Editing Generative art

{{Short description|Art created by a set of rules, often using computers}}
{{about|all autonomously-created art|generative AI art|artificial intelligence art}}
[[File:Condensation Cube of Haacke.jpg|thumb|''[[Condensation]] Cube'', [[plexiglass]] and water, by [[Hans Haacke]]; [[Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden]], begun 1965, completed 2008]]
[[File:Dombis 1687.jpg|thumb|Installation view of ''Irrational Geometrics'' 2008 by [[Pascal Dombis]]]]
[[File:10'000 moving cities V3, net-and-telepresence-based installation, 2015.jpg|thumb|Telepresence-based installation ''10.000 Moving Cities'', 2016 by [[Marc Lee]]]]

'''Generative art''' is [[post-conceptual art]] that has been created (in whole or in part) with the use of an [[autonomous]] system. An ''autonomous system'' in this context is generally one that is non-human and can independently determine features of an artwork that would otherwise require decisions made directly by the artist. In some cases the human creator may claim that the [[Generative systems|generative system]] represents their own artistic idea, and in others that the system takes on the role of the creator.

"Generative art" often refers to [[algorithmic art]] ([[algorithmically]] determined [[Computer-generated artwork|computer generated artwork]]) and [[synthetic media]] (general term for any algorithmically generated media), but artists can also make generative art using systems of [[chemistry]], [[biology]], [[mechanics]] and [[robotics]], [[smart materials]], manual [[randomization]], [[mathematics]], [[data mapping]], [[symmetry]], and [[Tessellation|tiling]]. 

Generative algorithms, algorithms programmed to produce artistic works through predefined rules, stochastic methods, or procedural logic, often yielding dynamic, unique, and contextually adaptable outputs—are central to many of these practices.

== History ==

The use of the word "generative" in the discussion of art has developed over time. The use of "[[Artificial DNA]]" defines a generative approach to art focused on the construction of a system able to generate unpredictable events, all with a recognizable common character. The use of [[autonomous robot|autonomous systems]], required by some contemporary definitions, focuses a generative approach where the controls are strongly reduced. This approach is also named "emergent". [[Margaret Boden]] and Ernest Edmonds have noted the use of the term "generative art" in the broad context of automated [[computer graphics]] in the 1960s, beginning with artwork exhibited by [[Georg Nees]] and [[Frieder Nake]] in 1965:<ref name="Boden">{{cite journal |author1=Boden, Margaret |author2=Edmonds, Ernest |author1-link=Margaret Boden |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233128802 |title=What is Generative Art? |journal=Digital Creativity |date=2009 |volume=20 |issue=1/2 |pages=21–46|doi=10.1080/14626260902867915 |s2cid=28266287 }}</ref> A. Michael Noll did his initial computer art, combining randomness with order, in 1962,<ref>"Patterns by 7090," Bell Telephone Laboratories Technical Memorandum, TM-62-1234-14, August 28, 1962, by A. Michael Noll.</ref> and exhibited it along with works by Bell Julesz in 1965.<ref>"The Howard Wise Gallery Show (1965): A 50th-Anniversary Memoir," LEONARDO, Vol. 49, No. 3 (June 2016), pp. 232-239.</ref>

 {{blockquote | The  terms  "generative art"  and  "computer  art"  have been  used  in  tandem,  and  more  or  less interchangeably, since the very earliest days.<ref name="Boden" />}}

The first such exhibition showed the work of Nees in February 1965, which some claim was titled "Generative Computergrafik".<ref name="Boden" /> While Nees does not himself remember, this was the title of his doctoral thesis published a few years later.<ref name=Nake12>{{cite web |last=Nake |first=Frieder |title=Georg Nees: Generative Computergrafik |url=http://dada.compart-bremen.de/node/3280 |publisher=University of Bremen |access-date=19 August 2012 |archive-date=15 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110315195552/http://dada.compart-bremen.de/node/3280 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The correct title of the first exhibition and catalog was "computer-grafik".<ref>Ness, Georg; Bense, Max: ''computer-grafik''; Edition Rot 19; Stuttgart, 1965.</ref> "Generative art" and related terms was in common use by several other early computer artists around this time, including [[Manfred Mohr]]<ref name="Boden" /> and [[Ken Knowlton]]. [[Vera Molnár]] (born 1924) is a French media artist of Hungarian origin. Molnar is widely considered to be a pioneer of generative art, and is also one of the first women to use computers in her art practice. 

