Computer art is any art related to computers – in the display or in the production of the work. It is such a broad term that I did not really know where or how to start. In the 1960s, computers were very exclusive things and the artists who started experimenting with these machines were really doing something that was never done before with tools and techniques that were never used before. But nowadays, digital technologies are integrated in traditional disciplines and therefore it is a bit harder to define where the term ‘computer art’ is applicable.
For what I have see until now in my short life, I don’t have too much affection with digital arts. But that might also have to do with ignorance, and the fact that even my mom can handle computers better than me – sometimes I even edit my photos in Word, something that people would like to kill me for. But when I found an article about algorithmic art, I could not ignore the fact that computers can actually do stuff that goes beyond human capability, and create things that would not be possible without automation, which is interesting, especially when you think of it as something that started about fifty years ago. They now seem a bit ‘flat’, but these works were the first steps into making art that involves science (and maybe also, science that involves art?), which makes me find them truly fascinating. Because these artists really explored the borders of what was possible with new techniques, using them in favor of their creativity, I find the link between art and science in these works much more interesting than in the works in the Beauty in Science exposition.