Peter Beyls (Belgian, b. 1950) RWK, plotter drawing, 1977
Ink on Paper
30 × 20 cm
Collection of Bre Pettis
PION.2018.006
Description
Peter Beyls (Belgian, b. 1950) wrote his first drawing programs in 1974 while studying computer science at Ghent University, and made this work in 1977, the year he went to the Slade School of Art in London as a visiting scholar to continue his research in algorithmic drawing. His earliest machine drawings explore uncertainty and conditional randomness, typically organized as grid structures, with a pen plotter executing decisions delegated to simple rule systems. RWK belongs to this founding body of plotter work (the title is as acquired — his own site lists the 1976–77 sheets simply as untitled) by an artist who has treated the computer as a creative partner across five decades of generative art and music.