Hiroshi Kawano (b.1925, China) graduated from the department of Philosophy at the University of Tokyo in 1951, specialising in Aesthetics. He went on to receive a postgraduate qualification from the same institution in the Philosophy of Science in 1955 and a PhD from Osaka University in 1986. Like many early computer art pioneers, Kawano was highly influenced by the German philosopher Max Bense, who attempted to create a scientific model for understanding successful aesthetics. Kawano explored these theories using the computer.

It is thought that Kawano began writing his own computer programs in the early 1960s. Many of the results of his early computations were then transferred into more traditional media, such as screenprints like this, at which point Kawano could apply colour.

Kawano is said to have published some of the first computer-generated works of art in a journal in Japan in 1964. He went on to exhibit in the Tendencies 4 and 5 movement in Zagreb, Croatia. The archive of his works is now held by the Centre for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany.

This version of the work is from the Art Ex Machina portfolio of six untitled prints by various artists, published in 1972. The artist has also called it Red Tree, a reference to the bold shapes in the centre of the image.