Oscillion #18

Ben Laposky’s images made using oscilloscopes — graphics generated by an electronic machine — represent some of the very first forays into what later became known as computer art. Oscillon #18 is an early original example.

Laposky started his career as a sign painter and draftsman, but he was also a keen student of mathematics and physics. From the mid-1940s, he sought different ways to combine these interests — making images using algebraic curves and magic number arrangements, photographic pendulum tracings, and so on. In 1950, he hit upon the concept of “electronic compositions,” or “oscillons”: images generated on a cathode-ray oscilloscope, an instrument for electronic testing and analysis that works by visualizing electrical signals as waveforms.

To produce a range of visually interesting shapes, Laposky modified and varied the settings on his oscilloscopes, which allowed him to control factors like size, brightness, and position of the traces that appeared on the oscilloscope’s fluorescent screen. He also experimented with input circuitry, and even built some of his own instruments, to generate sine waves, sawtooth waves, and other waveforms. Many of his designs feature variations on patterns known as “Lissajous figures,” created through the interaction of sine waves, as seen in this example. Laposky then photographed the results on the screen, using a high-speed lens to capture the pulsing abstract forms.

Laposky referred to his images as “oscillons” to distinguish them from oscillograms used for practical purposes. They were, he wrote, “intended to be a form of creative fine art.” The images were first published in Scripta Mathematica magazine in 1952; in 1953, Laposky co-organized “Electronic Abstractions,” a touring exhibition featuring 50 of his pictures (11-by-14–inch photographic enlargements of single-frame 35mm negatives), including Oscillon #18. The groundbreaking exhibition opened at the Sanford Museum in Cherokee, Iowa, and traveled in various iterations to over 200 venues in the US and beyond.

While his instrument was not a computer, Laposky’s process of programming a machine to produce abstract images paved the way for future developments in computer-generated graphics. He claimed to have made some 10,000 negatives, but very few survive today, making them rare records of this remarkable chapter from the prehistory of computer art