Abstract (Poster)

Keywords: Computer Aided Drawing, Computational Drawing, FORTRAN Programming Language, CalComp Pen Plotter, CalComp Subroutines.

Early computer aided drawings were created in 1975 using Fortran, CalComp subroutines and a CalComp Pen Plotter. The gesture of making a mark was envisioned and experienced through the mathematics, the code and the drawing process. Making an image of something normally invisible to the human eye, came to fruition through this process. Wind gusts blowing against one’s face, and light waves reflecting off of irregular surfaces were ‘imprinted’ on paper through the digital process. I incorporated mathematical formulas that described invisible phenomena from the natural world, into Fortran programs. In order to create drawings from this code, I integrated CalComp subroutines into the programs to implement instructions for the pen plotter. My intention to create expressive drawings using the computer and pen plotter in 1975 disrupted the normal studio practice at that time. As my hand was not holding the pen, or the brush as it moved across an artist’s canvas, there was early skepticism about the expressiveness and the craft of this process. I had an intimate relationship with the programs I developed and thus created very expressive drawings.

• Professor Joan Truckenbrod began working with mainframe computers in 1975 creating a series of computer drawings expressing invisible phenomena in the natural world. Using
  Fortran Programming Language and a Calcomp Pen Plotter, she explored the creative potential for digital artistic practice. In addition to writing and developing code, she used
  computers to create computer imaging, digital painting and to develop interactive installations. This artwork has been exhibited internationally. In 1988 she published a book titled Creative Computer Imaging. She was on the faculty in the Art and Technology Program at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA, for 25 years. Currently she is creating video sculptures, juxtaposing video and sound with objects. This work is documented in a book published in 2012 titled The Paradoxical Object: Video Film Sculpture that includes installations of artists who have inspired her work.    joantruckenbrod.com

Full text (PDF) p. 917-918