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Peter Bauman: My name is Peter Bauman, Monk Antony, and this is Le Random's Elevating the Generative Art Space. We're celebrating our launch that we kicked off last week, last Thursday, where we launched our full website. So thank you all for joining us. Today we're going to introduce a bit about Le Random, but also talk to this incredible lineup of guest hosts that we have today.
So let me introduce everybody first. We have Ciphrd, Casey Reas, Anika Meier, Georg Bak and Anne Spalter joining us. Plus we have the Le Random team. We have thefunnyguys, Zach T, Conrad, Nemo Cake, and again, I'm Monk Antony. The topic for today is elevating the generative art space. And there aren't that many people in the world who have elevated the space like our guests today. So I'm going to go through and introduce everybody one by one, and then they can also tell us a little bit more about themselves.
So we'll start with Anika. Anika Meier is a digital art specialist. She's a writer. She's written for Kunstforum and she's a curator on Art Blocks. She's an artist. She created Unsigned with the group Operator. And she's also a gallerist and a builder of Expanded.Art. Anika, could you tell us a little bit more about yourself, and also how are you connected to Le Random?
Anika Meier: Hi, thank you. Good evening, everyone. Very honored to be with all of you, and congratulations on the wonderful launch and the beautiful website. I'm very impressed. I know you guys through Twitter and we met last year for the first time at Art Basel, in person. And that was where Herbert W. Franke's Mondrian was on view at the Tezos booth, when the conversation about generative art and especially digital art started.
And I myself have a background in the traditional art world, or what the NFT space would call the traditional art world. Curated digital art shows for museums and galleries in Germany. I already mentioned I'm a writer, and I guess everyone who was involved with digital art and is really interested in what's happening today couldn't get around NFTs. So yeah. And there's so much going on. […] 2021 or 2022, I can't remember exactly. But yeah, and here we are today. And tomorrow we're going to open Claudia Hart's solo show at the gallery in Berlin, and I love it. And I guess that's it for me for now.
Peter Bauman: Thank you, Anika. And our next guest, well, like all of these guests, I don't think needs any introduction. It's Casey Reas. He is an artist. He is a professor at UCLA. He's the co-founder of Processing and the Processing Foundation. And he is also the co-founder of Feral File. Casey, can you also tell us a little bit more about yourself and your connection to Le Random?
Casey Reas: Yeah, hi. Hi, everybody. It's good to be here with you. I think my connection with Le Random is a shared obsession and interest with the history of generative art, computer art, digital art. I think we can really have a lot of fun talking about those histories together. And meeting some of the team in Berlin when I was over a little over a year ago for the Bright Moments event at the Kraftwerk. And then I think I'm really lucky and grateful to have a few pieces coming into the collection. So I think that's the relationship.
Peter Bauman: Thank you. Yes. And we'll talk more about those pieces coming into the collection later in the conversation. Thank you so much for being here, Anika and Casey.
[…] developer and programmer interested in the exploration of autonomous and emergent systems. But of course, he is also the founder of the generative art platform fxhash. So Ciphrd, thank you so much for joining us. Can you also tell us about yourself and how are you connected to Le Random?
Ciphrd: Hey everyone, thanks for the intro. Yeah, congrats on the launch as well. It's amazing to see this taking place. And yeah, I think I met thefunnyguys a while ago. I think I met actually the whole team now in Miami, and recently you, Peter, in Lisbon. And yeah, I share your vision, what you guys want to build. And I think you're going to become a very important part of the ecosystem. I looked at the website very recently, and the history and everything you've put together is very well done. So again, congrats and looking forward to what's to come.
Peter Bauman: Thank you so much. You are obviously a big inspiration for us. And the next guest is Georg Bak. He is a digital art specialist, particularly in the work of the pioneering computer artists and also generative and digital photography. He is an advisor and a curator with decades of experience. He has a lot of experience in the fine art world, but is just as knowledgeable in this Web3 NFT space. Georg, can you tell us a bit more about yourself and your connection to Le Random?
