Ben Laposky, the Father of Computer Art?
January 23, 2007 4:49 PM   Subscribe

Pioneering electronic artist Ben Laposky began creating his “Oscillons” – abstract artworks created by photographing Lissajous figures off a cathode-ray oscilloscope – in the early 1950’s. Some consider him the father of computer art, and the beauty and clarity of his work is astonishing.
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot (12 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Nice post. Here's a pdf of the Oscillons travelling exhibition.
posted by tellurian at 5:23 PM on January 23, 2007


For one photo, a tripod did not help. Elsewise, fun stuff!
posted by hal9k at 5:31 PM on January 23, 2007


Cool, I managed to create the ABC's logo with settings of x 1001, y 3003.
posted by Ritchie at 6:19 PM on January 23, 2007


Thanks, this helps me contextualize one of my favourite Stereloab album titles: "Oscillons From The Antisun".
posted by Nelson at 8:11 PM on January 23, 2007


x=2998
y=1000
Samples=2237

Purty.
posted by Jimbob at 8:22 PM on January 23, 2007


There's a weird optical illusion with those settings, Jimbob: with a hue frequency of about 1000, it seems to be a wireframe helix rotating around the X-axis. At a hue frequency above 10000, it seems to rotate around the Y-axis. The changeover point seems to be somewhere around the 4000-8000 range.
posted by Ritchie at 10:15 PM on January 23, 2007


This is the first, and probably the last, time my browser will ever open a location starting with "math.com." Art is neat, but numbers scare me.

(This art is particularly neat.)
posted by grapefruitmoon at 10:18 PM on January 23, 2007


For one photo, a tripod did not help. Elsewise, fun stuff!

Sorry for the bad link. Here's a much nicer scan of the same work (scroll down below the two framed prints):
http://translab.burundi.sk/code/vzx/index.htm#1

Tripod: is there any web comapny today that's less relevant?
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot at 10:19 PM on January 23, 2007


Wow, Ritchie, good catch! That's really weird!
posted by Jimbob at 10:38 PM on January 23, 2007


That Lissajous Lab thing gave me a headache.
posted by Afroblanco at 11:35 PM on January 23, 2007


Very Keen!

Thanks for posting this!
posted by nimsey lou at 6:35 AM on January 24, 2007


Thanks for the post. I picked up large color print of an Oscillon a while back, at an estate sale. Didn't know what it was, but thought it was cool. Now I know what it is, the title of the piece, and who created it.
posted by f5seth at 8:37 AM on January 24, 2007


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