Untitled Plotter Drawing 1

Name: Ragnar Digital, LLC
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Gary Alfred Demos

1970

Plotter Drawing

Description

These two untitled plotter drawings were produced in 1970 by Gary Alfred Demos, at a moment when his training as an engineer was beginning to intersect with his interest in visual form. Made during his senior year at the California Institute of Technology, where he was studying physics, mathematics, and electrical engineering, the drawings anticipate Demos’s later role as a leading figure in the development of computer-generated imagery and motion-picture technology.

That same year, Demos encountered the work of visiting artist and educator John Whitney Sr., often described as the father of computer graphics. Whitney’s computer-generated animations—abstract shapes and rhythmic patterns recorded on 16mm film and synchronized with music—revealed the computer not merely as a calculating device, but as a tool for visual exploration. “His enthusiasm for experimental filmmaking with computers was contagious, and I began to explore the intricate visual patterns that could be created by computer,” Demos later recalled.

The plotter drawings, composed of precisely rendered geometric forms in black ink on white paper, reflect this moment of discovery. While their Op art vocabulary aligns them with plotter art of the period, they also register a shift in Demos’s thinking, and record the pivotal moment before Demos quit his studies to embark on a career in visual computing.