Frieder Nake

A mathematician and computer scientist by trade, Frieder Nake is heralded as one of the first digital artists. Nake studied mathematics at the University of Stuttgart and received a PhD in probability theory from the institution in 1967. He first used a computer in 1959 during an internship with IBM. Inspired by Max Bense’s theory of Information Aesthetics—which sought to rationalize art by developing objective scientific measures for aesthetic experience—Nake began creating computer art in 1963. He exhibited his work two years later alongside fellow digital art pioneer Georg Nees. Utilizing computer graphics programs, he wrote an algorithm that dictated certain parameters of an image but left other variables to be determined at random. The resulting drawings, made with a Zuse Graphomat drawing machine, were some of the earliest examples of generative art and were featured in “Cybernetic Serendipity,” an exhibition of digital art at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1968.