Dr Bill’s Generative Art Vending Machine is a custom application where you can mint Generative Art Tokens of my work. Like a vending machine you select an “algorithmic snack”. Our interface allows you to “generate” your own variation based on your interaction with the algorithm. Save off the variations you like, and ultimately, pick and mint a unique image (NFT) of your own. All algorithmic snacks are original implementations of algorithms by yours truly. Some of these algorithms go way back to the underlying code for my original plotter drawings back in the era, 1973-1981. Some of the algorithms were inspired by other image makers. We were a small group at the time, and we influenced each other. Enjoy your snacks!

Generative Art Vending Machine

Dr Bill’s Generative Art Vending Machine is a custom application where you can mint Generative Art Tokens of my work. Like a vending machine you select an “algorithmic snack”. Our interface allows you to “generate” your own variation based on your interaction with the algorithm. Save off the variations you like, and ultimately, pick and mint a unique image (NFT) of your own. All algorithmic snacks are original implementations of algorithms by yours truly. Some of these algorithms go way back to the underlying code for my original plotter drawings back in the era, 1973-1981. Some of the algorithms were inspired by other image makers. We were a small group at the time, and we influenced each other. As an intellectual exercise I can study a particular artists’ work and codify his/her methodology or style. Most influential to me were OP artists like Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley, graphic artists like M.C. Escher, as well as a few painters like Picasso and Warhol. Many of these artists lived and worked before the advent of Generative Art and did not use computers. However, when I look at their efforts, I attempt to conceive an algorithm to create a derivative work. I call it “Art”ificial Intelligence. Along with this collection of algorithmic snacks I am continually inspired to write more. Enjoy your snacks!

Dr. Bill Kolomyjec has been involved in Generative Art from the very beginning of the form. As one of the earliest pioneers of the medium he started making computer art in the early 70’s.

Dr. Bill, the OG of Generative Art

Dr. Bill, Generative Art OG

Dr. Bill has been pioneering the medium of Generative Art since the early 70’s. His Plotter Art Collection includes 1/1 NFTs that come with original prints made back then. His Generative Art Vending Machine is the newest project he’s actively working on. And there’s more!

Artworks

Events & Media

Early AI experiments using MidJourney, Winter 2023

Dr. Bill is consumed by his art.

Dr. Bill Turns 75

Dr. Bill takes the audience of an NFT Art event in Toronto on the generative art journey, from the 70’s until now.

Generative Art Retrospective 11.20.2021

Bear jokes and Generative Art NFTs chat with Michael Rippe at the Morning Squeeze space.

Morning Squeeze Twitter Space, Jun 7, 2022

I visit the DOJO of The Sensei to chat about how it was creating computer art in the 70’s and all things NFTs, Art and Life.

Dr. Bill live with The Sensei, 06.07.2022

I made a guest appearance on this Abstract Art NFTs Twitter Space hosted by abstract artist Alisha Anglin. We talk about my journey as a computer artist, and all things generative / abstract art and NFTs.

Abstract Artists & NFTs, Jun 3, 2022

One of my early artworks, Hypnotic Squares, was featured in this Generative Artistry series of interactive tutorials exploring ideas and techniques used in Generative Art.

Hypnotic Squares Tutorial

Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago, Feb 1 - Mar 16, 1980
 
Original exhibition description from 1980:
Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago, Feb 1 - Mar 16, 1980

Original exhibition description from 1980:
Computer Aided Graphics is an exhibit featuring the medium of computer graphics. It is the youngest medium to challenge traditional media since photography. Dr. Herbert W. Franke, author of one of the most significant books on the subject entitled Computer Art – Computer Graphics, states that it was in the year 1965 that aesthetic Computer Graphics "became more generally known". In that year there were two exhibitions of computer graphics as aesthetic imagery…

