<< Archive Menu | History | Main Menu | Search  |  Contact

algorithmic drawings

STATE OF THE ART: Maps, Stories, Games and Algorithms from Minnesota.

Carlton Art Gallery, Northfield Minnesota,

Curated by Steve Dietz.

More on the exhibition and exhibitors

Opening  reception, November 5, 2003.

The Project: This is one of a family of algorithmic pen plotted drawings presented as illuminations of the Universal Turing Machine code. These drawings, reminiscent of medieval manuscript illuminations,  celebrate Alan Turing's historic work with universal problem solver procedures. They were created especially for the Manchester-Liverpool context as homage to Alan on the 50th anniversary of his historic work in Manchester. Thirteen from this family were exhibited in Manchester (UK) on the occasion of the Ninth International Symposium on Electronic Art (1998).  

Executed on hot pressed Arches, each piece includes a burnished gold leaf enhancement.

For more information & briefing on UTM's click here.

Display Case

Frontispiece #82, algorithmic  brush, pen & ink drawing

Frontispiece #9, algorithmic brush, pen & ink drawing

Text page with illustration.

Derivation of the Laws. . .,  by George Boole with algorithmic illustrations by Roman Verostko, a limited edition, Minneapolis, 1990.

Display. Display shows 3 original books  from the limited edition  of The Derivation of the Laws by George Boole. Two books are opened to show the pen and ink drawings that were made individually and tipped in as frontispieces for each book. The 3rd book shows a text page with an illustration achieved with line cut plates made from algorithmic drawings.

Text. The text is Chapter III from Boole's Classic work, An Investigation of the Laws of Thought.. (Macmillan, London, 1854). This edition includes a Preface by Roger Malina, a statement by Roman and a Postscript.

Frontispieces. For this edition 125 original front and end-pieces were created in the artist's studio. Each frontispiece was drawn and brushed, stroke for stroke, with Verostko's coded procedure guiding the drawing arm of a pen plotter.   This edition exemplifies a radical new procedure whereby the same "parent" code, created by the artist, generates a series of original drawings. Each drawing, in this family of forms, bears a familial resemblance to the others.  This edition (1990) may be the first instance where an algorithmic improvisational series of original drawings was created for a bound limited edition.  

Other illustrations: For the illustrations accompanying the text the artist created algorithmic drawings in four colors. Using the master code he cloned each color in a separate drawing using black ink. From these drawings four line cut zinc plates were made for each color illustration. 

Rationale. This edition was created as a tribute to the 19^th Century mathematician George Boole (1815-1864). Boole’s treatise on the Laws demonstrates the direct link between Aristotle’s principle of contradiction and the symbolic logic known today as Boolean Algebra. Boolean logic, a symbolic language seminal to the development of circuit boards, is fundamental to programming languages. The illustrations for this edition, generated with principles outlined in Boole’s Laws, exemplify the profound kinship emerging today between art and coded procedure.

Edition. The limited edition of 125 copies, bound in leather, was pulled by hand at the St. Sebastian Press in Minneapolis in 1990. The type, Gill Sans, cast by M&H Type of San Francisco, is printed on Frankfurt text, with Kohl & Madden inks, by Michael Tomaszewski. The work was also issued in a reproduction paperback version based on the original type setting and plotter drawings (February 1991, ISBN 1-879508-07-9). The press is no longer active. The artist retains a limited number of copies of each edition. 

<< Archive Menu | History | Main Menu | Search  |  Contact