Description
Part of Mohr's P-series of algorithmic works produced in the early 1970s on a Benson flatbed plotter. Systematic variations of signs and structures drawn from a fixed alphabet of lines. Using programmed rules and plotter technology, P-120 transforms mathematical structure into visual form, replacing the artist’s hand with coded instructions and procedural variation. Like many of Mohr’s early works, it marks a pivotal moment in the history of computer art—revealing how algorithms could become tools for aesthetic exploration and opening new possibilities for generative artistic practice.
P-120 dates from the final year of Manfred Mohr's early algorithmic works (1969–72), in which he devised an individual algorithm for each work — his P-numbers refer to the generating program — building images from an alphabet of generated line elements passed through imposed rules and random choices he called 'aesthetical filters.' The drawing was computed on a CDC 6400 and executed in ink by the high-resolution Benson flatbed plotter at the Météorologie Nationale in Paris, to which Mohr had gained access in 1970. It stands at the threshold of his turn to fixed structure: in 1972–73 the cube became his generative system, opening the Cubic Limit phase and ending the invention of a new algorithm for every work.
Part of Mohr's P-series of algorithmic works produced in the early 1970s on a Benson flatbed plotter. Systematic variations of signs and structures drawn from a fixed alphabet of lines.
Sources: https://digitalartmuseum.org/mohr/1969.html · https://www.emohr.com/ManfredMohr_50YearCelebration_TimeLine.html · https://www.ader-paris.fr/lot/103601/12361933-manfred-mohr-allemand-ne-en-1938-prog-120-1972-trace-a Mohr's own catalogue lists P-120_2 as Meta Language II (1972); the "(small)" once attached to this record was dropped — both sheets measure the same.
Sources: https://www.emohr.com/early_algo.html