Prof.Dr.Frieder Nake

DATE:      Wednesday March 5th 2008,
PLACE:    Interface Culture Lab, Sonnensteinstr. 11-13, 2nd floor
Lecturer:  Prof.Dr.Frieder Nake, Informatics, University of Bremen and Digital Media
Title:        "The Machine and the Sign Notes on the algorithmic approach to art"

When today we say „machine“, we usually mean „computer“. When we hear „sign“, we often don’t really know what it means. The computing machine is a semiotic machine, and that characterization helps understand much of what computing machinery stands for. The talk will use the case of digital art as the example to let such an abstract announcement become more concrete.
A selection of early computer art will be presented. It will be countered by a few indications of interactive art. The examples will serve as the aesthetic background for five more theoretical deliberations. We will consider the machine and the machinic principle to see what computers do. We will similarly consider the sign and the semiotic principle to see what signs are good for. The algorithmic principle and the interactive principle will be identified as those that characterize the function and use of computers as semiotic machines. From them it should become clear how computability and interactivity are the two paradigms of digital media. The talk will end by showing how the computer became a medium. 

*1938 (D); lives and works in Bremen (D).
Frieder Nake studied mathematics at the University of Stuttgart (D), Ph.D. in probability theory in 1967. 1968/69 he was visiting researcher in computer art at the University of Toronto (CDN) (with Leslie Mezei). In 1963 he bean his first artistic experiments with the «Graphomat Z64», the legendary drawing machine of Konrad Zuse, at the Technical University of Stuttgart. Currently, Professor of Interactive Computergraphics at the University of Bremen (D), he has had a long involvement with digital art. He and fellow pioneers A. Michael Noll and Georg Nees all hjad their first exhibitions in 1965 (in Stuttgart, resp. New York). They participated in the famous exhibition «Cybernetic Serendipity» in 1968 in London (GB). Some of Nake's plotter prints explored visualizations of series of matrix multiplications, imagery that has an undeniable artistic intention. Nake's account of Manfred Mohr's hypercube series also reveals fascinating insights into the relationship between mathematics and aesthetics. Since the 1970s, his work also covers political, economic and theoretical criticism of computer science. His many publications, a.o. «Ästhetik der Informationsverarbeitung» (1974), helped to promote information aesthetics.
(MedienKunstnetz, February 12th)

biography
Geboren 16.12.1938  
1958-64 Studium der Mathematik in Stuttgart
1965 erste Ausstellung von Computerkunst, Stuttgart.
Viele weitere in der Folge  
1966 First Prize im Computer Art Contest von „Computers and Automation”
1967 Promotion zum Dr.rer.nat. in Wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie  
1968-69 Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Toronto  
1970-72 Assistant Professor Computer Science, University of B.C. in Vancouver  
Seit 1972 Professor an der Universität Bremen, Grafische Datenverarbeitung und Interaktive Systeme  
1997 Berninghausen-Preis für ausgezeichnete Lehre und ihre Innovation
Seit 2004 mit Lehraufträge an der Universität Bremen und der Hochschule für Künste  Bremen, in Digitale Medien und Computergrafik
Gastprofessor: Universität Wien 1988, Universitetet Oslo 1995, University of Colorado  at Boulder 1997 und 1998, Aarhus Universitet 2000 , 2002, 2004, 2005, International School of New Media Lübeck 2003, 2005, 2006, Hochschule für  Künste Bremen 2005-06, Universität Basel 2007    

Aktuelle Arbeitsschwerpunkte  Gestaltung digitaler Medien, Interaktive Grafik, Computerkunst, Technische Semiotik, Theorie der Informatik, Computer in Lernumgebungen   

publications
F. Nake, A. Rosenfeld (eds.): Graphic Languages. Proc. of the IFIP Working  Conference on Graphic Languages. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publ. Co., 1972
F. Nake: Ästhetik als Informationsverarbeitung. Grundlagen und Anwendungen der Informatik im Bereich ästhetischer Produktion und Kritik. Wien, New York:  Springer-Verlag, 1974 (engl. Übersetzung in Vorbereitung)
F. Nake (ed.): Graphik in Dokumenten. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York: Springer-Verlag, 1986  W. Coy, F. Nake, et al. (eds.): Sichtweisen der Informatik. Braunschweig, Wiesbaden: Vieweg, 1992  
F. Nake, D. Stoller (eds.): Algorithmus und Kunst. ”Die präzisen Vergnügen”.  Hamburg: Sautter & Lackmann, 1993  
F. Nake (ed.): Die erträgliche Leichtigkeit der Zeichen. Ästhetik, Semiotik, Informatik. Baden-Baden: Agis-Verlag 1993   P.Bøgh Andersen &
F. Nake: Computers and Signs. Prolegomena to a Semiotic Foundation of Computing Science. In preparation
Zahlreiche Zeitschriften- und Konferenzbeiträge