Harold Cohen (British, 1928–2016) Untitled, Solana Beach, 1985
AARON drawing — black felt pen on T. H. Saunders paper, executed by a custom robotic drawing apparatus
76 × 56 cm
Unique (1/1)
Signed and dated in pencil by Cohen
The Pettis Collection of Computer Art; acquired from Aleator Press
PION.2026.099
Description
A unique AARON drawing from 1985, made at Harold Cohen's Solana Beach, California studio. AARON — the autonomous art-making program Cohen began developing in the late 1960s — conceived the image, which a custom robotic drawing apparatus then executed in real time in black felt pen on T. H. Saunders fine paper (light cream stock, four natural deckle edges). It shows rock-like forms alongside and behind highly abstracted biotic forms resembling birds and plants. Cohen noted the piece marks AARON's transition toward "a more ambitious representational system that proceeds from abstract non-visual knowledge about the world," and stressed: "this is not a print! It is a unique artwork that was conceived by an AI system and physically realized by a custom robotic drawing apparatus." A related work is held by the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Note: genuine mid-80s AARON sheets typically carry a machine-written "Aaron [date] [time]" inscription (compare the V&A's sheet inscribed "Aaron 8-16-85 20:28") — worth locating on this sheet. Cohen's studio in this period is usually given as Encinitas; the Solana Beach attribution is as acquired.
Sources: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O239975/