Georg Bak: Hi, everyone. Thank you for inviting me. My connection to Le Random is that I'm on the advisory board, and we know each other for a while now. And I really respect what you guys are aiming to do with the collection. […] And my background, as you already mentioned, is, yeah, I would say two decades of digital art. I also collect digital art.
I'm kind of trying to source some important historical works for the collection, and making connections to artists that fit well into Le Random collections. I'm also curating some exhibitions. Currently we did the show together with Anika in her gallery in Berlin, which is kind of like a digital exhibition with some early plotted drawings from the 60s, but also some more recent NFTs. We did a wonderful artwork by Analívia Cordeiro, for example. And a lot of the works are still there. So I'm really excited about the future. Thank you.
Peter Bauman: […] is also, like Georg, a Le Random advisor. She is also the custodian of Spalter Digital, one of the world's largest private collections of early computer art. And thank you so much for joining us as well. Can you tell us any more about yourself and your connection to Le Random?
Anne Spalter: Sure. I think that we met two years ago, maybe at NFT NYC.
Peter Bauman: Yes, that's correct. That was the first time we met.
Anne Spalter: And right at brunch, we started talking about digital art. I've just been a long-time lover and sort of proselytizer and evangelizer of generative artwork, and collector with Michael Spalter, who's here in the audience. And for a while, our website was pretty much the only one you could go to online to see these works. So I'm very excited that Le Random has put so much effort into their incredible website. And I think it's going to be a really great resource for people.
It's one of the challenges of the field, is just that people don't know about it. They literally don't know the history or any of the important works. And there's no way to easily see them in museums. So I think websites like the one that you just put up are incredibly important.
Peter Bauman: Thank you so much. And yeah, we will definitely touch on some of those topics in a bit. Thank you so much for joining us.
So now, just very quickly, let me introduce the Le Random team. So first, we have thefunnyguys. He is the co-founder and CEO of the Le Random team. So do you want to say a quick hi, thefunnyguys?
thefunnyguys: Yeah, sure. Yeah, first of all, thanks everyone for joining. It's amazing to have this roster of artists, creators. I think we're all collaborating in some way, which is also a true honor for us. I'm also seeing some amazing people in the audience, so thanks for listening in. Maybe I can also introduce myself, and a quick introduction to Le Random for those that are not aware of what we are doing.
So I personally started collecting NFTs in 2020, but I quickly fell in love with generative art ever since discovering Art Blocks. And it was a bit frustrating to see that generative art was being mixed in with the entire NFT space, so with the profile picture projects, which at some point people were also calling generative art. So as I learned more about the movements, it became clear that we needed a more institutional approach, a bit more serious efforts to try and bring generative art, to try and detach it a bit from the overall NFT space. […] So we started Le Random recently with my longtime friend Zach Taylor, who is also a co-host. And yeah, that's the story. So I'm currently leading Le Random, and I'm grateful to be working with Peter, Conrad and Zach on this endeavor, and to be collaborating with all of you.
Peter Bauman: Thank you very much. And our other co-founder is Zach Taylor, Zach T. So Zach, can you also just quickly introduce yourself please?
Zach Taylor: Thank you. Yeah, thanks Peter. Hi you guys, nice to see you all on the space. Thanks for taking the time for joining us today. As thefunnyguys says, I'm also a co-founder of Le Random, and I head up all things financial and operational here at Le Random. And maybe a better way of putting it is making sure the lights are on in the background whilst Conrad, Peter and thefunnyguys do their thing in there with Le Random. A tiny bit about me: I have more of a traditional finance background, so I think that's quite a nice complement to the already huge expertise we have in the generative art space. So yeah, thanks again guys.
Peter Bauman: Thank you, Zach. And our next team member is Nemo Cake, or Conrad. So can you also introduce yourself please, sir?
Conrad House: Yeah, thank you Peter. And as I would mention, thank you to everyone for joining us during this time. I'm Conrad House, also known as Nemo Cake in the digital space. As Le Random's analyst, I work alongside thefunnyguys to help build out our collection by determining which artists and which artworks to bring into the collection. We really want our entire collection to help contextualize and tell the history of digital generative art by acquiring pieces throughout all generations and specific movements. And that's the big role I play with helping build out this large institutional effort that we have. And I'll hand it over to Peter to talk a bit more on our editorial section and our generative art timeline.
