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The Toledo Museum of Art’s newest exhibition, Infinite Images: The Art of Algorithms, is described by Museum Director Adam Levine as “groundbreaking”, with works that explore generative and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven art, created from the 1960s to the present.
Spanning decades of generative design
Renowned digital art curator Julia Kaganskiy assembled Infinite Images, showcasing the work of 24 contemporary artists who have shaped generative art over the past six decades. Divided into four parts, the exhibition is comprised of “The Imaginary Machine”, which introduces generative art, making connections between generative art and other 20th-century avant-garde movements through the work of the pioneering digital artist Vera Molnár. “Chance and Control” dives into the role of randomness in generative systems, surveying how digital artists engage with the unknown. The next segment, “Digital Materiality”, showcases how artists employ the distinct properties of digital media and computation, embracing simulation and interactivity. Finally, “Coded Nature” highlights how generative artworks mir- ror nature’s own generative processes and how digital artists are influenced by those models to provide a new lens on the natural world.
Some of the generative art in Infinite Images are earlier works, from over the past decades, including several works from Molnár’s Des(Ordres) (1974) series. “Molnár is part of the first generation of artists working with computers and generative art, experimenting with generative computer art in the mid-1960s. One of the things that distinguishes Molnár is that she started using an analog algorithmic process she referred to as her “imaginary machine” in 1959 — simple algorithms that she used to manually execute drawings and collages. An algorithm would inform and direct marks on the page and she used dice or numbers from the telephone book to introduce an element of randomness and unpredictability,” Kaganskiy explained.
Generative systems creating images
Most of the art in the Infinite Images exhibition is algorithmic, that is, it employs a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or to solve a problem. “Meaning that the artist created a program or piece of software according to a specified set of aesthetic constraints that dictate its possible form and visual traits,” says Kaganskiy, Throughout the exhibit, the works on display were created with the artist still in control of designing the system, but in algorithmic systems, the artist specifies the design parameters, while in machine learning systems, the machine extrapolates the design parameters based on the training data provided.
“Generative art is art that is created with the help of a rule-based system conceived and designed by the artist,” explains curator Julia Kaganskiy, adding, “This system can be expressed as written instructions or as computer code. By using a system to create the work, generative art introduces an element of automation wherein the artist gives up some element of control over the final product. . . The creative, authorial act lies in the design of the system (the concept and process) that produces the work.”
The art of the Infinite Images exhibition is displayed in many different formats, from prints on paper and Dibond- aluminum composite panels – to LCD screens, LED displays, projection as well as interactive displays where visi- tors will be able to affect the work they are viewing.
The Infinite Images exhibition items are primarily from works in the Toledo Museum of Art’s collection and from two private collections whose owners the Museum had a pre-existing relationship with.
Infinite Images: The Art of Algorithms is on view at the Toledo Museum of Art through November 30th, displayed in the Canaday Gallery. Tickets are $10 per. There is no charge for general admission and parking at the Museum.
