I once saw a fantastic presentation at a conference where researchers replicated famous Computer-Human Interaction studies using Amazon’s crowdsourcing marketplace, Mechanical Turk.
The promise was straightforward: Instead of the costly process of equipping a lab with recording gear and coordinating in-person participants, researchers crowdsourced their experiments, using online platforms to scale and conduct studies for cents on the dollar.
This idea shares considerable overlap with the conceptual art movement of the 1960s and 70s, where art became more about ideas than execution. As famously written by American artist Sol LeWitt:
In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair.
LeWitt’s philosophy positioned ideas as the art itself, turning the act of execution into a secondary process. For example, he wrote instructions for paintings that other artists would apply directly to gallery walls. In essence, he conceptualized the piece, documented the plan, and paid others to execute it.
LeWitt’s Wall Drawings, such as Wall Drawing 852, particularly tickle the software developer part of my brain:
“A wall divided from the upper left to the lower right by a curvy line; left: glossy yellow; right: glossy purple.”
My first generative art project for the web browser was heavily inspired by Sol LeWitt (via Tom Sachs). It took a tremendous amount of effort to create an algorithm capable of generating uniquely flawed yet visually consistent iterations of a LeWitt drawing. While it was a satisfying technical challenge, it fell short of the “it’s the idea, not the object” ethos.
We’ve reached a new frontier with the rapid advances in generative AI. Instead of painstakingly writing software by hand, we can now replicate famous conceptual works by feeding the original instructions written by an artist into different generative toolsets. In doing so, we revisit the ethos of conceptual art while leveraging technology to explore its potential at scale.
How to Build a Dome
Tom Sachs - 2020
Over the next two weeks, you will be building a geodesic dome using what’s around you. This is not a course in dome geometry or architecture. This is a class about embracing uncertainty, understanding the limitations and potential of your immediate surroundings. Relying on your intuition. Relying on your resolve. Relying on your own creativity and rising to meet challenges. The solution to every problem exists; you just have to find it. This course is in-situ resource utilization, which means using the resources in your situation to solve your problem.*
Painting to Let the Evening Light Go Through
Yoko Ono - 1961
Hang a bottle behind a canvas. Place the canvas where the west light comes in. The painting will exist when the bottle creates a shadow on the canvas, or it does not have to exist. The bottle may contain liquor, water, grasshoppers, ants, or singing insects—or it does not have to contain.
Wall Drawing 852
Sol LeWitt - 1998
A wall divided from the upper left to the lower right by a curvy line; left: glossy yellow; right: glossy purple.
*
Sol LeWitt saw ideas as art, and today, algorithms have transformed the landscape of implementation, amplifying ideas like never before. The boundary between concept and execution has blurred into an infinitely scalable medium. It’s no longer just a question of ‘What can we imagine?’ but rather, ‘How can humans and machines collaborate to push the boundaries of what’s possible?’
Comments:
You can join the conversation on Twitter or Instagram
Become a Patreon to get early and behind-the-scenes access along with email notifications for each new post.
Hi! Subconsciously you already know this, but let's make it obvious. Hopefully this article was helpful. You might also find yourself following a link to Amazon to learn more about parts or equipment. If you end up placing an order, I make a couple of dollarydoos. We aren't talking a rapper lifestyle of supercars and yachts, but it does help pay for the stuff you see here. So to everyone that supports this place - thank you.