The author describes three schemes for using digital computers for artistic purpose. He is sceptical of the attempts to produce computer art with commercially available display equipment and through ...play with randomness and by the deliberate introduction of errors in programs prepared for nonartistic ends. He favors the approach in which art objects are controlled by a computer with feedback from a viewer to the object or to the computer or both. He describes his kinetic object with flashing white lights in which the sequence of patterns is controlled by a special purpose computer for generating fields of abstract algebra or Galois fields. The second object he describes is more complex in that the frontal panel of flashing lights is made as a relief; colored light is used; the sequence of Galois field patterns can be changed in rhythm; and sound combinations corresponding to the patterns can be produced by the object. The mathematics of Galois fields generated by polynomial equations that was used for determining the sequence of patterns in the objects is described. One of the most interesting aspects of this work is the demonstration of the different visual appearance of the patterns resulting from the polynomials that had not been noted before by mathematicians who have studied Galois fields.
The cybernetic art team >bcd< believes that the cybernetic art environment, initially involved with pattern recognition and artificial intelligence research in art and science, can make an important ...contribution to intersubjective communication and to the sharing of insight between people. The cybernetic sculpture "Instantaneous," which was presented for the first time during the Rome colloquium, illustrates the existence of instantaneous communication on a truly parallel architecture based on 16 Compaq Deskpro 386 computers. It also signifies a true parallel processing mode (as experienced in extrasensory perception) in which 'time sequence', 'before' or 'after' hardly have meaning. The cybernetic sculpture Instantaneous is seen as a contribution to a new communication medium between artists working interactively within the same system. This is a step towards intersubjective communication, through the process of reflection between artists and a transcendental Galois field.
