Nr. 6

Name: Ragnar Digital, LLC
Price range: $

Frieder Nake

1965

Plotter Drawing

5.5"x3.5"

Historical Firsts Highlights The Ragnar 100

Description

Created at a moment when computer art was first entering public view, Nr. 6 stands among the earliest exhibited works generated by a digital computer. Shown in the landmark 1964 “Computergrafik” exhibition organized by Nake and Georg Nees, the work embodies the influence of Max Bense’s Information Aesthetics, which framed beauty as something that could be rationally described and algorithmically produced. The image is constructed from simple elements governed by precise rules, emphasizing order, clarity, and formal balance over expressive gesture. For Nake and his contemporaries, this approach was both aesthetic and ethical: an assertion of rational structure in response to the emotional manipulation of mass politics. Nr. 6 thus represents not only a technical experiment, but a philosophical statement about art, logic, and responsibility in a computational age.