Peter Bauman: Yeah, thank you. So I'm Peter Bauman, or Monk Antony, and I'm at Le Random. I am a writer and researcher, and I'm responsible for the editorial content and also doing the generative art timeline. If you've seen, we tweeted a bit about that today on Twitter. So we're really excited about that. That will go back tens of thousands of years. We've divided it into hundreds of moments and 10 chapters, and we're going to be releasing it every two weeks until the end of October, until we release all 10 chapters.
You got to hear a little bit about the Le Random team and what we do, and also these amazing guests. But I want to go ahead and kick it off with our first question for the guests.
So part of Le Random's mission is to elevate the broader generative art space, and we hope we're doing that in a few different ways. With our website, it's something that we spent months doing, and there was a lot of care taken in its creation. We also do that with our collection. With our collection we want to tell the story of generative art, the history. And then also with our editorial, where we want to produce and publish informing and engaging content for the community, as well as useful resources like the timeline.
But we also recognize how instrumental others have been in this space, especially our guests, in elevating generative art. Some people in the space have been doing it for decades and years. So maybe we can start again with Anika. Anika, can you tell us how you see the future of generative art, and how you see Expanded.Art elevating the generative art space?
Anika Meier: So we're a gallery and an online platform, and our focus is on the history of digital art and mainly on early pioneers and today's avant-garde. The gallery is located on one of the main shopping streets in Berlin. It's very interesting whenever we do a show that many people come in who are not even aware of generative art. So we always try to pair paintings and digital artworks, and also give […]
[…] sold more than 25 of his plotter drawings. He was a professor, so he couldn't really focus on exhibiting. But now that he's retired and he got actively involved in the NFT space, he came by the gallery. So we just started a conversation and offered him a solo show. And because he lives in Berlin, he came by the gallery every day. He walks, by the way, so it was for him 90 minutes to the gallery, 90 minutes from the gallery. And he was so happy. He was smiling all over the face. And he said to me, "Oh, I had no clue that so many people are interested in plotter drawings now." And I was like, "Hans, it's people being interested in art, in your art, because they find it interesting." And then they learn that it's a plotter drawing. Most people haven't heard about a plotter, and we explain that it's a plotter.
And that's also sort of our mission. All of us have heard, yeah, let's bridge the gap between the two worlds. So I don't want to repeat that phrase, but that's actually really what we're trying to do. And then we also, as we've done it with Hans, would like to give some of the pioneers, in some cases, their first solo show, or help them create their first digital artworks. Because someone like Hans Dehlinger has been actively visiting events and talks also in London, and was really interested in getting involved, but just didn't know how.
Or right now we're working with, as Georg has already mentioned, we've done a show together titled The Thinking Machine, and we're currently releasing NFTs. We've released NFTs from Heinrich Heidersberger, and we're doing a 72-hour open edition with his son right now, because his father had died. So we basically just help them also engage with a new audience. And they wouldn't be pioneers if they, even 80 years old, wouldn't be interested in knowing what's happening and learning what's going on, and not being like, okay, I've done something and now I'm done. That was the same with Herbert W. Franke, who really wanted to do an NFT release because he was curious to understand what's happening and how he can get involved.
Peter Bauman: Thank you so much. I mean, Anika, what you're doing, bringing the pioneers into the space, is really invaluable, and we are all indebted to you for that. So thank you so much.
Maybe we can move on to Casey. Can you also tell us how either Feral File or Processing or your role as a professor at UCLA... you're doing it in so many different ways, but can you tell us how you are also elevating generative art?
