THE ALGORISTS

Often I am asked "Who are the algorists?" Simply put an algorist is anyone who works with algorithms. Historically we have viewed algorists as mathematicians. But it also applies to artists who create art using algorithmic procedures that include their own algorithms. This page presents an account of the adaptation of this term by a group of artists in 1995. Algorithmic art has a deep history that reaches back to prehistoric art. But the advent of computing power spawned an artistic practice with form-generating features that is relatively unique to the last quarter of the 20th Century. Computer power gives the artist's algorithms a leverage we might liken to the power of the engine in the industrial revolution. In 1969, when I first tasted algorithmic leverage, I set out to learn how to use it as an artist. Roman Verostko (left) and Jean Pierre Hebert (right), 2011, Santa Barbara. In 1995, Jean-Pierre suggested that we adapt the term algorist for our identity. He also wrote t

Often I am asked "Who are the algorists?" Simply put an algorist is anyone who works with algorithms. Historically we have viewed algorists as mathematicians. But it also applies to artists who create art using algorithmic procedures that include their own algorithms. This page presents an account of the adaptation of this term by a group of artists in 1995. Algorithmic art has a deep history that reaches back to prehistoric art. But the advent of computing power spawned an artistic practice with form-generating features that is relatively unique to the last quarter of the 20th Century. Comput