The term "Generative Art" with the meaning of dynamic artwork-systems able to generate multiple artwork-events was clearly used the first time for the "Generative Art" conference in Milan in 1998. The term has also been used to describe geometric [[abstract art]] where simple elements are repeated, transformed, or varied to generate more complex forms. Thus defined, generative art was practiced by the Argentinian artists [[Eduardo Mac Entyre]] and Miguel Ángel Vidal in the late 1960s. In 1972 the Romanian-born [[Paul Neagu]] created the Generative Art Group in Britain. It was populated exclusively by Neagu using aliases such as "Hunsy Belmood" and "Edward Larsocchi". In 1972 Neagu gave a lecture titled 'Generative Art Forms' at the [[Queen's University, Belfast]] Festival.<ref>Osborne, Harold, ed. ''The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Art'', Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press</ref><ref>Walker, J. A. ''Glossary of art, architecture, and design since 1945 (3rd ed.)'', London; Boston: Library Association Publishing; G.K. Hall.</ref>

In 1970 the [[School of the Art Institute of Chicago]] created a department called  ''[[Generative Systems: Art, Science and Technology|Generative Systems]]''. As described by [[Sonia Landy Sheridan]] the focus was on art practices using the then new technologies for the capture, inter-machine transfer, printing and transmission of images, as well as the exploration of the aspect of time in the transformation of image information. Also noteworthy is [[John Dunn (software developer)|John Dunn]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Memories from Sonia Sheridan |url=http://geneticmusic.com/JohnDunn/SoniaSheridan.htm |publisher=Geneticmusic.com |access-date=17 June 2021}}</ref>  first a student and then a collaborator of Sheridan.<ref>Sheridan, Sonia Landy. ''Generative Systems versus Copy Art: A Clarification of Terms and Ideas'', Leonardo, 16(2), 1983.</ref>

In 1988 Clauser<ref>Clauser, H. R. ''Towards a Dynamic, Generative Computer Art'', Leonardo, 21(2), 1988.</ref> identified the aspect of systemic autonomy as a critical element in generative art:

 {{blockquote | It should be evident from the above description of the evolution of generative art that process (or structuring) and change (or transformation) are among its most definitive features, and that these features and the very term 'generative' imply dynamic development and motion.

(the result) is not a creation by the artist but rather the product of the generative process - a self-precipitating structure. }}

In 1989 Celestino Soddu defined the Generative Design approach to Architecture and Town Design in his book ''Citta' Aleatorie''.<ref>Soddu, C.  Citta' Aleatorie, Masson Publisher 1989 "[http://www.artscience-ebookshop.com/cittaaleatorie_book.htm]"</ref>

In 1989 Franke referred to "generative mathematics" as "the study of mathematical operations suitable for generating artistic images."<ref>Franke, H. W.''Mathematics As an Artistic-Generative Principle'', Leonardo, Supplemental Issue, 1989.</ref>

From the mid-1990s [[Brian Eno]] popularized the terms [[generative music]] and generative systems, making a connection with earlier [[experimental music]] by [[Terry Riley]], [[Steve Reich]] and [[Philip Glass]].<ref>Eno, B. ''[http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/eno1.html Generative Music]'', In Motion Magazine</ref>

From the end of the 20th century, communities of generative artists, designers, musicians and theoreticians began to meet, forming cross-disciplinary perspectives.
The first meeting about generative Art was in 1998, at the inaugural International Generative Art conference at Politecnico di Milano University, Italy.<ref>Soddu, C. and Colabella, E. ed.s "[http://www.artscience-ebookshop.com/ga98_book.htm Generative Art]", Dedalo</ref> 
In Australia, the Iterate conference on generative systems in the electronic arts followed in 1999.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~iterate/FI/index.html|title = First Iteration Home Page}}</ref>
On-line discussion has centered around the eu-gene mailing list,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://generative.net/mailman/listinfo/eu-gene |title=Eu-gene Info Page |access-date=2012-08-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120727083144/http://generative.net/mailman/listinfo/eu-gene |archive-date=2012-07-27 }}</ref> which began late 1999, and has hosted much of the debate which has defined the field.<ref name="Galanter2003">Philip Galanter [http://philipgalanter.com/downloads/ga2003_what_is_genart.pdf ''What is Generative Art? Complexity theory as a context for art theory''], 2003 International Conference on Generative Art</ref>{{rp|1}}  These activities have more recently been joined by the [https://web.archive.org/web/20170110174746/http://www.generatorx.no/generatorx-introduction/ Generator.x] conference in Berlin starting in 2005.
In 2012 the new journal GASATHJ, Generative Art Science and Technology Hard Journal was founded by Celestino Soddu and Enrica Colabella<ref>[http://www.gasathj.com GASATHJ]</ref> jointing several generative artists and scientists in the editorial board.

