Georg Nees

     Georg Nees was born in Nuremberg, Germany in 1926.  He began programming computers in the late 1950s, and was interested in particular how computer programs and algorithms could create art.  Nees wrote programs that would be used by a flat-bed pen plotter that could take the algorithms and draw out his ideas.  He was one of three artists (known collectively as the 3Ns) --Nees, Frieder Nake, and A. Michael Noll -- to start programming art using a computer, and all 3Ns debuted their works in three small art shows in 1965.  Nees was the first of the three, thus he became the first person to publicly exhibit his digital art in an art show.  

"Schotter" by Georg Nees

     In one of Nees' works, "Schotter", visually expresses order and sequence gradually being broken down into chaos and disarray.  To explain it shortly, Nees created this work by telling the program how many rows and columns there are, how many squares go into each row, and how severe the squares in each row are randomly angled.

"Sculpture" by Georg Nees

     In another work, "Sculpture”, Nees created the first computer-programmed sculpture.  He was able to program the sequence and run it through a Stochastic Script Machine.  In his program, Nees outlined the dimensions of each rectangle and it's placement in the sculpture, as well as the overall dimensions of the sculpture itself.

     I believe that Nees' art is interesting because he took the idea of creativity and limited it to the bounds of computer science, where randomness is actually pseudorandom and where objects must be precisely placed.  Initially, his art, along with most other digital art, was not seen as such because he did not draw his work directly by hand.  However, as the definition of art began to expand as modern artists became increasingly innovative.  Without his contributions, the definition of art would not be the same as it is today.