Casey Reas: Yes. Well, the original aim was the Processing project, which started in 2001, over 20 years ago. It was really to get generative art and the code to make it out of institutions. In this case, out of MIT, and the code base that allowed artists and designers to access coding in a more direct way, to get that into the world. And so back then it wasn't obvious or clear that coding should be taught in design schools and art schools and architecture schools. And that was really the original mission of Processing, was to have this educational priority and to get coding classes. And so we started to get them into foundation studies and get them into high schools, middle schools, universities. And it's a part of a much, much bigger movement, of course, with a lot of other people involved. But that was the original plan, the original aim there. And then Processing was used for teaching. A lot of artists first entered coding through that.
And then skipping ahead a lot of years, with Feral File the aim there is to really provide opportunities for artists to make new work, to make these editions and series, and to have an opportunity to show them. And so for me personally, it's so fortunate for artists to collect each other's work. With every group show on Feral File, all the artists collect one work from every artist in the show, so that helps the artists share work with each other, to create community. And also with Feral File there's a real focus on providing opportunities for curators as well, where every single show starts with a curator. The curator will invite the artists, and then we have a pretty long time window on Feral File so that the curator can work with the artists over time.
Peter Bauman: Thank you, Casey. Hopefully we will have more time later to talk about your education initiatives and the importance that you place on education, because it's so important for the future of the space.
Maybe we can move on to Ciphrd. Ciphrd, can you tell us about how you see fxhash elevating the generative art space?
Ciphrd: Yeah, that's a big statement. But yeah, I guess when I launched fx, I was trying to solve a problem for myself, which is how to get my work to be seen by other people and how to live out of it, basically. Because of fabulous folks such as Casey with Processing, but also others that have built open libraries and shared knowledge, I'm talking about TouchDesigner, openFrameworks, many tools existing that enable artists to unlock creativity with algorithms, I discovered a passion for myself and I wanted to live out of it.
However, at the time being, I was doing festivals. I was not selling my work. It was super hard to sell digital work. When NFTs came, it was a big opening. But also, after discovering Art Blocks, I wanted to have the ability myself to launch, because, well, I'm a child of the internet. I am used to having open platforms where you can just post garbage content every day, but also quality content when I want to. But having the freedom to do so was very important to me.
So this is why I felt like a platform like that was needed for the space, because it's also through these open protocols that I had built all my knowledge and I had seen the space being built upon. This was the intent in building fx. And nowadays, I mean, the goal is also to unlock creativity while trying to support artists reaching newer audiences. And yeah, this is sort of our core mission with fx.
Peter Bauman: That is very insightful, thank you. Maybe we can move on to Georg. Georg, can you tell us how you see, again, either Le Random or your role as an advisor, how do you see that elevating the generative art space?
Georg Bak: I actually started with generative art a long time ago, and I used to have a gallery more than 10 years ago, and I was always trying to explain people what generative art means. And I mean, at that time it was really, really difficult. People were not really interested in that. And now with the NFTs, obviously it's a bit different.
And now I'm kind of trying to do interesting exhibitions, build contexts and always try to also contextualize what's happening now within the greater realm of the history of digital art. I'm also trying to find interesting gaps in the history of digital art, especially the 1980s. There's a lot of interesting art that happened in that time, digital art, but you can't read much about it. I think there's a lot of work that has to be done.
So I think with the exhibitions, with some drops that I curate on Le Random or also in other places, I think it's important that we educate buyers, the museums, etc. I mean, there's a lot of gaps in the museums as well. Not many museums are collecting digital art, so I think that's also very important, that this type of art is being collected and is being shown. And I think it's a great start that some of the museums have started to buy NFTs as well.
Great what you guys are doing, and obviously also the Spalter collection with their website, and a few other websites which are quite educative. I think it's very important that we really also write the history of digital art and also write books. Obviously, if I had time I would love to write a book as well. I think there's a lot of work that has to be done also to bring in this type of art into the traditional channel of art history. I was at Art Basel this year and I barely saw […] any digital art, and the gatekeepers are keeping us away, which is really a shame. And I think we have to work hard to get recognition and especially get the institutions involved.
And I think I was successful with a few institutions also during my time as a gallerist. I could really convince institutions to buy Gottfried Jäger or Herbert W. Franke at that time, for example. The Pompidou has bought some of their works, or other institutions. They're starting to show retrospectives, group shows. So I think that's really, really important, that we work on that.