Some have argued that as a result of this engagement across disciplinary boundaries, the community has converged on a shared meaning of the term.  As Boden and Edmonds<ref name="Boden" /> put it in 2011:

{{blockquote | Today, the term "Generative Art" is still current within the relevant artistic community. Since 1998 a series of conferences have been held in Milan with that title (Generativeart.com), and Brian Eno has been influential in promoting and using generative art methods (Eno, 1996). Both in music and in visual art, the use of the term has now converged on work that has been produced by the activation of a set of rules and where the artist lets a computer system take over at least some of the decision-making (although, of course, the artist determines the rules).}}

In the call of the Generative Art conferences in Milan (annually starting from 1998), the definition of Generative Art by Celestino Soddu:

{{blockquote | Generative Art is the idea realized as genetic code of artificial events, as construction of dynamic complex systems able to generate endless variations. Each Generative Project is a concept-software that works producing unique and non-repeatable events, like music or 3D Objects, as possible and manifold expressions of the generating idea strongly recognizable as a vision belonging to an artist / designer / musician / architect /mathematician.<ref>[http://www.generativeart.com Generative Art]</ref>}}

Discussion on the eu-gene mailing list was framed by the following definition by [[Adrian Ward (artist)|Adrian Ward]] from 1999:

{{blockquote | Generative art is a term given to work which stems from concentrating on the processes involved in producing an artwork, usually (although not strictly) automated by the use of a machine or computer, or by using mathematic or pragmatic instructions to define the rules by which such artworks are executed.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20000901084825/http://www.generative.net/mailman/listinfo/eu-gene eu-gene mailing list welcome page]</ref>}}

A similar definition is provided by Philip Galanter:<ref name="Galanter2003" />
{{blockquote | Generative art refers to any art practice where the artist creates a process, such as a set of natural language rules, a computer program, a machine, or other procedural invention, which is then set into motion with some degree of autonomy contributing to or resulting in a completed work of art.}}

[[File:Astronaut Riding a Horse Picasso and Juan Gris (FLUX 1.1 Pro).webp|thumb|An image generated by [[Flux (text-to-image model)|Flux]] using the prompt <code>an astronaut riding a horse, by [[Picasso]] and [[Juan Gris]]</code>. Generative image models are adept at imitating the visual style of particular artists in their training set, prompting a backlash from some artists who object to having imitations of their style generated on a massive scale without their permission.]]
Around the 2020s, generative AI models learned to imitate the distinct style of particular authors. For example, a generative image model such as [[Stable Diffusion]] is able to model the stylistic characteristics of an artist like [[Pablo Picasso]] (including his particular brush strokes, use of colour, perspective, and so on), and a user can engineer a prompt such as "an astronaut riding a horse, by Picasso" to cause the model to generate a novel image applying the artist's style to an arbitrary subject. Generative image models have received significant backlash from artists who object to their style being imitated without their permission, arguing that this harms their ability to profit from their own work.<ref name=crs>{{cite web
|title=Generative Artificial Intelligence and Copyright Law
|date=24 February 2023
|last=Zirpoli|first=Christopher T.
|publisher=Congressional Research Service
|url=https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/LSB/LSB10922
}}</ref>

