© Otto Beckmann, Oskar Beckmann ; photo © ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, photo: ONUK
- Artist/s
- Otto Beckmann
- Oskar Beckmann
- Title
- Imaginäre Architektur
- Year
- 1971
- Category
- Computer-generated
- Collage
- Photography
- Format
- Screen Print
- Material / Technique
- screen printing on paper; master: collage of three photographic records of the display of a computer-controlled oscilloscope; computer: a.i. 70 (hybrid computer), output device: oscilloscope
- Dimensions / Duration
- 62 x 88 cm
- Collection
- ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
- Description
- »Imaginary computer architecture’ is a designation that seeks to imply that it concerns architectural ideas which primarily have no concrete relationship to reality. They are ideas that are not intended to be realized in the form of building projects, but ideas free of purposeful thinking and planning that gravitate towards the realm of dreams and imagination«. (Otto Beckmann) [1]
The black graphics grace the white paper like abstract expressionist ink drawings. The forms remain indeterminate and yet they are suggestive of a body, if not a building structure. Worlds of architectonic forms played an essential role in the multifaceted work of Otto Beckmann, an artist who, beginning in 1966, reflected theoretically and explored practically the possibilities of using computer technology in the fields of music, literature, the visual arts, film, and architecture.
To realize his utopian designs, Beckmann used a hybrid computer, the »studio computer a.i.70,« which his son Oskar Beckmann began to build for him in 1969. Unlike the digital computers of the time, with the a.i.70 Beckmann could follow what was happening in real time and directly control the parameters of the process via sliders. The studio computer went into operation in the summer of 1970 and was developed continuously during the course of artistic experiments.
The shapes displayed on the screen of the hybrid computer were photographed and then processed further in a variety of techniques and materials – from screen printing to sculpture.
[1] Otto Beckmann, cited in Peter Peer, and Peter Weibel, eds., Otto Beckmann:– Zwischen Mystik und Kalkül (Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2008), 402.
Author
Julia
Images
Otto Beckmann und Oskar Beckmann, »Imaginäre Architektur« [Imaginary Architecture], 1971, screen printing on paper; master: collage of three photographic records of the display of a computer-controlled oscilloscope; computer: a.i. 70 (hybrid computer), ou© Otto Beckmann, Oskar Beckmann ; photo © ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, photo: ONUK