Peter Bauman: That's really important, and a trend I think we're seeing in 2023 as well, these institutions getting more involved on the collecting side. And Georg, I'd love to talk more later about what some of that work to be done is, to bring the space closer to the art historical canon that you were talking about. But for now, let's also hear from Anne. And how do you see Spalter Digital elevating the generative art space?
Anne Spalter: I'd say a lot of the collection is generative art, although not all of it, just because it focuses on the earlier years of computer and digital and new media art. So the bulk of the collection is actually plotter works on paper, and that happens to be generative artwork. So I think it's overlapping with the focus and support of generative art.
And then also just supporting the NFT community of long-form generative art, which was so exciting when I first realized what it was, and became part of the curatorial board of Art Blocks. I think that all the attention and money that flowed into NFTs has really helped raise the profile of generative artists in every type of generative art space. So participating in that NFT community and these other formats for generative art, and being part of advisories and curatorial boards like Le Random and Art Blocks, and then lending to museum shows, to try to accomplish what Georg said and unite the generative art and digital art with more of the traditional art canon, which it's part of and should be intertwined with, but is often considered so separately, without trying to rectify some of that.
And we just lent a lot of work to the LACMA show, which is still up but about to come down, and I encourage everyone to see that. It's called Coded, at LACMA. And there's about to be a show at the AKG Buffalo museum, formerly the Albright-Knox, that we're lending work to as well. And both of those integrate digital work.
Conrad House: Thank you so much, Anne. That's a great answer. And then we're going to transition a bit more to talking about our collection. And like we mentioned before, we really wanted to tell the complete history of generative art by showcasing all the different generations and movements. Three of you here are directly featured in our collections, while the others have helped play a vital role in acquisitions or constructing our collection thesis.
And starting with Casey, as you mentioned before, we've been commissioning a few pieces from you, including works from both the Still Life and Compressed Cinema series. And if you just wanted to expand on maybe how these pieces are significant to you and your overall creative career, that would be great to hear.
Casey Reas: Yes, thanks, Conrad. […] I usually work on bodies of work over many years. And so the Still Life works started in 2015, and I'm still actively working on that. And I think the commission through Le Random has sort of given that a way to continue. It's work that I feel really close to. I think it pulls together a lot of obsessions I've had for over 20 years on the fundamental nature of the digital image, on simulation, and how the two combine, and how it all works in tandem with the history of painting and the history of visual representation, from medieval forms of representation into the Renaissance and then particularly into post-photography Cubism and those ways of representing the world. So the Still Life work for me encodes and embeds all of these ideas together into one image plane. And it's both a way of being very objective in looking at these images according to their data, but also just tuning into the work and sitting there and experiencing it. That's really important for me too.
And then the Untitled Film Stills work, which is a part of the Compressed Cinema series, that's work that I started about six years ago, working with machine learning algorithms and particularly working with GANs and working with cinema. And so this represents for me a departure. Instead of doing direct coding with Processing and this more traditional hard-edge abstraction generative work I've been doing, it's looking at time-based, exploratory, dream-like cinema, and using machine learning for that and training my own data sets. And so for me it's a departure, and one that I'm continuing to work on now. And I'm just really excited to have that represented in the collection.
thefunnyguys: Thank you so much, Casey. I also want to point out that we already have some works by you in our collection as well, which people can find on our website, on our dedicated Casey Reas profile. But yeah, super excited to add these software pieces and AI pieces in the near future.
“So the Still Life work for me encodes and embeds all of these ideas together into one image plane.” — Casey Reas 27:07
We also have a, in my opinion, really significant artwork by Ciphrd in our collection called RGB number one. And for us, this piece really showcases emergence, how complex images can emerge from a simple set of rules. And that also, in my opinion, is a good parallel with fxhash: in principle a quite basic set of tools, but an amazing, complex, endlessly inspiring ecosystem […] emerged from this platform. But Baptiste, why did you let Le Random collect this work, RGB number one?