==Types==

===Music===
{{Main|Generative music}}
[[Johann Kirnberger]]'s ''[[Musikalisches Würfelspiel]]'' ("Musical Dice Game") of 1757 is considered an early example of a generative system based on randomness. Dice were used to select musical sequences from a numbered pool of previously composed phrases. This system provided a balance of order and disorder. The structure was based on an element of order on one hand, and disorder on the other.<ref name="Algorithmic">Nierhaus, Gerhard (2009). ''Algorithmic Composition: Paradigms of Automated Music Generation'', pp. 36 & 38n7. {{ISBN|9783211755396}}.</ref>

The [[fugues]] of [[J.S. Bach]] could be considered generative, in that there is a strict underlying process that is followed by the composer.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Smith|first1=Tim|title=Fugue 9: E Major. Well-Tempered Clavier, book 1. The Fugue is Generative|url=http://bach.nau.edu/clavier/nature/fugues/Fugue09.html|publisher=NAU.edu|access-date=28 November 2017|date=2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171123103414/http://bach.nau.edu/clavier/nature/fugues/Fugue09.html|archive-date=23 November 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> Similarly, [[serialism]] follows strict procedures which, in some cases, can be set up to generate entire compositions with limited human intervention.<ref>[[Fred Lerdahl|Lerdahl, Fred]]. 1988. "Cognitive Constraints on Compositional Systems". In ''Generative Processes in Music'', ed. John Sloboda. Oxford University Press. Reprinted in ''Contemporary Music Review'' 6, no. 2 (1992):97–121.</ref><ref>Lerdahl, Fred, and [[Ray Jackendoff]]. 1983. ''A Generative Theory of Tonal Music''. MIT Press.</ref>

Composers such as [[John Cage]],<ref name="Paul">[[Christiane Paul (curator)|Christiane Paul]] ''Digital Art'', Thames & Hudson.</ref>{{rp|13–15}} [[Farmers Manual]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/ga-2009-xii-generative-art-conference-politecnico-di-milano-university-italy |title=Generative Art Conference – Politecnico di Milano University, Italy |year=2009}}</ref> and [[Brian Eno]]<ref name="Paul"/>{{rp|133}} have used [[generative systems]] in their works.

===Visual art===
The artist [[Ellsworth Kelly]] created paintings by using chance operations to assign colors in a grid. He also created works on paper that he then cut into strips or squares and reassembled using chance operations to determine placement.<ref>Yve-Alain Bois, Jack Cowart, Alfred Pacquement ''Ellsworth Kelly: The Years in France, 1948-1954'', Washington DC, National Gallery of Art, Prestel, p. 23-26</ref>

[[File:Album de 10 sérigraphies sur 10 ans 09.jpg|thumb| Album de 10 sérigraphies sur 10 ans, by [[François Morellet]], 2009]]
Artists such as [[Hans Haacke]] have explored processes of physical and social systems in artistic context.
[[François Morellet]] has used both highly ordered and highly disordered systems in his artwork.  Some of his paintings feature regular systems of radial or parallel lines to create [[Moiré Patterns]]. In other works he has used chance operations to determine the coloration of grids.<ref>[http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue16/colourchart3.htm Tate Online Article] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120325054818/http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue16/colourchart3.htm |date=2012-03-25 }} about [[François Morellet]]</ref><ref>Grace Glueck "Francois Morellet, Austere Abtractionism", New York Times, Feb. 22, 1985</ref> [[Sol LeWitt]] created generative art in the form of systems expressed in [[natural language]] and systems of geometric [[permutation]]. [[Harold Cohen (artist)|Harold Cohen]]'s [[AARON]] system is a longstanding project combining software artificial intelligence with robotic painting devices to create physical artifacts.<ref>[http://www.kurzweilcyberart.com/aaron/hi_cohenbio.html Biography of Harold Cohen] [[Harold Cohen (artist)|Harold Cohen]]</ref> 
[[Steina and Woody Vasulka]] are video art pioneers who used analog video feedback to create generative art. Video feedback is now cited as an example of deterministic chaos, and the early explorations by the Vasulkas anticipated contemporary science by many years.
Software systems exploiting [[evolutionary computing]] to create visual form include those created by [[Scott Draves]] and [[Karl Sims]].
The digital artist [[Joseph Nechvatal]] has exploited models of viral contagion.<ref>Bruce Wands ''Art of the Digital Age'', London: Thames & Hudson, p. 65</ref> 
''[[Autopoiesis]]'' by [[Ken Rinaldo]] includes fifteen musical and [[robotic]] sculptures that interact with the public and modify their behaviors based on both the presence of the participants and each other.<ref name="Paul"/>{{rp|144–145}}
[[Jean-Pierre Hebert]] and [[Roman Verostko]] are founding members of the [[Algorists]], a group of artists who create their own algorithms to create art.
[[Michael Noll|A. Michael Noll]], of Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated, programmed computer art using mathematical equations and programmed randomness, starting in 1962.<ref>A. Michael Noll, "The Digital Computer as a Creative Medium," IEEE Spectrum, Vol. 4, No. 10, (October 1967), pp. 89-95; and "Computers and the Visual Arts," Design and Planning 2: Computers in Design and Communication (Edited by Martin Krampen and Peter Seitz), Hastings House, Publishers, Inc.: New York (1967), pp. 65-79.</ref>

