My First Experience with Computer Drawings

Leomrdo, Vol. 2, pp. 407-409. Pergamon Press 1969. Printed in Great Britain MY FIRST EXPERIENCE DRAWINGS Frederick Hammersley* WITH My background of study in art was of the traditional kind. I have made drawings, paintings, prints and some sculptures. My paintings have evolved into a type that are more formed by the dictates of intuition than by preconceived ideas or consciousplanning. Thepaintingsin oilshavetaken the form of flat geometrical shapes. In my recent paintings the number of shapes has been reduced to very few, and they are closely related to the rectangle of a canvas. I came to realize that intuition feeds upon a certain fund of knowledge and experiencewith a medium. The intuitive or creative act seems to follow this sequence: spade work, planting,waitingandharvest. The image-making process is to me a way of expressing a felt fact. The rightness and the order *Artist living at 608 Carlisle, S . E . ,Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87106, U.S.A. (Received24 April 1969.) of the parts of an image, supplied by intuition, produces a sensation that is both new and familiar. During my first semester of teaching at the University of New Mexico in 1968, I was invited by Charles Mattox to attend a computer drawing class. This happened to coincide with a time in which I had painted myself out, so I welcomed this new experience. I was shown how to prepare a computer program and how to transfer it to an IBM punch card by machine. The alphanumeric characters we could ‘draw’ with were: the alphabet, ten numerals and eleven symbols, such as periods, dashes, slashesetc. The working area of the completed drawing is madeup of a fieldof onehundred andfivecharacters disposed horizontally and fifty vertically. The program prepared on one or more punch cards permits the making of lines, rectangles, triangles, circles and ovals, and also, exponential curves. ................................... ................................... ......................................................................................................... ....................................................... ....................................................... ......................................................................................................... ................................... ................................... ......................................................................................................... ....................................................... ....................................................... ......................................................................................................... ................................... ................................... ......................................................................................................... ....................................................... ....................................................... ......................................................................................................... ................................... ................................... ......................................................................................................... ....................................................... ....................................................... ......................................................................................................... ................................... ................................... ......................................................................................................... ....................................................... ....................................................... ......................................................................................................... ................................... ................................... ......................................................................................................... ....................................................... ....................................................... ......................................................................................................... ................................... ................................... ......................................................................................................... ....................................................... ....................................................... ......................................................................................................... ................................... ................................... ......................................................................................................... ....................................................... ....................................................... ......................................................................................................... ................................... ................................... Fig. 1. ‘YO-YO Almost’, computer drawing, 8.25 x10.5 in., 1969. 407 408 Frederick Hammerslej Fig. 2. 'Etioiigh i s Plenty', computer drawing, 8.25 x 10.5 in., 1969. In addition, any character can be printed on top of any other. The drawings are printed by the computer in black on white paper. It took me some time to get used to this medium. What I intended to make did not always correspond to the program I thought I had punched in the card. I made many mistakes which the computer, in its logical way, would not print. The intricacies and possibilities seem endless and 1 have spent a great deal of time simply trying to master the mechanics of this particular technique. It continues to fascinate me. The great advantage of the computer is that one can see the results so quickly. It takes a considerable time to program a drawing, less time to punch the information on cards, then, only a few seconds for the computer to print it. Afterwards, it takes a very short time to punch out variations of the first program for other drawings. I have been making computer drawings for only a few months and am just now getting warmed up. 1find that working with the computer is, in principle, the same as painting. The elements are different but the end result, as in all visual art is the same -an image. It is not enough that an image be visually attractive. It must, 1 feel, be one of substance and of some significance. I am not concerned with the tricks and combinations forming computer drawings. I am trying, as in my approach to drawing and painting, to take advantage of all possibilities a computer offers me, and to exploit its limitations. I cannot, as yet, predict what might happen. Some ideas that I think are brilliant, when printed, turn out to be unsatisfactory. Doubtful ideas at times turn out to be quite good. I am continually being surprised by the difference between expectation and the result. This I find, is part of the fascination and challenge of the computer. There are two final points about computer drawing that intrigue and concern me-one is positive and one, perhaps, may be negative. The positive one is, as I have said, the seemingly...