Frieder Nake: Precise Pleasures

The exhibition shows works by the computer scientist, Frieder Nake (now resident in Bremen), who was a member of the Stuttgart group led by Max Bense. He displayed his first algorithmically generated digital graphics in Stuttgart in 1965, as did Georg Nees and A. Michael Noll independently of him. The experiments conducted at that time heralded the advent of the modern world of digital media. While the forms were still traditional, the principles involved have retained their validity up to the present day and are only now being fully utilised. The exhibition is being taken over from the Kunsthalle Bremen, where it was held from 9 November 2004 to 16 January 2005. Slightly expanded and updated for Karlsruhe, it traces the development from paper images to video images and interactive images.
This triad makes clear the special characteristics of the algorithmic image, which always comprises the dual elements of visible presentation and manipulable representation. It is a symbol of both man and machine, although the machine lacks the capacity to interpret. It is in the interactive variant of the algorithmic image that its dual character finds its clearest expression.

The exhibition takes up images from 1965 in four interactive installations, whose static isolation is neutralised in the dynamic openness of the interactive image. Since the interactive image is incomplete as a matter of principle, it can only appear as the representative of an entire category. The inherent aesthetic quality of the digital image is therefore not to be found in the individual image but in the image category.
Christoph Brachmann, Lutz Dickmann, Susanne Grabowski, Philipp Kehl, Matthias Krauß, Hendrik Poppe and Romana Walter helped to produce the interactive installations.

The exhibition is supplemented by documentary material. The Precise Pleasures was the title of a volume of poetic texts by Max Bense (Limes, 1964), whose work is thus also commemorated by the exhibition.