[[File:Iapetus 1985.jpg|thumb|''Iapetus'', by [[Jean-Max Albert]], 1985]]
[[File:Calmoduline Monument.jpg|thumb|upright|''Calmoduline Monument'', by [[Jean-Max Albert]], 1991]]
The French artist [[Jean-Max Albert]], beside environmental sculptures like ''Iapetus'',<ref>Michel Ragon, Jean-Max Albert «Iapetus», L’art abstrait vol.5, Éditions Maeght, Paris, 1989</ref> and ''O=C=O'',<ref>Jean-Max Albert O=C=O, Franco Torriani, Dalla Land arte alla bioarte, Hopefulmonster editore Torino, 2007, p. 64-70</ref> developed a project dedicated to the vegetation itself, in terms of biological activity. The ''Calmoduline Monument'' project is based on the property of a protein, [[calmodulin]], to bond selectively to calcium. Exterior physical constraints (wind, rain, etc.) modify the electric potential of the cellular membranes of a plant and consequently the flux of calcium. However, the calcium controls the expression of the calmoduline gene.<ref>Intra-and Intercellular Communications in Plants, Millet & Greppin Editors, INRA, Paris, 1980, p.117.</ref> The plant can thus, when there is a stimulus, modify its "typical" growth pattern. So the basic principle of this monumental sculpture is that to the extent that they could be picked up and transported, these signals could be enlarged, translated into colors and shapes, and show the plant's "decisions" suggesting a level of fundamental biological activity.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=PAlPAAAAYAAJ ''Space in profile/ L'espace de profil,'']</ref>

[[Maurizio Bolognini]] works with generative machines to address conceptual and social concerns.<ref>Maurizio Bolognini, ''De l'interaction à la démocratie. Vers un art génératif post-digital''  ([http://www.bolognini.org/lectures/amx.htm From interactivity to democracy. Towards a post-digital generative art]), in {{citation|title= Ethique, esthétique, communication technologique dans l'art contemporain|year=2011|author=Actes du Colloque international Artmedia X|language=fr|publisher=L’Harmattan|location=Paris|isbn=9782296132306}}</ref>
[[Mark Napier (artist)|Mark Napier]] is a pioneer in data mapping, creating works based on the streams of zeros and ones in Ethernet traffic, as part of the "Carnivore" project. [[Martin M. Wattenberg|Martin Wattenberg]] pushed this theme further, transforming "data sets" as diverse as musical scores (in "Shape of Song", 2001) and Wikipedia edits ([[History Flow]], 2003, with [[Fernanda Viegas]]) into dramatic visual compositions.
The Canadian artist [[San Base]] developed a "Dynamic Painting" algorithm in 2002. Using computer algorithms as "brush strokes", Base creates sophisticated imagery that evolves over time to produce a fluid, never-repeating artwork.<ref>[http://www.sanbasestudio.com/about.htm San Base: About]</ref>

Since 1996 there have been [[ambigram#Ambigram generators|ambigram generators]] that auto generate [[ambigram]]s.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://jeux-et-mathematiques.davalan.org/liens/liens_ambi.html|title=Davalan Ambigram Generator|website=Davalan.org|access-date=1 April 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://makeambigrams.com/ambigram-generator/|title=The Make Ambigrams Ambigram Generator|website=MakeAmbigrams.com|access-date=1 April 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://trulyscience.com/ambigram-generator/|title=Truly Science Free Ambigram Generator|website=trulyscience|access-date=2 April 2020|archive-date=30 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220930030928/https://trulyscience.com/ambigram-generator/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Italian composer [[Pietro Grossi]], pioneer of [[computer music]] since 1986, he extended his experiments to images, (same procedure used in his musical work)  precisely to computer graphics, writing programs with specific auto-decisions, and developing the concept of ''HomeArt'', presented for the first time in the exhibition ''New Atlantis: the continent of electronic music'' organized by the [[Venice Biennale]] in 1986.

