Georg Nees

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Georg Nees (1986, photography by Alex Kempkens )

Georg Nees (born June 23, 1926 in Nuremberg ; † January 3, 2016 in Baiersdorf ) was a German graphic designer and computer scientist. He was a pioneer of computer art and generative graphics . Nees studied mathematics , physics and philosophy in Erlangen and Stuttgart . He was on the scientific advisory board of SEMIOSIS , the international journal for semiotics and aesthetics. In 1977 he became honorary professor for applied computer science at the University of Erlangen . Nees was one of the 3N computer pioneers - this abbreviation has become established for Frieder Nake , Georg Nees and A. Michael Noll, whose graphics were created with "digital mainframes" .

Life

Georg Nees was born in Nuremberg in 1926 and spent his childhood there. Even then, his thirst for research and interest in art was evident. Looking at art postcards and looking through a microscope was one of his favorite occupations. He attended the advanced school in Schwabach near Nuremberg. There he graduated from high school in 1945 . From 1945 to 1951 he studied mathematics and physics at the University of Erlangen. From 1951 to 1985 he worked as an industrial mathematician at the Schuckertwerk in Erlangen. He began to write his first programs there in 1959. The Schuckertwerk was later incorporated into Siemens AG .

Education

In parallel to his work in Erlangen, he studied philosophy with Max Bense at the Technical University of Stuttgart from 1964 (from 1967: University of Stuttgart). In 1968 he was promoted to Dr. phil. doctorate , with a dissertation on the topic of generative computer graphics , which at that time was the world's first doctoral thesis on this topic. It was published in 1969 by Siemens AG as a book with the title " Generative Computer Graphics " and also contained examples of the program codes and the graphics generated with them. After retiring in 1985, Nees worked as a writer and computer artist .

Computer art

Nees was the first in the world to show graphics created with a digital computer as works of art in a gallery. The exhibition with the title "computer graphics" took place in February 1965 in the rooms of the study gallery of the TH Stuttgart . In 1966 he began working on "computer sculptures". In the catalog for the 1969 Nuremberg Biennale , Nees described how the computer program controls the milling machine in such a way that a sculpture is created instead of a workpiece . Three painted wooden sculptures and several graphics were exhibited at the 1969 Nuremberg Biennale . At the 35th Venice Biennale in 1970, the special show “Research and Design. Suggestions for an experimental exposition ”also showed his sculptures and graphics.

Automatic drawing device ZUSE Z64

In 1963 Nees played a major role in the purchase of a program-controlled drawing table, the Zuse Graphomat Z64 , for the data center of Siemens-Schuckertwerke in Erlangen. Concerning the exhibition Georg Nees - The Great Temptation 2006 in the Center for Art and Media Technology , he said about the purchase of the Z64 drawing table: There it was, the great temptation for me not to depict anything technical with this machine, but rather 'useless' - geometric patterns . Nees wrote his programs in the ALGOL computer language . To control the Graphomat Z64 and the use of random numbers , he wrote the new graphics libraries G1, G2 and G3. Nees experimented with arcs and random numbers in 1965 . The graphic tangled arcs , also known as curls , was created. Frieder Nake wrote how the graphic came about: … The picture actually consists of a continuous path of circular arcs. ... the picture turned out the way it is, due to a bad programming error ... It was planned to be of low complexity and had to be canceled by manual intervention from outside because of that error.

Nees worked with the Siemens data processing system in 2002 to create his aesthetic graphics, such as the graphic "Schotter" (1968). This graphic is well known and can also be seen on the website of the Victoria and Albert Museum , London. When writing the program, Nees inserted random numbers that, from a designated point, produced the resulting chaos. As a result, the graphic developed from order to disorder or vice versa, if you rotate the graphic 180 degrees. Robert J. Krawczyk from the Illinois Institute of Technology commented on this graphic: What attracted me to this piece was the simplicity of the concept and the overall interpretation of transforming order into disorder. ... What intrigues me with this “ancient” piece was the use of exact mathematical computations to model a chaotic image and the progression from the ordered to the disordered. (Translation: What drew me to this piece was the simplicity of the concept and the overall interpretation of the transformation from order to disorder. ... What interested me and fascinated me about this "old" part was the use of exact mathematical calculations to make a chaotic one To model the image as well as the progression from ordered to disordered. )

