Infinite Images: The Art of Algorithms

The Art of Algorithms traces the vast evolution of generative art, emphasizing itsfoundational role in introducing automation into artmaking before AI-generated imagery became widely adopted. Generative art relies on rule-based systems, expressed either in natural language or coded machine language. Rather than creating a single image, the generative artist defines a visual concept and establishes a process through which a potentially infinite number of images can emerge. Contemporary computer-generated artworks are the results of aesthetic experimentation and collaboration between artist and machine.

“Artists have long been working with generative systems to explore how complexity emergesfrom even simple constraints,” said Kaganskiy. “Today’s hype around generative AI has led a lot of people to think the artist is being replaced by the computer. Infinite Images demystifies the underlying algorithmic process, while also highlighting the artist’s role in designing their own systems and tools, emphasizing the way they wield automation with intent."

The Art of Algorithms will be divided into four distinct sections, each building upon the content of the one that came before and establishing a clear visual and intellectual story for museum visitors.

First, “The Imaginary Machine” introduces generative art to the audience and makes connections between generative art and other 20th-century avant-garde movements through the work of the pioneering digital artist Vera Molnár.

“Chance and Control” then dives into the role of randomness in generative systems, surveying how digital artists engage with the unknown.

Next, the “Digital Materiality” section showcases how artists exploit the distinct material properties of digital media and computation, embracing simulation and interactivity.

Finally, “Coded Nature” highlights how generative artworks mirror nature’s own generative processes and how digital artists use (and misuse) these models to provide a new lens on the natural world.

Highlighted within the exhibition is artwork meant to challenge the viewer and invite them to participate in the creative process. For example, Deafbeef’s Glitchbox is a new installation that draws on the artist’s experiences as a blacksmith and computer engineer and allows viewers to change the audiovisual output of the artwork itself using knobs, levers, and buttons.

Also on display within Infinite Images are several works from Molnár’s Des(Ordres) (1974) series, which features numerous variations on grids of concentric squares generated using a custom program called Molnart, which the artist developed with her husband, François Molnár. In addition to these works, Infinite Images also showcases Operator’s Human Unreadable (2023), a generative series based on a choreographic score that explores how the body becomes encoded as data stored on the blockchain, alongside Sarah Meyohas’ Cloud of Petals (2014)and Infinite Petals (2019), from her Infinite Petals series.

“TMA seeks to broaden our communal understanding of the history of generative art and framethe creative process required to harness generative systems, including AI,” said Adam Levine,Edward Drummond and Florence Scott Libbey President, Director and CEO of TMA.“Infinite Images is educational and expansive, thanks to Julia’s boundless creativity, distinctcuratorial vision, and dedication to the ever-advancing generative art canon.”

Several of the artists included in Infinite Images: The Art of Algorithms will be presenting work ina major US museum exhibition for the first time, most notably Anna Ridler, Deafbeef, Emilie Xie,Entangled Others, Monica Rizzoli, Operator, Quayola, Sam Spratt, Sarah Meyohas, Snowfro,Sofia Crespo, Tyler Hobbs, and Zach Lieberman.

Source: Toledo Museum of Art, official press release.