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Tube Horn with Egg

Cibachrome
1988 (made)
Artist/Maker
IBM UK Scientific Centre (printer)
William Latham (maker)
Place of origin
UK (made)

Cibachrome photographic print depicting a complex form resembling a fantastical organism, on a black background.

Object details

Categories
Photographs
Computer Art
Object type
Cibachrome
TitleTube Horn with Egg (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Cibachrome photographic print, after a computer-generated image
Photographic Paper
Cibachrome
Brief description
William Latham, Tube Horn with Egg, cibachrome photographic print, UK, 1988
Physical description
Cibachrome photographic print depicting a complex form resembling a fantastical organism, on a black background.
Dimensions
  • Height: 28cm
  • Length: 21.8cm
Gallery label
(07/07/2018-18/11/2018)
Chance and Control: Art in the Age of Computers (2018)

WILLIAM LATHAM (born 1961)
Tube Horn with Egg
UK, 1988

William Latham started using computers in the mid 1980s, then became a Research Fellow at the technology company IBM. Together with mathematician Stephen Todd, he created the Mutator program, modelled on the process of evolution in nature. Starting with a simple shape, the program introduced random mutations to generate increasingly complex creations resembling fantastical organisms. In 2007 Latham became a professor at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Cibachrome photographic print, after a computer-generated image
Museum no. E.362-1988
Object history
Notes: William Latham was a visiting research fellow at the I.B.M. U.K. Scientific Centre, Winchester, 1987-88. He used the centre's graphics software Winsom [C.S.G. Modeller], Fastdraw and E.S.M.E. [Extensible Solid Model Editor] to create his forms, and used 3D texturing, multiple light sources and blending to make the forms appear realistic. "Various geometric entities or primitives, such as tetrahedron or cone.... are operated on by one of a list of transformers: beak, scoop, bulge, stretch and so on. the shapes thus spawned can be married with objects from other roots. Interesting details develop their own families..." (Quoted in Pipes, Computer Images, see full reference above). Output is to a PCR camera.
Bibliographic reference
Alan Pipes, "The Creative Forms of IBM Research", Computer Images, Jan-Feb, 1988, pp.10-12, Alan Pipes, "Using CAD [Computer Aided Design] creatively", Engineering, March 1988, pp.159-160, Creative Review, March 1988, p.10
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.362-1988

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Record createdNovember 24, 2008
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O173767/tube-horn-with-egg-cibachrome-william-latham/
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