Computer design for architecture

Nees' first computer graphics in the field of architecture was the "Flur" (corridor) motif, which he created in 1968. In 1968 he started working with the architect Ludwig Rase for the Siemens pavilion at the Hanover Fair in 1970. The drawings of the half-timbered roof were first calculated with the Siemens System 2002 and then drawn with the Graphomat Z64. For the Hanover Fair in 1970 they were re-created with the Siemens System 4004 . One of the drawings was printed as a poster for the Hanover Fair and for the 35th Venice Biennale in 1970. Further computer drawings (graphics) for the Siemens AG exhibition pavilions followed, for example for the "German Industrial Exhibition" in São Paulo in 1971.

Ludwig Rase experimented on the basis of the cuboctahedron with regard to the construction of residential complexes and urban planning. Nees worked on this project and created the computer-aided construction plans. The graphic “cuboctahedron” that was created was used as the cover picture and poster for the exhibition computer art. nees rase used in the Hamburger Kunsthalle 1972/73.

From 1985

When Nees retired in 1985 and no longer worked for Siemens AG, he resumed his research and experiments on generative graphics. He now devoted his time to semiotics and computer aesthetics for media and design . He published the results from 1995 in several books and articles.

In 1985, Nees was asked by Alex Kempkens if he would like to take part in the exhibition "Bilder Images Digital", which was planned for October 1986 in the Galerie der Künstler in Munich. He agreed and created a new series of computer graphics. These graphics occupy a special position in Nees' oeuvre , as he gave simple, philosophical and mythical commands to create the AI machine . The computer produces different graphics based on the questions. He wrote the programs in Lisp ; a Siemens 7000 system calculated the graphics. Nees writes about this in the exhibition catalog:

“I see my own computer graphics from the spring of 1986 as studies of ambient conditions, as they could perhaps be synthesized by a future reactive automaton. An indispensable part of the task when designing such a machine is to come up with sample dialogues that one would like to conduct with the finished instrument.

The following dialogue fragment is conceivable: "Show me a sphere!" The machine reacts by creating the image "Sphere north-west Nadir". The dialogue continues: »Add the context of myth. Visualize the contrast between law and chance! «. The reaction consists of showing the picture »Apollo and Dionysus«. "

The art critic Eva Karcher wrote in her interpretation of his graphics:

“The machine as a» creativity donor «? A concept that one can only reluctantly lean towards, since it calls into question all previously binding definitions about the inviolability of creative faculties. And yet: If you look at the pattern-rich spatial structures with their floating ellipsoids, their crystalloid spheres and bizarre bodies on the graphics by Nees, one cannot help but certify that they have an atmospheric and inspirational charisma. "

plant

  • "Apollo and Dionysus"

Books

  • computer graphics. edition rot 19, Max Bense and Elisabeth Walther, Stuttgart 1965.
  • Generative computer graphics. Siemens AG, Berlin, Munich 1969.
  • Formula, color, shape: computer aesthetics for media and design. Springer Science + Business Media , Berlin 1995.
  • Boundary sign. Images and thoughts on a constraint-oriented aesthetic. German Science Publishing House , Baden-Baden 2010.
  • The hit ontology. A philosophical science fiction. German Science Publishing House, Baden-Baden 2014.
  • Design - human work. Views of a multifaceted phenomenon. LIT-Verlag, Berlin 2014.

