
Kristalstructuren (crystal structures)
- Object:
Print
- Place of origin:
Netherlands (made)
- Date:
1970 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Meertens, Lambert (computer scientists)
Geurts, Leo (computer scientist) - Materials and Techniques:
Silkscreen on paper
- Credit Line:
Given by the Computer Arts Society, supported by System Simulation Ltd, London
- Museum number:
E.70-2008
- Gallery location:
Prints & Drawings Study Room, level C, case 3H, shelf 23
This is one of four silkscreen prints from a portfolio of work entitled Kristalstructuren (crystal structures). The prints were made in 1970 and published by Swart Gallery, Amsterdam. They were created from computer-generated images produced by two Dutch computer scientists, Lambert Meertens and Leo Geurts, who were interested in exploring the role of structure in visual imagery. The original images were created using the ALGOL programming language and an Electrologica X8 computer. The program consisted of a set of rules by which black and white squares could be manipulated into different patterns. One program could produce a large number of different images.
Geurts and Meertens have written that "these four drawings were made from a program to design patterns that combine regularity and irregularity in a natural way. The process is not unlike that of crystallisation, where a regular structure grows out of chaos. The program starts by generating a random pattern of black and white squares, and then step by step a specified regularity is imposed upon it." (Crystallisation. In: Computers and automation, August 1970, p.22)
The four images were acquired by the V&A as part of the Computer Arts Society collection. At the time when they were produced, Meertens and Geurts were both involved in a Dutch branch of the Society, known as CASH.