Flies

Name: Ragnar Digital, LLC
Price range: $

Charles "Chuck" Csuri

1967

Photo-silkscreen (from computer plot) on paper
18"×14"

Cybernetic Serendipity

Description

In making Flies, Charles Csuri explored how movement and depth can be suggested within the constraints of a flat plotter drawing, using mathematics and controlled randomness to expand the visual language of early computer art. Between 1966 and 1967, Csuri frequently returned to the image of the housefly, introducing an element of humor and levity into an otherwise analytical practice.

The work is based on a scanned, hand-drawn image of a fly that Csuri multiplied and distributed using a random number generator. Each blue fly varies in scale, while its placement and density across the surface are determined algorithmically. Through these chance-based operations, individual forms coalesce into the impression of a swarm. Motion and spatial depth emerge from a simple computational system.