Texts

  • Statistical graph. In: Basic Studies in Cybernetics and Humanities. Volume 5, No. 3/4, December 1964, pp. 67-78.
  • with Max Bense: computer graphics. In: rot 19th edition rot, Stuttgart 1965.
  • Generative computer graphics. Munich 1969.
  • Variations of Figures in the Graphics. In: Basic Studies in Cybernetics and Humanities. Volume 5, No. 3/4, December 1964, pp. 121-125. GN, Generative Computergraphik, Berlin, 1969.
  • Design and program. In: Gesamttextil 1971. pp. 38-41.
  • The orchid perceives. In: F. Rottensteiner (Ed.): Polaris 6. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-518-37342-0 , pp. 169-205.
  • Artificial Art and Artificial Intelligence. In: Bilder Images Digital. Barke Verlag, Munich 1986, pp. 58-67.
  • Regency Graphics and the Esthetics Laboratory: Picture Generation by Point-Distinction and Pseudodistance Minimizing. In: LEONARDO. Volume 23, No. 4, 1990, pp. 335-361.
  • What is morphography? In: SEMIOSIS. Volume 63/64, Issue 3/4, 1991, pp. 9-31.
  • Metamorphoses - An exercise in morphography. In: SEMIOSIS. Volumes 65/66 and 67/68, special edition SEMIOSIS 65–68, issues 1–4, 1992: Festschrift for Elisabeth Walter-Bense, pp. 258–268.
  • The chaos - the computer - the form. In: Bernhard Holeczek, Lida von Mengden (Ed.): Chance as a principle: game world, method and system in 20th century art. Ed. Braus, Heidelberg 1992, ISBN 3-89466-003-1 , pp. 113-117.
  • The aleatoric, the predictable and the program. In: F. Nake (Ed.): The tolerable lightness of signs: aesthetics, semiotics, computer science. agis, Baden-Baden 1993, pp. 139-164.
  • Fractals - birth of a family of signs. In: Interaction . No. 65, Feb. 1994, pp. 11-16.
  • What does a world mean in which simulated reality is becoming more and more real? In: Science and Art, Art and Science - Attempts at Encounter. Universität Leipzig, Kustodie, 1994, pp. 42–46.
  • Computable Beauty. In: K. Brunnstein, E. Raubold (Eds.): IFIP Transactions: APPLICATIONS AND IMPACTS, Information Processing '94. Volume 2, Amsterdam 1994, pp. 398-405.
  • Geometry and the Cognitive Principle in Semiotics and Esthetics. In: Semiosis. Volume 77/78, Issue 1/2, 1995.
  • Growth, Structural Coupling and Competition in Kinetic Art. In: Leonardo. Volume 33, No. 1, February 2000, pp. 41-47.

Exhibitions

  • In 1972 the Städtisches Museum Abteiberg , Mönchengladbach, received works from the beginnings of computer graphics from the Hans Joachim Etzold collection. The influential painter of German Informel, Karl Otto Götz , advised Etzold to collect computer graphics. Graphics and a sculpture by Nees are part of the collection.
  • 1973: Random program system
  • 1987: Etzold Collection, beginnings of computer graphics
  • 2006: The beginnings of computer graphics - from the Etzold collection

Solo exhibition

  • 1965: computer graphics , study gallery at the Technical University of Stuttgart.

Group exhibitions

  • 1965 (together with Frieder Nake): Computerkunst , Galerie Wendelin Niedlich , Stuttgart
  • 1968: Cybernetic Serendipity , London
  • 1968/69: Computer and visual research , Nuove Tendenze 4, Zagreb
  • 1969: On the Eve of Tomorrow , Kubus Hannover, Munich, Hamburg
  • 1969: Constructive Art: Elements + Principles , Nuremberg Biennale
  • 1970: On the way to computer art , Kiel, Davos, Offenbach
  • 1970 (together with Ludwig Rase): Ricerca e Progettazione. 35th Venice Biennale
  • 1971: I don't know what beauty is. Artist - Theory - Work , Nuremberg Biennale
  • 1971 (together with Ludwig Rase): Computer drawer spacestructure , Arteonica, São Paulo
  • 1971: The Arte de Sistemas exhibition , CAYC, Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires
  • 1972: Border areas of the fine arts , State Gallery Stuttgart
  • 1972–1974: Paths to Computer Art , traveling exhibition, Goethe Institute
  • 1973: computer art. nees rase , Hamburger Kunsthalle , Hamburg
  • 1973: Vert l'art de l'ordinateur , Center d'Information SIGMA, Bordeaux, Goethe-Institut
  • 1982: L'art systématique , Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal, QC
  • 1986: Bilder Images Digital , Galerie der Künstler, Munich
  • 1989: 25 years of computer art , BMW Pavilion, Munich
  • 1992: The principle of chance , Wilhelm Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen
  • 2005: Artificial Art. The beginnings , Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen
  • 2006: The great temptation. Early generative computer graphics , ZKM, Karlsruhe
  • 2006: 20th Century Computer Art: Beginnings and Developments , Tama Art University Museum, Tokyo
  • 2006: The New Tendencies - Museum for Concrete Art , Ingolstadt
  • 2006: The dream of the drawing machine , Kunstverein Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg
  • 2007: Ex Machina - early computer graphics until 1979 , Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen
  • 2007: The New Tendencies , Leopold Hoesch Museum, Düren
  • 2008: Exactly + Different - Mathematics in Art from Dürer to Sol LeWitt ; MUMOK, Vienna
  • 2008: bit international. [Nove] tendencije , computer and visual research, Zagreb
  • 2008: Genesis - The Art of Creation , Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern
  • 2009: Digital Pioneers , Victoria & Albert Museum - V&A, London
  • 2014: Histories of the Post-Digital: 1960s and 1970s Media Art Snapshots - Akbank Art Center, Istanbul