Some contemporary artists who create generative visual artworks are [[John Maeda]], [[Daniel Shiffman]], [[Zachary Lieberman]], [[Golan Levin]], [[Casey Reas]], [[Ben Fry]], and [[Giles Whitaker (artist)]].

===Software art===
{{Main|Software art|Fractal art|Parametric surface}}
For some artists, graphic user interfaces and computer code have become an independent art form in themselves. [[Adrian Ward (artist)|Adrian Ward]] created Auto-Illustrator as a commentary on software and generative methods applied to art and design.{{citation needed|date=July 2016}}

===Architecture===
{{See also|Grasshopper 3D}}
In 1987 [[Celestino Soddu]] created the artificial DNA of Italian Medieval towns able to generate endless [[3D computer graphics|3D]] models of cities identifiable as belonging to the idea.<ref>Celestino Soddu [http://www.soddu.it/progetti/med.htm Soddu: "Italian Medieval Town"]</ref>

In 2010, [[Michael Hansmeyer]] generated architectural columns in a project called "Subdivided Columns – A New Order (2010)". The piece explored how the simple process of repeated subdivision can create elaborate architectural patterns. Rather than designing any columns directly, Hansmeyer designed a process that produced columns automatically. The process could be run again and again with different parameters to create endless permutations. Endless permutations could be considered a hallmark of generative design.<ref>Michael Hansmeyer [https://aiartists.org/generative-art-design AIArtists: "Generative Art & Design Guide"]</ref>

===Literature===
{{further|Generative literature|The Eureka|Electronic literature|Spam Lit|Informationist poetry|Language game|Prehistoric Digital Poetry}}

Writers such as [[Tristan Tzara]], [[Brion Gysin]], and [[William Burroughs]] used the [[cut-up technique]] to introduce randomization to literature as a generative system. [[Jackson Mac Low]] produced computer-assisted poetry and used algorithms to generate texts; [[Philip M. Parker#Automatically generated books|Philip M. Parker]] has written software to automatically generate entire books. [[Jason Nelson]] used generative methods with speech-to-text software to create a series of digital poems from movies, television and other audio sources.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Flores |first1=Leonardo |title=The Battery Life of Meaning: Speech to Text Poetry |url=http://iloveepoetry.com/?p=324 |website=I love E-Poetry |date=29 June 2012 |access-date=9 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130704155151/http://iloveepoetry.com/?p=324 |archive-date=4 July 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In the late 2010s, authors began to experiment with [[Artificial neural network|neural networks]] trained on large language datasets. [[David Jhave Johnston]]'s ''[[ReRites]]'' is an early example of human-edited AI-generated poetry.

===Live coding===
{{Main|Live coding}}
Generative systems may be modified while they operate, for example by using interactive programming environments such as [[Csound]], [[SuperCollider]], [[Fluxus (programming environment)|Fluxus]] and [[TidalCycles]], including patching environments such as [[Max/MSP]], [[Pure Data]] and [[vvvv]]. This is a standard approach to programming by artists, but may also be used to create live music and/or video by manipulating generative systems on stage, a performance practice that has become known as [[live coding]]. As with many examples of [[software art]], because live coding emphasizes human authorship rather than autonomy, it may be considered in opposition to generative art.<ref name=McLean11>{{cite book |last=McLean |first=Alex |title=Artist-Programmers and Programming Languages for the Arts |year=2011 |publisher=Goldsmiths, University of London (PhD Thesis) |pages=16–17 |url=http://yaxu.org/writing/thesis.pdf |access-date=2012-08-21 |archive-date=2015-06-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150610193445/http://yaxu.org/writing/thesis.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Blockchain ===
[[File:Chromie Squiggle 7515.png|thumb|Chromie Squiggle #7515, from the first generative art collection of Art Blocks]]

