Cybernethisms: Aldo Giorgini’s Computer Art Legacy by Esteban García Bravo

Author:Esteban García Bravo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bookmasters Group

Figure 45. Landscape A, 1986. A limited edition poster that later became the design of a Screeching Weasel album in 1994.

The inclusion of Giorgini’s computer art at fine art institutions during the 1980s parallels the gradual acceptance of technologically based practices in the art world. Early computer art faded away as personal computers became a more common art tool. Colette Bangert explained this technological transition in an interview: “Mainframes went away and we got our own personal computer. The expense went down and we could finally afford to buy our own little computers, PCs, and our own plotters. We didn’t used to be able to do that. That changed everything, because you could use the computer on your own time, in your own studio, or house. That revolutionized who was called a computer artist.”69

Personal computers fostered a new generation of artists, such as Margot Lovejoy and David Rokeby. Rokeby’s seminal work of interactive art, entitled Very Nervous System, for example, was created at the artist’s studio by playing with the tools that were commercially available at the time.70 The new computers were affordable and didn’t need a lot of programming knowledge. Compared to Giorgini’s programs, like Apple Hydraulics or Photo, the new frameworks were not only easy to use through a GUI, but also could be easily distributed using floppy disks. Giorgini was well aware of this technological revolution. In his studio, he had an IBM and commercial digital painting programs, such as EGA Paint from 1986. However, Giorgini’s art frameworks were more complex than the emerging software packages for art and design. Giorgini’s programs were capable of processing large amounts of data to create three-dimensional, colorful, and time-based images compared to the painting-by-pixel approach in programs like EGA Paint or SuperPaint.

Giorgini had an exceptional combination of creativity and programming skills, resulting in his unique computer art. Other noncomputer artists saw his talents as an opportunity for furthering their work. However, Giorgini was opposed to a collaboration in which he would be just a technical intermediary between another artist and the computer: “I have found literally hundreds of people that would have been glad to collaborate with me. The formula was rather simple: Their ideas and my computer expertise. I have developed in time a technique of warding off such requests by simply stating the truth: I have more ideas than I have time to implement them. It seems that hundred [sic] of people would be thrilled to add the 10% of their inspiration to the 90% of my perspiration to come up with something real great!”71

As Giorgini jokingly stated, he had more ideas than time allowed. He was inundated with research projects and also a devoted father of two teenage boys. A widower since 1977, Giorgini had to play the role of both parents in his household.

Father

Giorgini was a full-time supporter of his sons’ creative pursuits. Massimiliano and Flaviano were musically inclined, and while in high school, they formed a punk rock band called Rattail Grenadier. Giorgini provided them with space to practice, sharing his art studio with the band.

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