Ciphrd: Well, I liked the parallel you made with the emergence. Also credit due to Stephen Wolfram and his team for discovering the algorithm. I merely implemented a version that's more colorful because I was obsessed by the idea then.
But yeah, I mean, the RGB that you collected, so first of all, to give a bit of history behind the piece, it's an iteration I made to test the platform, and the project in itself was sort of a test project. When I released the first project, it was during the beta phase of the platform, and I did not expect this project to last, truth be told. So when I minted it and I saw, okay, it's working fine, I was happy with RGB 1 working and being a proof of the platform and our processes being functional.
But then I saw people minting this collection as well, and in the beginning it was not the favorite of people. And I left it minting for a few days. It was free. So people were not super enjoying it for its qualities. But then it sort of became the symbol of the platform, for being one of the first that had been published, and also for the reason that I see it was one that was a statement about this ecosystem being functional and being the beginning of the system being functional.
So when you reached out, I just want to give context about the piece, but also it was dear to my heart, this piece, because it represented a small part of the history. But also I would have let it die in my wallet. And when I heard about your project and when you explained to me what you had in mind for the future and your mission, I thought it was a perfect space for it, because I trust you guys to bring your mission to life and to put a well deserved light on generative art in a nice way, in a way where you're going to tell a story about it.
Because also I think within the field it's a bit hard sometimes to learn about the history of generative art. It's something I struggled with when I tried to learn about it a few years ago already. It was hard to find resources. Sometimes these were books, sometimes expensive. You had to go into forums, things like that. So I think it's super important to have some resources, well put resources, that are going to tell the story of this movement that's only at the beginning. And I'm so proud that you considered RGB to be one of the core components of the collection. And so it was an easy decision for me. And thank you for considering it.
thefunnyguys: One thing I quickly want to mention is that we also have collected the entire first show of Feral File, which was curated by Casey Reas. So yeah, Social Codes, which we also see as an important mark in the history of this space. And we also collected Chromie Squiggles. We really tried to tell also the story of the contemporary generative art scene, which really exploded in the last few years.
“So I think it's super important to have some resources, well put resources, that are going to tell the story of this movement that's only at the beginning.” — Ciphrd 32:04
And one piece that I think maybe doesn't have very wide community recognition yet, but that we internally see as one of our most important ones, is actually Mondrian by Herbert W. Franke. And Anika, I know that you mentioned this in your introduction, but it would be great if you could also give some extra information about this piece, and how this piece that is decades old came onto the blockchain.
Anika Meier: Yes, thank you to all for acquiring the piece. On behalf of Franke's wife and I, I am very fortunate to know that it's in very good hands with you. And I think we agreed that all of us are happy to announce the price. It has been minted on the Tezos blockchain because it was part of the Tezos booth at Art Basel in 2022, so last year. And the price is 18,000 US dollars. I think that's a record price on the blockchain, on the Tezos blockchain. And I think maybe you would like to elaborate on that further, while it was also very important for you and your team at Le Random to have this piece on Tezos, because that's what you also found important.
So yeah, how did it get on the blockchain? I mean, I was in touch with Diane and her team from Tezos, and at some point we both had the idea that it would be wonderful that Herbert is part of the presentation of Tezos at Art Basel. I think all of you might be aware that his work has never been shown at any art fair, so for him that was also a very special moment in his career. Sadly, he was aware that it was happening, but exactly the week before Art Basel he fell and was in hospital, so that was a bit very sad. But yeah, he was aware that this happened, and it was a very special moment for him.
And yeah, a bit about the Mondrian, I guess. Quite a few of you have been at Art Basel and had the chance of seeing it in person. It's a dynamic program, and the piece actually is a video recording of the output of the program Mondrian, because the program right now is not working. I guess all of you know that it's very difficult with old software to make it run these days. So yeah, it's a dynamic program for image and sound that Herbert developed for Texas Instruments in 1979. That's the year I wasn't even born. And yeah, it's named after the Dutch artist Mondrian, who was a pioneer for constructivism between the two world wars. And yeah, it's characteristic for his art: the vertical and the horizontal arrangements, and they are moving. And yeah, I guess that's all for now about the piece.
