Media Arts and Technology

Algorithmic art is created through explicit rules, procedures, or algorithms, blending mathematics, computer science, and creative expression. In this practice, the artist’s role shifts from composition to designing the algorithm and its parameters. Within this context, two major mid-century digital...

For this week’s discussion, I’d like to focus on artificial intelligence in art and its broader impact on society, rather than highlighting examples of AI-generated works. There’s a lot of legitimate controversy surrounding the use of machine learning in the arts. Many popular models are trained on ...

I’ve always been captivated by how architecture intersects emerging media and digital fabrication. Together, they offer new ways to make our surroundings dynamic and expressive. For as long as civilization has existed, we’ve created landmarks that define us, like the Great Pyramids, the Colosseum, c...

Generative art uses systems, such as algorithms, to make decisions based on a set of rules in order to produce artworks. Instead of directly creating images, the artist designs the system that generates them. What makes generative art compelling is that each artwork can be unique due to randomness, ...

Generative art is defined as any art that uses systems, such as software, natural language rules, machines, or other procedural inventions, which are used with some autonomy in order to create works of art (Galanter). These artworks balance the compressibility of order—such as symmetry and tiling—an...

Big Data, which entered public discourse in the early 2000s, “represents the ever-growing accumulation of diverse sets of information in digital form” (Legrady). Artists have embraced these vast datasets as raw material for creative exploration, visualizing information in innovative ways that commen...

The Human Genome Project The Human Genome Project is one of the greatest scientific feats in history. Taking place from October 1990 until April 2003, it generated the first sequence of the human genome. This accelerated humanity's understanding of human biology while also establishing new norms fo...

One of the most significant and contemporary qualities of computer-based art is its capacity to directly involve the viewer, granting them an active role in shaping the narrative. Three works that exemplify this idea are Lorna by Lynn Hershman Leeson, As Yet Untitled by Max Dean, and Videoplace by M...

Harold Cohen was a British-born artist who moved to San Diego in 1968 and later became a professor at UC San Diego. It was there that he developed his famous computer software, AARON - “a computer program designed to produce paintings and drawings autonomously, which sets it apart from previous prog...