P-193-B / 10

Manfred Mohr’s background in jazz and abstract painting shaped his rhythmic approach to the computer as a creative tool. His earliest algorithmic drawings grew out of the same linear thinking he applied in music, where progression, variation, and controlled repetition form the basis of composition. By 1977, he was writing programs that translated mathematical relationships into visual form, using geometry and logic to generate compositions. During this period, he focused on cube structures and their internal diagonals, a direction that laid the foundation for his later studies of higher-dimensional cubes and graph theory. It is during this phase that Signs and Co-Signs emerged.

Mohr’s programs P-192 and P-193, written in 1976, use algorithmic rules to generate geometric structures. In P-192, line segments are drawn from coordinates and angles selected by a random generator within fixed parameters. Its operations reflect Mohr’s interest in balancing structure with controlled unpredictability, an approach that stems from his exposure to algorithmic music. P-193 extends this logic to the cube’s diagonals, which are projected, rotated, and systematically altered in two dimensions.

The portfolio Signs and Co-Signs brings together twenty-six serigraphs created from these two programs, each exploring the visual language of the cube as both structure and process. The first thirteen, derived from P-192, depict a sequence in which a cube is progressively deconstructed and reassembled through Mohr’s algorithmic logic. The form begins as a clear geometric outline drawn with fine lines; edges disappear and diagonal segments emerge, creating a shifting interplay between stability and disintegration. As the series advances, the cube regains coherence, its contours returning in thicker, more deliberate strokes. The remaining thirteen prints, generated with P-193, trace the inverse path. Starting from a blank field, lines gradually accumulate and connect into a cube that rotates and solidifies across each frame. The final image presents a complete structure defined by both external edges and interior diagonals, closing the cycle of dissolution and reconstruction that defines the portfolio.

Mohr’s titles reflect the same systematic logic as his programs, using numbers to indicate the series, the algorithm, and sometimes the random seed used as the algorithm’s initial input. They function as both label and structure, connecting each image to the process that generated it.