AIAO

Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago, Feb 1 - Mar 16, 1980 Original exhibition description from 1980: Computer Aided Graphics is an exhibit featuring the medium of computer graphics. It is the youngest medium to challenge traditional media since photography. Dr. Herbert W. Franke, author of one of the most significant books on the subject entitled Computer Art – Computer Graphics, states that it was in the year 1965 that aesthetic Computer Graphics "became more generally known". In that year there were two exhibitions of computer graphics as aesthetic imagery. One in January at the Studio Gallery of the Technische Hochschule (now University) in Stuttgart, West Germany, arranged by Georg Nees; and the other in April at the Howard Wise Gallery in New York entitled "World Exhibition of Computer Graphics", organized by A. Michael Noll. Franke gives credit to William A. Fetter who, he states, was the first to use the term "computer graphics". While Fetter was affiliated with Boeing Corporation, he produced computer drawings of the human figure for use in airplane cockpit design which are now considered as classic computer imagery. Franke mentions another significant figure in his discussion of the beginning years of computer art: Kenneth Knowlton who, with others, was first responsible for picture processing and other digital image processing. His experiments and research involving representational image processing at Bell Laboratories may indeed be considered as standard setting in the medium. We are delighted and honored to have the works of these three pioneers at our exhibition. Since these pioneering days (15 years ago) surprisingly few persons have come to be known as computer graphic artists. To be a practitioner of the medium three essential ingredients must be present. One is an aesthetic sensibility or a visual awareness. Two is access to a computer with graphic peripherals, the hardware. Three, the ability to interact with the hardware so that visual imagery is generated. This third component is the most critical and whether you can do it yourself or have someone to help doesn't seem to matter. Hence, we find our proponents near centers of high technology, in proximity to their hardware. Anywhere computers can be found, so too can we find the computer artist. In fact, for this very reason, computer aesthetic imagery is as international as computer technology. Four countries are represented in this show: Belgium, France, West Germany, and the United States. The works assembled here do not represent any single artist. Rather the intent is to provide a cross-section of what has come to be called "Computer Art" and to provide the onlooker with a synergistic glance at an art form of the future as it struggles to find its way into the contemporary art scene. We cannot deny a growing dependence on computers and computer technology in the years to come. Therefore, it might follow that computer art is going to be more significant in the aesthetic world. We have already forced the academe to reconsider the meaning of originality with our random-number generators and the question of removing the hand from the image making process. The computer is indeed a tool at the hand of an enlightened artist. The cliche "Garbage In/Garbage Out”, was the inspiration for the title of this exhibition. In a typical conversation about computers, we have heard this expression and it represents a common and accepted knowledge about computers. It is a fairly accurate perception. The salient issue, however, is that if one accepts this as gospel about computers one must also concede to the notion that aesthetically intended input must yield aesthetic imagery as output, hence "Art In/Art Out". The intention to use this technologically oriented medium to create imagery is paramount to the physical nature of the computer. The need for self-expression can be actualized by the medium of computer graphics with all aesthetic imagery it is up to the viewer to decide if the integrity of these artists is genuine and is present in their visual statements. Those who participate with me in this exhibit, I know, either personally or by reputation. We have all exhibited our computer aided graphics as aesthetic imagery. I feel that most, if not all, factions of the medium are represented. I would like to thank all those who are exhibiting their works. Also, I would like to thank the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art for giving my fellow computer artists and myself the opportunity and a place to exhibit. Special thanks go to Wasyl Kacurovsky, the regular Curator of the Institute, for his help and enthusiasm; Dr. Achilles Chreptowsky, founder of the Institute; and Kalina Pomirko, friend and Institute Secretary. Enjoy!  Bill Kolomyjec Guest Curator January, 1980

Art In/Art Out computer art exhibit

We had a great conversation about the origins of generative art, and my journey as a pioneer of the form in the early 70’s to present day.

“Algorithmic Art & NFTs" podcast with Sebastian Rusk 04.27.2022

Flip was not my student, rather an undergraduate assistant in the Department of Engineering Graphics at The Ohio State University in the early 1980's where I taught for a while. I helped him with his academic plan to graduate. According to Flip I introduced him to Chuck Csuri. It was the beginning of a life-long relationship. Read his insightful account of Chuck’s immense contribution, as an artist, and human being.

A tribute to Chuck Csuri by Flip Phillips

A tribute to Chuck Csuri (1922-2022) by Flip Phillips

The pioneers of Generative Art are finally getting their due. This article features a couple contemporaries of mine: Charles Csuri, whom I had the privilege of knowing in the early 1980's, and Vera Molnar, who contributed to an exhibition of Computer Art/Computer Graphics I guest-curated in 1980. Both true OG's. It is so interesting to me to see the journeys these early pioneers took from those early days, though the ensuing decades to the present where they are receiving the acclaim they are rightly due.

Sotheby’s Generative Art sale

Sotheby’s Generative Art sale, Apr 14-25, 2022

Dr. Bill Kolomyjec ascribed to Computer Art a role that would shape society, and span the chasm between art and culture on the one hand, and science and technology on the other.

compArt-daDA

compArt daDA: the database Digital Art

An article I wrote in September 1975, published in “Artist and Computer” book, edited by Ruth Leavitt.

The appeal of computer graphics

Concept behind ‘shotgun’ art approaches 1940s abstract expressionism.

Computer World magazine article 06.05.1978

An interesting generative art collection by Alex Rudloff that was influenced by me and other OGs of Generative Art.

Blocks: a generative art NFT built exclusively on Stacks

My artwork will be exhibited on digital screens at this NFT Art gathering in Toronto on March 26, 2022.