In 2020, Erick "Snowfro" Calderon launched the Art Blocks platform<ref>{{Cite web |last=Escalante-De Mattei |first=Shanti |title=Meet Erick Calderon, Founder of Art Blocks |date=17 September 2021 |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/erick-calderon-art-blocks-1234604108/}}</ref> for combining the ideas of generative art and the [[blockchain]], with resulting artworks created as [[Non-fungible token|NFTs]] on the [[Ethereum]] blockchain. One of the key innovations with the generative art created in this way is that all the source code and algorithm for creating the art has to be finalized and put on the blockchain permanently, without any ability to alter it further. Only when the artwork is sold ("minted"), the artwork is generated; the result is random yet should reflect the overall aesthetic defined by the artist. Calderon argues that this process forces the artist to be very thoughtful of the algorithm behind the art:<blockquote>Until today, a [generative] artist would create an algorithm, press the spacebar 100 times, pick five of the best ones and print them in high quality. Then they would frame them, and put them in a gallery. ''Maybe.'' Because Art Blocks forces the artist to accept every single output of the algorithm as their signed piece, the artist has to go back and tweak the algorithm until it's perfect. They can't just cherry pick the good outputs. That elevates the level of algorithmic execution because the artist is creating something that they know they're proud of before they even know what's going to come out on the other side.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Escalante-De Mattei |first=Shanti |title=Algorithm-Generated NFTs Are Quickly Rising in Value. Can Art Blocks Up the Quality? |date=13 September 2021 |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/algorithm-generated-nfts-art-blocks-1234603548/}}</ref></blockquote>
==Theories==

===Philip Galanter===

In 2003, Philip Galanter published the most widely cited theory of generative art which describes generative art systems in the context of complexity theory.<ref name="Galanter2003" /> In particular the notion of [[Murray Gell-Mann]] and [[Seth Lloyd]]'s [[effective complexity]] is cited. In this view both highly ordered and highly disordered generative art can be viewed as simple. Highly ordered generative art minimizes [[entropy]] and allows maximal [[data compression]], and highly disordered generative art maximizes entropy and disallows significant data compression. Maximally complex generative art blends order and disorder in a manner similar to biological life, and indeed biologically inspired methods are most frequently used to create complex generative art. This view is at odds with the earlier [[information theory]] influenced views of [[Max Bense]]<ref>[[Max Bense|Bense, Max]] ''Aesthetica; Einfuehrung in die neue Aesthetik'', Agis-Verlag</ref> and [[Abraham Moles]]<ref>[[Abraham Moles|Moles, Abraham]]. ''Information theory and esthetic perception'', University of Illinois Press</ref> where complexity in art increases with disorder.

Galanter notes further that given the use of visual symmetry, pattern, and repetition by the most ancient known cultures generative art is as old as art itself. He also addresses the mistaken equivalence by some that rule-based art is synonymous with generative art. For example, some art is based on constraint rules that disallow the use of certain colors or shapes. Such art is not generative because constraint rules are not constructive, i.e. by themselves they do not assert what is to be done, only what cannot be done.<ref>Galanter, Philip. [http://philipgalanter.com/downloads/vague_terrain_2006.pdf ''Generative art and rules-based art.''], Vague Terrain (2006)</ref>

===Margaret Boden and Ernest Edmonds===

In their 2009 article, [[Margaret Boden]] and Ernest Edmonds agree that generative art need not be restricted to that done using computers, and that some rule-based art is not generative. They develop a technical vocabulary that includes Ele-art (electronic art), C-art ([[computer art]]), D-art (digital art), CA-art (computer assisted art), G-art (generative art), CG-art (computer based generative art), Evo-art (evolutionary based art), R-art (robotic art), I-art ([[interactive art]]), CI-art (computer based interactive art), and VR-art (virtual reality art).<ref name="Boden" />
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In both accounts the term generative art does not describe an [[art movement]], [[ideology]], or theory of [[aesthetics]]. The term refers to how the art is made, and does not take into account why it was made or what the content of the artwork is.--><!--this is WP:OR, an editor's opinion-->

