MBB Computer Graphics (portfolio)

Name: Ragnar Digital, LLC
Price range: $

Rolf Wölk Frank Böttger Sylvia Roubaud Gerold Weiss Aron Warszawski Johann Willsberger

1972

From catalog:

"Square quarto (34 × 34 cm) | Original
printed laminated boards; 10 separate color screenprints by Frank Böttger, Sylvia
Roubaud, Gerold Weiss, Aron Warszawski, Rolf Wölk and 160 pp. with over 130 full
page reproductions of computer graphics as well as some examples of applied
technical graphics of aircraft development and road planning | Film lamination on
the binding"

Portfolio Works

Description

The MBB Computer Graphics portfolio, the result of a project initiated by the German aerospace manufacturer Messerschmitt- Bölkow-Blohm, is one of the earliest examples of corporate sponsorship of artistic initiatives involving computer technology.

The idea was conceived by Winfried Fischer, head of press at MBB, in 1971. A group was formed consisting of four engineers, programmers and mathematicians at the company—Rolf Wölk, Frank Böttger, Aron Warszawski and Gerold Weiss—as well as one artist, Sylvie Roubaud. Over two years, the group members worked both together and alone to explore the creative possibilities of algorithms and machines. Roubaud, who lacked the others’ technical knowledge, collaborated closely with Weiss to create images based on her ideas and sketches. The programs were written in Fortran IV, run on an IBM 360 Model 50 mainframe and output on a Kongsberg Kingmatic plotter before being reproduced as screenprints.

The resulting works all fit neatly within the trend for geometric abstraction that dominates early computer art, executed with a high level of technical precision. They were presented on several occasions: in an internal exhibition at MBB in 1972; in a coffee-table book, Computer Graphics (1972), by Johann Willsberger; as part of the cultural program of the 1972 Munich Olympics, and at the 1973 exhibition “Tendencies 5” in Zagreb.

Explosion of Ordered Structures Gerold Weiss / Sylvia Roubaud 1972 Print

Rotating Planes Frank Böttger 1972 Print

Connections of Points by Arc Sequences Sylvia Roubaud / Gerold Weiss 1972 Print

Stochastic Lines Subjected to Constraints #3 Rolf Wölk 1972 Print

Interpolation and Rotation Frank Böttger 1972 Print

Circle Sequences Frank Böttger / Aron Warszawski 1972 Print

Stochastic Lines Subjected to Constraints #2 Rolf Wölk 1972 Print

Square Formations Frank Böttger 1972 Print