Abstract
This essay details the curating strategies and central premise behind the 2013 traveling exhibition The American Algorists: Linear Sublime. This group exhibition, which showcased the artwork of Jean-Pierre Hébert, Manfred Mohr, Roman Verostko, and Mark Wilson, marked the 20th anniversary of New York Digital Salon. In organizing this exhibit, I attempted to expand the discourse of digital art curation by linking the Algorists, a group formed at the Los Angeles SIGGRAPH conference in 1995, to the broader narrative of American art. Through the exhibition catalogue, I constructed a detailed history of the Algorists and connected the movement’s narrative to ideas of national identity and myth. To cultivate this nexus, I interpreted the Algorists’ unique approach to linear abstraction through the various theories of the sublime active within the history of American art. Ultimately, this case study reveals the incongruities of aligning this group of digital artists—who shared a decidedly internationalist outlook—with a national narrative. While the Algorists resisted parochial characterizations, the concept of the sublime provided a useful vehicle for theorizing the aesthetic response to computer-generated abstraction. The travelling exhibition also offered a potential model, based on effective partnerships and resource sharing, for small college and university galleries.
Highlights
As an art historian who studied the reception and criticism of early computer art, I always took great interest in an individual’s response to digital art in the gallery environment
What of the relationship between traditional forms of static digital art and the audience? Is there something beyond conventional aesthetics active in these computer-generated images? As these questions piqued my interest in tracking audience reception, I began to see a common response to abstract forms of digital art
In Wilson’s linear banding I saw the strata of gneiss rock that curved along the Housatonic River, the tributary in front of the artist’s Connecticut studio (Taylor 2013). It was the similarities of the artists’ stories, which were at times immense struggles, that seemed to connect to the pioneering spirit inherent in early American art
Summary
As an art historian who studied the reception and criticism of early computer art, I always took great interest in an individual’s response to digital art in the gallery environment. At every digital art exhibit I attended, I paid special attention to the audience’s response to the computer-generated prints hanging on the wall. As these questions piqued my interest in tracking audience reception, I began to see a common response to abstract forms of digital art. The contemplative viewer, one with a basic understanding of the algorithmic process underlining the art, expressed how they were overwhelmed when considering the power of the artist’s code. 2019, 8, 106 viewer, one with a basic understanding of the algorithmic process underlining the 2 of expressed how they were overwhelmed when considering the power of the artist’s code. These abstract abstract linear linearcompositions compositionsresonated resonatedwith withthe theaudience audienceeventually eventuallytriggered triggered. Algorists, whose abstract art was computer-generated and aloosely loosely networked group artist called. The of story this digital art movement remained untold
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