, Umberto Eco

Movements

Constructivism, Op Art, Arte Programmata

Filed under

Ideas
Constructivism, dematerialization, Gestalt theory, Neo-Plasticism, Op Art
Technologies
computer art, kinetic art
People
Bruno Munari, Enzo Mari, Grant Taylor, Umberto Eco
Exhibitions
Programmed
Organisations
Arte Programmata, Gruppo N, Gruppo T, Olivetti
Places
Italy

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