Return to Square (color version)

Computer Technique Group (CTG) Masao Kohmura Kunio Yamanaka

1968

27.5"x27.5"

The CTG Collection The Ragnar 100 Highlights

Description

Yamanaka’s program interpolates between a woman’s profile (traced from a William Klein photograph in Vogue) and plain squares set inside and outside it, printing intermediate steps, so the transformation reads as concentric contours. The idea is Kohmura’s.

The algorithm was recreated by Oizumi, who extracted 126 coordinates from the profile and measured the spacing of the printed outlines. Version (a) spaces its outlines at equal intervals: ten outside the profile, fifty inside. Version (b) in contrast compresses the spacing toward the profile following a quadratic rule, with twenty outlines outside the profile and thirty inside, each at a distance proportional to the square of its step count. The gaps start fine against the face and widen steadily toward the square.

One-off colored variants were part of CTG’s practice around the Tokyo Gallery show. A fluorescent Kennedy in a Dog is also recorded.

The work proved to be popular: version (a) was published as a Motif Editions lithograph in London, while version (b) appeared on record jackets including Morton Subotnick’s 1969 Columbia LP Touch and as the poster for the Tokyo Gallery exhibition.

Graphic Design, Issue No. 33, Spring (March) 1969 by Computer Technique Group (CTG), 1968

Graphic Design, Issue No. 33, Spring (March) 1969 Computer Technique Group (CTG)1968 Ephemera

Computer-Kunst: On the Eve of Tomorrow by Käthe Schröder, 1969

Computer-Kunst: On the Eve of Tomorrow Käthe Schröder1969 Ephemera

March of Polygons by Computer Technique Group (CTG), 1968

March of Polygons Computer Technique Group (CTG)1968 Print

Bijutsu Techō (Issue No. 313, May 5, 1969) by Bijutsu Shuppan-sha, 1969

Bijutsu Techō (Issue No. 313, May 5, 1969) Bijutsu Shuppan-sha1969 Book

Kennedy in a Rectangle (Negative) by Computer Technique Group (CTG), 1968

Kennedy in a Rectangle (Negative) Multiple Artists1968 Print

Touch Morton Subotnick1969 Sound

Twisted Circle by Computer Technique Group (CTG), 1968

Twisted Circle Computer Technique Group (CTG)1968 Print

Cybernetic Serendipity (portfolio) by Kerry Strand, 1968

Cybernetic Serendipity (portfolio) Multiple Artists1968 Print