Primary Codes

Primary Codes was a remarkable gathering of artists pioneers of computer art, which provided the cornerstone of one of the predominant characteristics of contemporary art: the connection between art and technology. The English artists, Harold Cohen, Ernest Edmonds and Paul Brown and the German artist, Frieder Nake, pioneered the use of computer programming in the development of artworks and, even today, they continue to transform and innovate the art that emerges from the use of this medium. Their careers began in the mid-1960s and early 1970s, when the computer was still far from being an everyday tool. They all realized early on in the period designated ‘the digital revolution of the 20th century’, that algorithmic code is a language with an immense creative potential and applied its use in the making of art, exploring its possibilities to the upmost. The relationship of these artists with computer technology is not superficial and is by no means limited to entering commands on a machine interface. The process has an intellectual and subjective relationship with the creation of codes aimed at creating an aesthetic experience. The exhibition Primary Codes, which we curated, was the result of more than three years of investigation into the still mostly unknown history of computer art1. This research proved to be relevant as though the use of computers as instruments of mediation is supposedly a contemporary phenomenon in the field of arts, on taking a closer look, it reveals deeper and older roots. Thus, it led us to map the artists who were the precursors of this practice.