And we had a Twitter Space, I think two or three days ago, also with Peter from your team. And maybe you would also like to share some of your thoughts on why it was important for you to have it in your collection.
thefunnyguys: So for us it's really, as Peter also mentioned in the introduction, it's really important that our collection tells the story of the generative art movements in the broadest way possible. So we try to represent every generation. And of course Herbert W. Franke, we see him as one of the most influential pioneers from the first generation of generative artists. But at the same time, Le Random tries to stick to digital generative art for now. Maybe eventually we start collecting physical pieces as well, but at the moment it's focused on digital. And it's quite difficult to get exposure to the first generation. It only happens very rarely that they bring a piece to the blockchain.
So yeah, of course, when Herbert W. Franke, together with your support, Anika, and with the support of his wife Susanne, started bringing digital pieces to the blockchain, that was for us like a really exceptional opportunity. And this piece, yeah, it's amazing to think that in 1979 Herbert brought interactive, endlessly generative art to the homes of thousands of people through this collaboration with Texas Instruments. So the story that this piece represents is really incredible. And it's a true honor to own this piece and to display it on our website. And I'm looking forward to showing it in real life and to make sure that the legacy of Herbert W. Franke also continues, and that we make sure that these pioneers get the attention they deserve.
Conrad House: Yeah, it's really one of the standout pieces in our collection, and we're ecstatic to bring it in.
And then moving on to our two advisors that we have on board here, starting with Anne. As mentioned before, you've helped construct one of the most definitive generative art collections through Spalter Digital. And I just want to ask you, maybe tell us what an iconic generative art collection may look like to you, and what that includes.
Anne Spalter: Well, I don't know. I feel like there are so few, you know? It's such an overwhelming, evolving thing. And our collection happened very organically, and continues to evolve. So I don't think there's a template yet for a generative art collection. I think it's all being discovered and determined.
Conrad House: Yeah, I think it's a constantly adapting ecosystem where it changes every year almost. And I just want to ask that same question to Georg. Your knowledge of the space and the space's history is second to none. Is there any kind of specific factors that you see that goes into building an iconic generative art collection?
Georg Bak: Yeah, I think most of the artists that have published important books and theories besides making the art, or have kind of invented something like Processing that Casey did, or another code or algorithm. For example, Alexander Mordvintsev, who invented DeepDream. I think those are really important artists that I would collect. Certainly Herbert W. Franke was one of the amazing theorists as well, and historians of digital art. I mean, he actually wrote the first history book on early computer art. He wrote Computer Graphics, Computer Art in the early 70s. There's probably quite a few names I could say now, but I think most artists that are also influential on other artists are important, like professors who have brought out a lot of talented students. They are important. […] Yeah, many artists. I mean, you have a lot of great artists in your collection.
Peter Bauman: Thank you, Georg. Yeah, your advice there has really been instrumental. And as well, your advice as advisors helping us to craft the collection has really been invaluable.
So we have about eight more minutes. Maybe we can just wrap up the discussion with a little question that we'll throw out to all of our guests. So we talked to all of our advisors, and I think almost everybody in this call, about moments in generative art history that they thought were the most important. And pretty much everybody responded at one point with the exhibition Cybernetic Serendipity.
And so Cybernetic Serendipity, this was an exhibition in the late 60s that really showcased the depth and the breadth of generative art. It was generative music and poetry and dance and graphics and video and animation. And so everybody in this call understands and thinks that Cybernetic Serendipity is important. But what do you think a Cybernetic Serendipity would look like in 2023? What could we do to bring back that magic and that multidisciplinary nature of that kind of exhibition? So, anybody interested in tackling that question?
Casey Reas: I'll go. Is that okay?
Peter Bauman: Please.
Casey Reas: I feel like, you know, for many decades... okay, what I found so fascinating about Cybernetic Serendipity was all different kinds of practices in one place, as you were just saying, like the poets, the sculptors, etc. And I feel like that really fractured and broke apart, and there were lots of different discussions happening. There were discussions in architecture talking about generative art. There were discussions in computational literature talking about generative ideas.
