[Weekly Retro] Computer Art
#264 - Aug.2025
Hi there!
Here's a quick idea for the weekend:
I encourage you to read this article: The creator and the machine (kudos to Caio Barrocal for putting this together!)
Caio walks us through a technology journey of art and computational design, leaving us with profound questions like:
- In a world where computers can create, what is creativity?
- How we should envision our creative processes?
- Who is the author of an artifact produced by machines?
Through his article I (re)discovered pioneers of digital art like Waldemar Cordeiro in Brazil and Hiroshi Kawano in Japan. About Waldemar, the author points:
More interestingly, Cordeiro considered the rationalization of the creative process and the employment of computers a way to reflect on our human creativity, which illustrates the mindset of the creators of his time who were excited about this new type of partnership: “In case the artistic issues can be treated by machines or by teams including a ‘partner’ — computer — we will learn more about how man handles artistic issues.”
It was interesting to see computational art from a historical perspective, and acknowledge the steps we (as humanity) have taken since the early steps back in 1950. These ideas couldn't be more important in a moment where we - once again, as history shows - are reflecting on our creative force.
Such a rich content to invest time during the weekend!
👨🏻💻 Interesting links
Benj Edwards
Ethan Mollick
🖋️ Quote of the week
“Infrastructures exist to serve a purpose. By themselves, they do not create value—they distribute or store it.” – Clayton Christensen
