Binary Art and Design

Kenneth Knowlton's Binary Art

The theory that Progress is a stepping stone toward some elevated plane of existence is not necessarily a time based, linear notion. The chaos theory proves (to the extent that it is derived) the multifaceted array of the “seemingly” random order of time. The generation of a fractal is one way to describe this theory in motion. Things change yet nothing changes — simultaneously.

Kenneth Knowlton, pioneer of binary art and theory, examined the nature of progress through interactivity. “The computer does not make it possible to define or execute complex processes — this possibility exists independently — but the computer does make execution fast enough to be done interactively with further human decisions, accurate enough to avoid mistakes, and cheap enough to afford a great deal of experimentation. Whether the computer is defining a new branch of art is an open and difficult question, particularly in the area of works defined entirely by logic.”

He and many other artists of this era have formed a valid argument against the notion of Progress as linear. This is evident in their experimentation with geometry and patterns generated by early computer programs.

June 6th, 2006 by Karen

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