Untitled Computer-Generated Choreogramme (for Otto Beckmann)

Name: Ragnar Digital, LLC
Price range: $

Frieder Nake

1966

Plotter Drawing

Description

In January of 1966, Frieder Nake held his second one-man show of plotter graphics at Galerie auf der Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt. Austrian sculptor and light-film experimenter Otto Beckmann—who was fascinated with randomness in art, and especially with randomness in dance—read a report about the show and immediately wrote to Nake in Stuttgart suggesting that they cooperate on a project.

The two agreed. Nake created a series of computer-driven algorithmic plotter drawings (now called the Nake Spirals) on a Graphomat Z64. He sent these plotted random paths to Beckmann, who then used them as a foundation for his UV-light animations or Choreogrammes.

Beckman used ultraviolet rays emitted through plexiglass in the same pattern as the drawings, creating a series of mechanical “dances” made of light. These “time-path images of movements” were a new art form he called “light ballets.”

The corresponding Beckmann Choreogramme is also in the collection.