Cube Kennedy No. 1

Computer Technique Group (CTG) Haruki Tsuchiya

1968

43"x31"

The CTG Collection

Description

Cube Kennedy is a portrait of John F. Kennedy built from overlapping squares. Each square is centered on a point in a dataset taken from a newspaper photograph, with its size set by a random number. The squares congregate where the photograph is dark and thin out where it is light.

Creating the dataset was labor intensive and more work than writing the program itself. In the summer of 1967 the members laid a 97 × 75 grid over a press photo of Kennedy from the Asahi Journal, judged by eye whether each intersection was black or white, and recorded the black ones as coordinates — 2,452 points in all. The program was small—63 lines of FORTRAN—but contained all three of the earliest Kennedy portraits as subroutines: a random trail at each point creates Random Walk Kennedy, a star creates Star Kennedy, a square creates this work.nas

Return to Square (Motif Editions Poster) by Masao Kohmura, 1968

Return to Square (Motif Editions Poster) Multiple Artists1968 Print

Iwanami Lecture Series on Fundamental Engineering: Complete 19-Volume Set by Computer Technique Group (CTG), 1967-1972

Iwanami Lecture Series on Fundamental Engineering: Complete 19-Volume Set Computer Technique Group (CTG)1967-1972 Ephemera

Miracle Stones by Computer Technique Group (CTG), 1968

Miracle Stones Computer Technique Group (CTG)1968 Print

Media Transformation through Electronics by Computer Technique Group (CTG), 1968

Media Transformation through Electronics Multiple Artists1968 Print

Shot Kennedy No. 2 by Computer Technique Group (CTG), 1968

Shot Kennedy No. 2 Computer Technique Group (CTG)1968 Print

Bijutsu Techo, Issue No. 303, Oct 1968 by Computer Technique Group (CTG), 1968

Bijutsu Techo, Issue No. 303, Oct 1968 Computer Technique Group (CTG)1968 Ephemera

Kennedy in the Net by Computer Technique Group (CTG), 1968

Kennedy in the Net Computer Technique Group (CTG)1968 Print

Kennedy in a Rectangle by Computer Technique Group (CTG), 1968

Kennedy in a Rectangle Multiple Artists1968 Print