Collections

reception

Modern generative design

Georg Nees is a pioneer of computer art and one of the grandfathers of the computer-aided design process. The Zuse Graphomat Z64 , bought in 1963, was intended for drawing technical plans that were required for the manufacture of workpieces and products. As he said, he was also thinking of realizing his ideas - creating experimental and generative graphic design . The reason for writing the book "formula - color - form" was for him to convey "computer aesthetics for media and design" to designers based on generative design of the next generation.

The current generation of designers use generative designer as a job title and operate under the terms generative design , data driven art or computational design . This is what you can read in many magazines and new books. The topic can be found particularly often in Page magazine . Nees is one of the ancestors of today's generative design in the new media - based on his thesis and his book Generative Computergraphik from 1969.

literature

  • Max Bense: Projects of Generative Aesthetics. In: rot 19th edition rot, Stuttgart 1965.
  • Jasia Reichardt (Ed.): Cybernetic Serendipity: the Computers and the Arts. London 1968.
  • Herbert W. Franke: Computer graphics, computer art. Bruckmann, 1971, ISBN 3-7654-1412-3 .
  • Frieder Nake: Aesthetics as information processing: Basics and applications of computer science in the field of aesthetic production and criticism. Springer, Berlin 1974, ISBN 3-211-81216-4 .
  • Linda Candy: Explorations in Art and Technology. Springer, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-1-4471-1103-0 .
  • Christoph Klütsch: Computer graphics: aesthetic experiments between two cultures. The beginnings of computer art in the 1960s. Springer, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-211-39409-0 .
  • Hans Esselborn: Order and Contingency: The Cybernetic Model in the Arts. Königshausen & Neumann, 2008, ISBN 978-3-8260-3780-1 .
  • Honor Beddard, Douglas Dodds: Digital Pioneers. Victoria & Albert Museum, London 2009, ISBN 978-1-85177-587-3 .
  • Andrea Gleiniger and Georg Vrachliotis: Code. Between operation and narration. Birkhäuser Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-0346-0117-7 .
  • Grant D. Taylor: When the Machine Made Art: The Troubled History of Computer Art. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014, ISBN 978-1-62356-884-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Working reports of the Institute for Computer Science. (PDF; 1.57 MB). Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Volume 36, Number 8, May 2004
  2. ^ Herbert W. Franke: Border areas of the fine arts. Staatsgalerie Stuttgart 1972, p. 69.
  3. ↑ Christoph Klütsch: Computer graphics: Aesthetic experiments between two cultures. Springer, 2007, ISBN 978-3-211-39409-0 , p. 20.
  4. ↑ Author's vita on the website of the Deutsches Wissenschafts-Verlag .
  5. ↑ a b c Georg Nees - "The great temptation" , on the website of the Center for Art and Media Technology .
  6. ^ Georg Nees on the website Medien Kunst Netz .
  7. ^ Herbert W. Franke: Border areas of the fine arts, State Gallery Stuttgart. In: Catalog. 1972, p. 69.
  8. ↑ Georg Nees, Max Bense (Ed.): Computer graphics. edition rot 19, Stuttgart 1965.
  9. ^ Herbert W. Franke: Border areas of the fine arts, State Gallery Stuttgart. In: Catalog. 1972, p. 89.