And I think that's one thing that the NFT space has really done a good job of. I've never had more interaction with poets than I have the last few years, as poetry entered with NFTs, and as architects and all the other kinds of people. And so I feel what would be so exciting would be a comprehensive exhibition that really brought all these communities together that have started talking again the last few years through NFTs, and just such a wide range of practices. I think when we start making boundaries and boxes around art and crypto art and trad art, then we get into a lot of trouble, and we don't really have the dialogues and the kind of flow of ideas that I think are really needed for us to all grow and evolve together.
Peter Bauman: Yeah, that is a really good point. And I think, from Le Random's perspective, that's something that we would love to be involved with, that kind of comprehensive exhibition. Are there any other thoughts from any of our guests?
Anne Spalter: I think one of the reasons that's such an important show is that Jasia Reichardt is a real curator. And one of the discussions in the NFT space is that curation is a field where people go to school and study, and it's not just choosing your favorite pieces and then it's a show and you're a curator. But often months of work and research go into creating a really great show, and sometimes that's lacking in the NFT space, and people don't even really understand what's entailed. So having more curators with that kind of depth come into the space and create shows, I think, will help.
“I've never had more interaction with poets than I have the last few years, as poetry entered with NFTs, and as architects and all the other kinds of people.” — Casey Reas 44:29
Georg Bak: I think Peter Weibel did a few really, really important shows as well. I remember this series of exhibitions called GLOBALE, where he kind of mapped the whole […] whole digital art. I mean, that was before NFTs, to be honest. But I mean, he did quite a few very important shows. Also open […]
thefunnyguys: […] We really see it as a super important show that really showcases a lot of the best artists across the history of generative art.
Georg Bak: Thank you. That's very kind. I wish we had more space. We could have done a double-sized show at that time. But yeah, I think that was a nice show for the parameters we had. And yeah, Casey was in the show as well. So there were a lot of great artists.
thefunnyguys: Yeah, definitely agree. I think we're coming short on time. We have a few minutes left. But before we leave the spaces, are there any questions from any of the speakers, or also from the audience, for Le Random or for other speakers on this show?
Peter Bauman: Yeah, please. If you're in the audience, there are some incredible people listening. So if you have any questions, please indicate.
Hello? Hey, Michael. Hi, Michael. Yeah, go ahead. Do you have a question, Michael? I think we could hear you for a second. Please go on. Go on. Okay. Sorry, Michael. Yeah, I don't think we're able to hear you. Any other questions from the audience before we wrap up?
Well, I do think that it's been about an hour, and I think we can go ahead and... Okay, yeah. Nikita, please.
Nikita: Thank you, guys.
Peter Bauman: Okay, we're having trouble connecting to some of the audience. But thank you, everybody, for listening to our space. So thank you very much for supporting Le Random. And thank you very much to all of our incredible guests who joined us today.
Please check out lerandom.art so you can find Ciphrd's RGB number one, Casey's work in our collection. We also have an interview that the Le Random team did with Casey about the history of generative art and some of the critical and under the radar moments in its history, which was a real pleasure to put together. And Casey is such a fount of knowledge. Then also in our collection we have Mondrian, which Anika helped us acquire. And then of course Anne and Georg have been instrumental in putting together our collection.
Yeah, so check out our collection, our artist profiles, our editorials and the generative art timeline chapter one on lerandom.art. And then just again, thank you so much to our guests. Thank you, Ciphrd. Thank you, Casey. Thank you, Anika. Thank you, Georg. Thank you, Anne. And then thank you, Conrad and thefunnyguys and Zach as well. I'm Peter, Monk Antony. Thank you all so much for joining us today.
Casey Reas: Thank you so much, Peter. Thanks, everyone.
Anne Spalter: Thank you. Thanks, everyone.
Anika Meier: Thank you. Congratulations.
Georg Bak: Congratulations. Thanks, guys.
Peter Bauman: Thank you, Casey. Bye.