=== Questions ===

The discourse around generative art can be characterized by the theoretical questions which motivate its development. McCormack et al. propose the following questions, shown with paraphrased summaries, as the most important:<ref name=McC>{{cite journal |last=McCormack |first=Jon |author2=Oliver Bown |author3=Alan Dorin |author4=Jonathan McCabe |author5=Gordon Monro |author6=Mitchell Whitelaw |title=Ten Questions Concerning Generative Computer Art |journal=Leonardo |url=http://diotima.infotech.monash.edu.au/~jonmc/sa/news/ten-questions-concerning-generative-computer-art/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121129225520/http://diotima.infotech.monash.edu.au/~jonmc/sa/news/ten-questions-concerning-generative-computer-art/ |archive-date=2012-11-29 |date=2012 }}</ref>

# Can a machine originate anything?  ''Related to [[machine intelligence]] - can a machine generate something new, meaningful, surprising and of value: a poem, an artwork, a useful idea, a solution to a long-standing problem?''<ref name=McC/>
# What is it like to be a computer that makes art?  ''If a computer could originate art, what would it be like from the computer's perspective?''<ref name=McC/>
# Can human aesthetics be formalized?<ref name=McC/>
# What new kinds of art does the computer enable?  ''Many generative artworks do not involve digital computers, but what does generative computer art bring that is new?''<ref name=McC/>
# In what sense is generative art representational, and what is it representing?<ref name=McC/>
# What is the role of randomness in generative art? ''For example, what does the use of randomness say about the place of intentionality in the making of art?''<ref name=McC/>
# What can computational generative art tell us about creativity? ''How could generative art give rise to artifacts and ideas that are new, surprising and valuable?''<ref name=McC/>
# What characterizes good generative art? ''How can we form a more critical understanding of generative art?''<ref name=McC/>
# What can we learn about art from generative art? ''For example, can the art world be considered a complex generative system involving many processes outside the direct control of artists, who are agents of production within a stratified global art market?''<ref name=McC/>
# What future developments would force us to rethink our answers?<ref name=McC/>

Another question is of postmodernism—are generative art systems the ultimate expression of the postmodern condition, or do they point to a new synthesis based on a complexity-inspired world-view?<ref>Galanter, Philip. [http://philipgalanter.com/downloads/complexism_chapter.pdf ''Complexism and the role of evolutionary art''] in "The art of artificial evolution : a handbook on evolutionary art and music", Springer</ref>

==See also==
* [[Artificial intelligence art]]
* [[Artmedia]]
* [[Conway's Game of Life]]
* [[Digital morphogenesis]]
* [[Evolutionary art]]
* [[Generative artificial intelligence]]
* [[New media art]]
* [[Non-fungible token]]
* [[Post-conceptualism]]
* [[Systems art]]
* [[Virtual art]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

== Further reading ==
* Matt Pearson, ''[http://zenbullets.com/book.php Generative art : a practical guide] (Manning 2011).
* Wands, Bruce (2006). ''Art of the Digital Age'', London: Thames & Hudson. {{ISBN|0-500-23817-0}}.
* [[Oliver Grau]] (2003). [http://leonardo.info/isast/leobooks/books/grau.html ''Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion''] (MIT Press/Leonardo Book Series). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. {{ISBN|0-262-07241-6}}.
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20100720202319/http://fora.tv/2006/06/26/Will_Wright_and_Brian_Eno Playing with Time]}} A conversation between Will Wright and Brian Eno on generative creation.
* [http://video.pbs.org/video/2170070010 Off Book: Generative Art - Computers, Data, and Humanity]  Documentary produced by [[Off Book (web series)]]
* [http://iasl.uni-muenchen.de/links/GCA_Indexe.html Thomas Dreher: History of Computer Art], chap.III.2, IV.3, VIII.1
*[http://www.verostko.com/epigenet.html]"Epigenetic Painting:Software as Genotype", Roman Verostko(International Symposium on Electronic Art, Utrecht, 1988); Leonardo, 23:1,1990, pp.&nbsp;17–23

{{Digital art}}
{{Western art movements}}

[[Category:Computer-related introductions in 1962]]
[[Category:20th-century art movements]]
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[[Category:Conceptual art]]
[[Category:Generative artificial intelligence]]
[[Category:Algorithmic art]]
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