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German

1927 —2015

Cord Passow was a German physicist who collaborated with artist Kurd Alsleben on some of the country’s first computer drawings, created in 1960 using an analogue computer at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg. Working with differential equations, electronic signals, and manually adjusted computational parameters, the pair produced layered plotter drawings that formed part of the development of analogue computer art.

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Cord Passow, born in 1927, was a German physicist. In December 1960, he collaborated with his friend and fellow artist Kurd Alsleben to produce a series of early computer drawings. These works were created at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg using the analogue computer EAI 231 R together with a tabletop X-Y recorder known as the Variplotter and an automatic drafting unit. By manipulating potentiometers and computational parameters linked to differential equations and electronic signals, the pair produced plotter drawings composed of layered and overlapping wave patterns. Their collaborative works, including the Computer Graphics series and Computergrafik 4 (1960), emerged during the early development of analogue computer art in Germany and were later presented in exhibitions such as Some More Beginnings at the Brooklyn Museum in 1968, Computer-Kunst. On the Eve of Tomorrow in Hannover in 1969, and Impulse Computerkunst: Graphik, Plastik, Musik, Film in Munich in 1970. Passow passed away in 2015