Crescendo-Descrescendo

The SDL portfolio of serigraph prints by a group of leading international computer artists is an early and significant example of the trend towards signed limited editions for computer-generated graphics, produced to the high standards of fine art printmaking.

The portfolio, released in 1973, was commissioned by Systems Dimensions Limited, a Canadian computer services company founded in the late 1960s. It was produced in an edition of 250 by Éditions Gilles Gheerbrant, which had been founded a year earlier in Montreal and was the publisher of “Ars ex machina,” the first editioned serigraph portfolio of computer-generated graphics. Five of the artists in “Ars ex machina”—Hiroshi Kawano, Manuel Barbadillo, Ken Knowlton, Manfred Mohr, and Georg Nees—were also featured in the SDL portfolio, alongside Roger Vilder, John Roy, Zdeněk Sýkora, and Edward Zajec. (Only Zajec’s print is missing from the edition here.)

The portfolio opens with a statement about SDL’s motivations for sponsoring this project. “We have attempted to bring together a sampling of styles and orientations from eight different countries in order to demonstrate the universality of the embryonic but growing interest in the computer as artistic tool,” the statement begins. “It is SDL’s hope that efforts such as this will ease the fear of the computer as competitor to man.”

The resulting images feature an array of complex patterns in varied styles and palettes, from the monochromatic Op art aesthetic of Manuel Barbadillo’s _Aeleana _to Georg Nees’ intricate grid of tiny black-and-white triangles on a lime-green backdrop. Each full-color print is accompanied by a page featuring an artist statement and schematic diagram describing how the image was generated. Some provide technical details: all the programs, where specified, were written in Fortran, but a range of computers and output devices were used. Some artists used plotters while others, such as Kawano with his painted Simulated Color Mosaic, went for line printers before reproducing the graphics by hand.

 In their texts, many of the artists—all recognized pioneers in the field—explain why they are drawn to working with computers. “I consider the computer as a legitimate amplifier for our intellectual and visual experiences,” writes Mohr.