Interface gallery makes tailored exhibitions about computer art from the 60s until present.
In 2023 Martijn Dijkstra was special guest-curator of the exhibition 50 years of computer art at the CODA museum, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands.
All photo’s by Peter Tijhuis
Exhibition text
Ones and zeros
Digital art has its origins in mathematics and computer science. Pioneers such as Manfred Mohr and Vera Molnár have been applying the latest scientific techniques to realize their work since the 1960s. The algorithms of ones and zeros that they enter into a computer result in geometrically abstract drawings that are executed by a pen: the plotter drawing. This technique also creates a new, sleek formal language that can be regarded as a counterpart to the psychedelic art of the late sixties. When the computer entered the living room in the 1980s and software for personal computers was developed, developments in the field of digital art also accelerated. Programming with codes and algorithms is becoming increasingly important. Many artists are inspired by these developments and the ability to program yourself results in various forms of expression. With the rise of the internet in the 1990s, developments took off and Dutch artists such as Rafaël Rozendaal, Constant Dullaart, Harm van den Dorpel, Jan Robert Leegte and artist duo JODI (Dirk Paesmans and Joan Heemskerk) led the way.
Artists then and now
The Korean-American artist Nam June Paik (1932-2006) investigates the techniques of the future before the digital age takes shape and content. Behind the screens his work shows Internet Dweller, a special loan from Museum Boijmans van Beuningen and the Cultural Heritage Agency. This ‘Internet Dweller’ is a fictional creature that inhabits the internet and is made up of technology. With this work, Paik looks back on important inventions in the electronic media from the 1950s. Visual artist Peter Struycken (1939) used a computer for the first time in 1969 to create his own work of art. The computer becomes essential in his research into colors and structures and later he develops software with which he investigates the shifts in a color spectrum. Struycken is considered one of the pioneers of digital visual arts in the Netherlands. Behind the screens shows one of his digitally designed wall hangings with color pixels. Three geometric abstract works on paper by the American artist Sol LeWitt (1928-2007) are included in the exhibition. As a precursor to computer art, LeWitt created well-defined instructions in the 1960s, as if his work could be carried out by a machine. For example, well before the digital age, LeWitt developed rules with which others could execute his murals, just as computers realize the execution today.
Pioneers such as Paik, Struycken and LeWitt have inspired many digital artists in later years. In Behind the screens, work from then and now is organized around themes such as algorithms, digital painting and form and color analyses. For example, the work of Peter Struycken is flanked by the colorful digital paintings by the American artist Tabor Robak (1986) and an oil painting by Dennis Rudolph (1979) that comes to life via your phone screen and through augmented reality. Harm van den Dorpel (1981) developed software that ensures that colors and shapes reproduce over and over again, as it were, until the ideal work of art is created. A number of works reflect on the human condition and ask questions such as ‘How does the computer and the Internet influence our self-image?’ Ozgür Kar (1992) created a human figure who is – literally – trapped within the frames of a television screen. The power of online platforms such as Facebook and Instagram is also a recurring theme, for example in the golden SIM cards of Constant Dullaart (1979). He created thousands of fake accounts. With this ‘virtual army’ Dullaart turns against the power of the marketers of large institutions.