{"id":234,"date":"2013-04-09T15:40:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-09T20:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/?p=234"},"modified":"2013-04-26T12:34:24","modified_gmt":"2013-04-26T17:34:24","slug":"manfred-mohr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/2013\/04\/manfred-mohr\/","title":{"rendered":"Manfred Mohr"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I saw <a href=\"http:\/\/www.triangulationblog.com\/2013\/04\/manfred-mohr.html\">this post on Manfred Mohr's (very!) early digital art<\/a> literally minutes after picking up a book about Mohr's work from the library yesterday. Total coincidence.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_239\" aria-labelledby=\"figcaption_attachment_239\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 516px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Mohr-p231.gif\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-239\" alt=\"p231, Manfred Mohr\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Mohr-p231.gif?resize=506%2C305\" width=\"506\" height=\"305\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"figcaption_attachment_239\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">p231, Manfred Mohr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I like a lot of the pioneering digital artists' work. I think the restraints gave them a lot of focus. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.com\/culture\/design\/magazine\/17-03\/dp_intro\">Limits boost creativity<\/a>.) You don't see many of those first generation guys still producing like Mohr does though. It's also refreshingly unusual that Mohr hasn't gotten bogged down in self-consciously retro, 8-bit, glitch kitsch.<\/p>\n<p>(Dear [far too many digital artists]: I also remember that sprite animations were once a cutting-edge thing. Move on.)<\/p>\n<p>Back when I was taking Computational Geometry I remember getting sidelined working out an algorithm based on the six dimensional rotations in Mohr's <em>space.color.motion<\/em>. At some point I need to dig my notes out for that and implement it.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/32454215?portrait=0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>If you like Mohr you may want to check out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thewhitereview.org\/interviews\/interview-with-manfred-mohr\/\">this interview<\/a> as well. I like what he says at the beginning about taking a simple idea and running with it. Also the questions about an artist working like a scientist were good. This also stood out:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>So I went higher and higher in dimension and it got more and more complicated. I could do different things, but I could not explain to people because it was so complicated. '6-D cube, what kind of crap are you talking about?'<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I've had that experience. Here's a free tip for you: do not try to explain something to a room full of psychologists by beginning \"So if you were to imagine yourself moving around on the surface of a 35-dimensional hypercube...\"<\/p>\n<p>This interview also displays the link between algorithmic art and political economy. Mohr sets up a system, and lets it do its thing. The artwork emerges from the software. Legislators and regulators and executives set up a system and it does its thing. The economy emerges from society. Mohr's work, like all good algorithmic art, reminds me of Hayek's description of spontaneous order: \"of human intent but not of human design.\"<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><i>PS<\/i> <a href=\"http:\/\/prostheticknowledge.tumblr.com\/post\/47562817158\/manfred-mohrs-youtube-channel-a-collection-of\">Prosthetic Knowledge<\/a> points out that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/ManfredEMohr\">Mohr also maintains a very thorough YouTube channel<\/a>. Would that all digital artists did similar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I saw this post on Manfred Mohr's (very!) early digital art literally minutes after picking up a book about Mohr's work from the library yesterday. Total coincidence. I like a lot of the pioneering digital artists' work. I think the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/2013\/04\/manfred-mohr\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-cs","wpautop"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3sddF-3M","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1228,"url":"https:\/\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/art-in-space\/","url_meta":{"origin":234,"position":0},"title":"Art in Space","author":"jsylvest","date":"22 April 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I'm going to put on my Tyler Cowen hat and speculate about what art work will be valuable when humans are space-faring. That's a pretty big range of possibilities, so let's keep things to a realistic, near(-ish) future. That means ignoring Iain Banks-type, post-singularity futures in which people are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Art&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/160126_NorthFront_MidTownCeres_Concept_B_v5.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/160126_NorthFront_MidTownCeres_Concept_B_v5.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/160126_NorthFront_MidTownCeres_Concept_B_v5.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/160126_NorthFront_MidTownCeres_Concept_B_v5.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/160126_NorthFront_MidTownCeres_Concept_B_v5.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":864,"url":"https:\/\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/some-long-overdue-book-reviews\/","url_meta":{"origin":234,"position":1},"title":"Some Long Overdue Book Reviews","author":"jsylvest","date":"12 October 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"More Money Than God, Sebastian Mallaby Excellent. Far too many general audience finance books are written at what I think of as a newspaper reading level. (Defining even the most basic terms, assuming the reader is intimidated by any math as complicated as calculating a percentage, feeling the need to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Business \/ Economics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Business \/ Economics","link":"https:\/\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/category\/business-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"More Money Than God Cover","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/More-Money-front-197x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":599,"url":"https:\/\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/some-recent-brief-book-reviews\/","url_meta":{"origin":234,"position":2},"title":"Some recent, brief book reviews","author":"jsylvest","date":"20 June 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm, Philip Pullman I knew these were darker than Disney (and everyone else in the 20th C.) would have children believe, but wow. I think there was a stretch of seven stories in a row in which at least one person was casually executed. Cinderella's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Reviews&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/category\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"brothers_grimm_pullman_cover","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/brothers_grimm_pullman_cover-198x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":762,"url":"https:\/\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/ousterhout-on-performance-improvements\/","url_meta":{"origin":234,"position":3},"title":"Ousterhout on Performance Improvements","author":"jsylvest","date":"22 March 2014","format":"aside","excerpt":"The best performance improvement is the transition from the nonworking state to the working state. \u2014 John Ousterhout","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Art&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":686,"url":"https:\/\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/knuth-on-tools\/","url_meta":{"origin":234,"position":4},"title":"Knuth on Tools","author":"jsylvest","date":"22 July 2013","format":"aside","excerpt":"The enjoyment of one's tools is an essential ingredient of successful work. \u2014 Donald Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming Vol. II, \u00a74.2.2A This is the dual of \"only a poor craftsmen blames his tools.\" See John D. Cook on this dichotomy here and here.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;CS \/ Science \/ Tech \/ Coding&quot;","block_context":{"text":"CS \/ Science \/ Tech \/ Coding","link":"https:\/\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/category\/cs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1,"url":"https:\/\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/hello-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":234,"position":5},"title":"Hello world!","author":"jsylvest","date":"24 January 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my new blog. I noticed that the book reviews and other notes on my personal webpage were getting longer and unwieldy, so I've decided to migrate some of that content over here. I plan on posting notes on what I've been reading, as well as thoughts about science,\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/hello-world\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":366,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions\/366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsylvest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}