  10. ↑ Georg Nees: Computer Art. In: Catalog, Constructive Art: Elements + Principles. Biennale Nürnberg, 1969, (no page numbers in the catalog).
  11. ^ HW Franke: Computers and visual art. In: Leonardo. Volume 4, 1971, pp. 331-338, doi: 10.2307 / 1572504 .
  12. ^ Georg Nees: Generative Computer Graphics. Siemens AG, Berlin / Munich 1969, pp. 236-239.
  13. ^ Frieder Nake: Computer Art: Where's the Art ? In: Bilder Images Digital. Computer artist in Germany 1986. Barke Verlag, Munich 1986, pp. 69-73.
  14. ↑ Georg Nees: Computer Art. In: Catalog, Constructive Art: Elements + Principles. Nuremberg Biennial 1969.
  15. ↑ Georg Nees, »Schotter« on the website Medien Kunst Netz .
  16. ↑ Schotter collections.vam.ac.uk on the Victoria and Albert Museum website .
  17. ^ Robert J. Krawczyk: A Shattered Perfection: Crafting a Virtual Sculpture (PDF 628 kB).
  18. ↑ a b Barbara Nierhoff-Wielk: Ex Machina - early computer graphics until 1979: The Franke collections and other foundations in the Kunsthalle Bremen. In: Herbert W. Franke on his 80th birthday. published by Wulf Herzogenrath, Deutscher Kunstverlag , Bremen 2007, ISBN 978-3-422-06689-2 , pp. 440–443.
  19. ↑ bottom inventions ( Memento of 27 April 2015, Internet Archive ) on the website of the TU Cottbus .
  20. ^ Engineer portrait Max Mengeringhausen. In: Deutsche Bauzeitung . October 1, 2004.
  21. ^ Ludwig Rase: Computer design for space and area. In: Novum , Heft 8 (1972), pp. 48-56.
  22. ↑ “Kubo-Octahedron” by Georg Nees / Ludwig Rase on data.compart-bremen.de
  23. ^ Formula, color, form: Computer aesthetics for media and design , Springer Science + Business Media , Berlin 1995.
  24. ↑ Limits. Images and thoughts on a constraint-oriented aesthetic , Deutscher Wissenschafts-Verlag , Baden-Baden 2010.
  25. ^ Helga Biesel: Professional Association of Visual Artists discovers computers as tools of the trade. Exhibition: Digitally animated art world. In: Computerwoche . November 14, 1986.
  26. ↑ Georg Nees: Artificial Art and Artificial Intelligence. In: Bilder Images Digital. Barke Verlag, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-926167-00-9 , p. 112.
  27. ↑ Georg Nees: Artificial Art and Artificial Intelligence. In: Bilder Images Digital. Barke Verlag, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-926167-00-9 , p. 64.
  28. ↑ Georg Nees: Artificial Art and Artificial Intelligence. In: Bilder Images Digital. Barke Verlag, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-926167-00-9 , p. 114.
  29. ↑ Georg Nees: Artificial Art and Artificial Intelligence. In: Bilder Images Digital. Barke Verlag, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-926167-00-9 , p. 65.
  30. ↑ The report on the project macS Mediating Art in Computational Spaces , University of Bremen , January 2004 (PDF 2.18 MB).
  31. ↑ Georg Nees at the ZKM on YouTube from August 31, 2006.
  32. ↑ Craft Reloaded. How traditional techniques inspire visual communication. In: Page . No. 02, 2011. (Cover story).
  33. ↑ Painting by Numbers. In: Page. No. 03, 2015. (Cover story).
  34. ^ Georg Nees: Generative Computer Graphics. Siemens AG, Berlin / Munich 1969.
personal data
SURNAME Nees, Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German graphic artist and computer scientist
DATE OF BIRTH June 23, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg
DATE OF DEATH January 3, 2016
Place of death Baiersdorf