Systems of rules, code, machines or processes that produce artworks. Sonia Landy Sheridan also gave the name to her program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1970.
If a system is controlling the marks, then you also have a certain amount of freedom.
Marius Watz, Marius Watz on Pre-Modern Generative Art
But then something emerges from all of those small parts, like something bigger that's not explicitly there but really seems to be there. That is always, I think, at the heart of generative systems, more so than randomness itself.
Gene Kogan, 2010s AI Art: Tyler Hobbs, Helena Sarin, Rhea Myers