Generative Art
ジェネラティブアート / 1965- / Technique / Digital Art
A way of working in which the maker writes only the rule and the randomness, leaving the drawing to the machine. As in Nees's plotter work, the result is shown as several variants born of one rule.



At a glance
Visual cues
- One simple element repeated to fill the field
- Variants of a single rule shown side by side
- Repetition drifting in angle and position
- A density and precision no hand could reach
Best used for
- Letting a machine make identifiers or one-off tickets that must all differ
- Exhibitions or works where designing the rule is what is on show
Use this style
Take the compact brief into a project or hand the structured version to an AI tool.
Detailed guidance and sourcesProduction rules, reference works, comparisons, research and citation formats
Dictionary entry
- Type
- Letters handled as coordinates and repetitions with the face itself fixed
- Composition
- Seed and random range set, outputs laid side by side to inspect the spread
- Material
- Lines assumed at a plotter's constant weight, tone made by overlap density
- Caution
- A random range set too wide widens the gap between good and bad results and leaves a pile of output instead of a work.
- Further study
- Georg Nees / Vera Molnár / Processing and creative coding
Related entries
- Saul Bass Title Design (ソール・バスのタイトルデザイン)Shared effects: Play.Compare Generative Art and Saul Bass Title Design
- Net.art (ネット・アート)Same Digital Art lineage.Compare Generative Art and Net.art
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Cite this entry
The dictionary is meant to be linked to. Take whichever form fits where you are writing.
- Link
- https://indexstyle.org/styles/generative-art
- Markdown
- [Generative Art — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/generative-art)
- HTML
- <a href="https://indexstyle.org/styles/generative-art">Generative Art — IndexStyle</a>