Scratch code (portfolio)

Manfred Mohr’s portfolio Scratch Code opens with a text by German writer Gustav Hain titled “Signs and Other Symbols.” Printed in German, English, and French, it offers a framework for understanding the artist’s algorithmic drawings as a system of signs rather than images. Hain describes the world as a field of perceptible signs, where meaning arises through variation, repetition, and structure. Within this context, Mohr’s computer-generated lines and geometric forms function as symbols that do not represent the external world but reveal processes of logic and change, turning abstract structures into a form of communication.

Eighty portfolios were produced, each containing eight screenprints based on pen plotter drawings made between 1970 and 1975. Each image was generated by a computer program written by Mohr and later printed by Éditions Média in 1976. The works include one derived from the algorithm P-021/A + B “band-structure,” plotted on a Benson flatbed pen plotter connected to a CDC computer, which Mohr described as his first program to produce a visual form of abstract writing.

Across the portfolio, a visual language of linear sequences and geometric precision emerges. Fine lines move across the page with calculated rhythm, alternating between open structures and dense intersections. Some drawings resemble written marks or musical notation, where direction and spacing suggest tempo and variation. Others appear more mechanical, their forms built from repeated units that shift slightly with each iteration. Mohr’s musical background is evident in the rhythmic balance of black and white. The plotted lines evoke ancient scripts and forgotten runes, uniting the act of inscription with the logic of machine language.

These works form a record of Mohr’s early exploration of the computer as an instrument. They reflect his belief that art can arise from the internal logic of a system while still carrying the cadence and complexity of human reasoning.