Rolf Wölk

Rolf Wölk was born in 1939 in Vienna, Austria. He studied mathematics and physics at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, earning a doctorate in abstract mathematics in 1966. That same year, he joined the data processing and mathematics department at Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB), the West German aerospace company, where he worked on optimization problems in aircraft development. In 1971, MBB formally established its Computer Graphics group under the initiative of press officer Winfried Fischer. Operating within the company’s data processing division, the group was one of the earliest corporate-sponsored experimental art initiatives using computer technology. It brought together mathematicians, programmers, engineers, and a professional artist to investigate the creative potential of algorithmic image-making. Wölk worked alongside Frank Böttger, Aron Warszawski, Sylvie Roubaud, and Gerold Weiss to explore how mathematical logic, randomness, and visual design could converge through computer-generated plotting. Their collective work was shown in Computer Graphics at MBB in 1972, Tendencies 5 in Zagreb in 1973, Ex Machina at Kunsthalle Bremen in 2007, and bit international at ZKM Karlsruhe in 2008–2009.

Between 1970 and 1974, he developed a body of computer-generated work that explored stochastic processes and algorithmic aesthetics. His Element Chains Oriented Stochastically series applied random numbers to generate variable paths of geometric forms, including lines, semicircles, and squares. In Elements Subjected to Perspectives, he simulated how the visual field might distort geometric arrays viewed from a fixed vantage point. Rather than treating randomness as noise, Wölk used it as an aesthetic principle embedded in the logic of the algorithm. His machine drawings were executed on mainframe computers and plotted with high precision, later reproduced as prints and screenprints. Wölk is now based in Munich.