Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, 1965–2018
Sept 28, 2018–Apr 14, 2019
Rule, Instruction, Algorithm:
Generative Measures
2
“Generative art” is defined as any art practice in which the artist hands over control to a system that can function autonomously and that contributes to or creates a work of art. These systems range from natural language instructions and mathematical operations to computer programs and biological processes. While artworks with generative qualities appear throughout the exhibition, works by Ian Cheng, Alex Dodge, and Cheyney Thompson underscore their own process of coming into being or emergence. This emphasis allows us to see an artwork as an open process, where algorithms enable variations in form. Whether using code or chat bots—computer programs designed to simulate conversation with human users—each of these works invites us to rethink authorship, materiality, communication, and meaning.
Alex Dodge, Human-Assisted Simulations of a Universal Will to Become (Simulation 9), 2014
Alex Dodge (b. 1977), Human-Assisted Simulations of a Universal Will to Become (Simulation 9), 2014. Graphite, watercolor, and computer-guided cut stencil on plastic, 26 1/16 × 40 1/16 in. (66.2 × 101.8 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from Joshua Mack 2016.27. © Alex Dodge
Alex Dodge regards code as “a tool for understanding the world within a logical and abstract framework,” and he uses it to generate the visuals for his work. He considers his drawings investigations into complexity that model how intricate interconnected forms can be generated from seemingly basic parts. Here his work presents the possibility for infinite variation in the expression of shapes and in an ongoing pattern that builds upon itself. Dodge is particularly interested in how the digital/ephemeral and the physical/material— in this case graphite and watercolor—intersect in an artifact. His drawing underscores the power of code as a logic that allows forms to emerge and realize themselves.
Artists
- Josef Albers
- Cory Arcangel
- Tauba Auerbach
- Jonah Brucker-Cohen
- Jim Campbell
- Ian Cheng
- Lucinda Childs
- Charles Csuri
- Agnes Denes
- Alex Dodge
- Charles Gaines
- Philip Glass
- Frederick Hammersley
- Channa Horwitz
- Donald Judd
- Joseph Kosuth
- Shigeko Kubota
- Marc Lafia
- Barbara Lattanzi
- Lynn Hershman Leeson
- Sol LeWitt
- Fang-yu Lin
- Manfred Mohr
- Katherine Moriwaki
- Mendi + Keith Obadike
- Nam June Paik
- William Bradford Paley
- Paul Pfeiffer
- Casey Reas
- Earl Reiback
- Rafaël Rozendaal
- Lillian Schwartz
- James L. Seawright
- John F. Simon Jr.
- Steina
- Mika Tajima
- Tamiko Thiel
- Cheyney Thompson
- Joan Truckenbrod
- Siebren Versteeg
- Lawrence Weiner