Generative Art / Software Art

First, a long, rambling disclaimer. I am fond of neologism, perfuriously* so, some have said, but I do think there is a use for the study of emergent art historical categories. Taxonomy can be a very useful way to look at art. While many artists try to avoid categorisation, and the terms take years to settle into the historical cannon, the study of 'test' categories, that may still desappear give a useful insight into the process of historicisation and institutional acceptance of novel artforms.

Technology-centric taxonomy can be very limiting. The genres emerge as 'avant-garde' art ghettoes and are slowly assumed (or subsumed, depending on your politics) into the canon of acccepted gallery discourse (a good example of a successful one is 'Video Art') or sometimes, they disappear altogether (see Holographic Art). However, terms such as 'net art' and 'software art' have gained currency in the gallery/institutional art scene, admittedly still in a ghetto, where they will remain until it is clear whether they be accepted. In the meantime, artworks that falls into these temporary taxonomies are often worth a look for that reason alone. However, I have tried to be discriminating in my choices.

Now, at last, an introduction to Generative Art and Software Art,

These two emergent genres refer to emergent artistic practices that set up rules that perform the artwork. Like Fluxus and Conceptualist / Minimalist instruction-based art, they problematise authorship by removing the physical index of the artist in the production of the artwork. The development of 'Generative Art' as a category contextualises pattern-based or rule-based artwork in a tradition that is as old as ornament itself, and stretches it into what has been called 'information culture' where artists employ the processes and alogrithms of software to do their aesthetic neo-carpet weaving for them. 'Software art' is a more temporally specific term for art that is made from, uses, or interrogates software as a cultural form and context.

This list is a very subjective survey of some of my favorite bits of Software/Generative art (ie. they fulfil both categories) with an obvious bias for the people I work with, which is probably the best way to do this anyway.

* see

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Who am I?: Saul Albert is the under secretary of the University of Openess (uo.twenteenthcentury.com) and the inventor of the dicshunary (www.dicshunary.com). He writes, but you already know that, oh, and the AHRB pay his rent and phone bills for this year (thanks!).
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the list

title: dorkbot
author: dorkbot
date produced:ongoing
url: www.dorkbot.org
about: 'People doing strange things with electricity'. An international monthly meeting of software artists, engineers and oddballs. (see www.dorkbot.org/dorkbotlondon for a london iteration).

title: vivaria.net
author: many
date produced: 2002
url: http://vivaria.net
about: Software that aspires to (and sometimes, maybe is) alive.

title: runme.org
author: runme.org
date produced: 2003 on
url: http://runme.org
about: A software art repository for the 'readme 3.2 festival of software art in March 2003, and beyond.

title: walser.php
author: textz.com / Project Gnutenburg
date produced: 2002
url: http://textz.com/trash/walser.php.txt
about: An incisive and critical route around copyright laws and bigotry.

title: Axia.demon.co.uk
author: Matt Fuller
date produced: ongoing
url: http://axia.demon.co.uk
about:- some very tasty writing on/of software / art.

title: Florian Cramer's homepage
author: Florian Cramer
date produced: ongoing
url: http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~cantsin/homepage
about:- - more delectable sw art writings

title: Portrait of Netotchka Nezavanova
author:Ade Ward
date produced: every time it's run.
url: http://www.stub.org/ex/nn
about:- An abomination of a screen saver that might throw up some interesting truths about yoru computer, and what's on it.

title: http://www.generative.net
author: collaborative (hosted by Mclean/Ward)
date produced: [or time/date if it's an upcoming live event]
url: http://www.generative.net
about:- Generative Art portal/list - the place to go and talk / think / learn about generative art.

title: ordure.org
author:Ward/Brisley/&c;
date produced: 2002
url:http://www.ordure.org/
about:- Information, art, trash, and how to tell them apart.

title: forkbomb.pl
author: Alex McLean
date produced: 2002
url: http://www.slab.org/forkbomb.pl -
about:- Will crash your computer and show you the output of it's demise.

title: http://plagiarist.org/
author: Amy Alexander
date produced: ongoing
url: http://plagiarist.org
about:- recontextualising script kiddyism as net art since....

title: wrong%20browser
author: Jodi
date produced: 2001
url: http://www.wrongbrowser.com/
about:- A selection of three art browsers, each with it's own distinctive neuroses and quirks, but they're all the wrong browser.

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