Julia Provaas

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Is Traditional Art Still Relevant?

In this day and age the word artist can mean many different things, especially with
different branches such as traditional and digital artists. But how do you define the
differences between these two? And how do they relate to each other?

What defines being an artist?

When you think of an artist, the old masters of painting such as Van Gogh or Da Vinci almost
immediately come to mind. In this sense, an artist is usually defined by what they create in a
traditional way. Or, to put it simply: by art that is handcrafted. However, the definition of the
word artist has broadened to mean many different things, perhaps even more so today
because of the many different mediums available to us, most especially in the digital realm.
This does not necessarily mean that someone who works with other mediums (such as a
computer) is not an artist, but rather that artists are instead creators who are able to come
up with an idea and make it a reality.

The words art and artist intrigue me with the creative atmosphere continuously changing,
they offer a wide variety of definitions. This is why I wanted to learn more about how two
types of artiststraditional and digital (generative)relate to each other, and how a
traditional piece of art can have an influence on a digital piece of art. In order to answer this
question, I needed to ask myself a few other questions. I first needed to understand how
relevant both types of art are, when generative art came to life, and how and if they
correspond to each other.
Philip Galanter says in an interview in 2004, Generative art is as old as art, but the official
term is rather new. It is not clear when the term was first used, but it has been scattered
throughout literature and has developed over time, and it has also been used in the context
of automated computer graphics back in the sixties (Boden and Edmonds, What is Generative
Art?, 1965).

Julia Provaas
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Since generative art refers to any kind of

art that is created by use of a system or
algorithm, you could argue that its at least
a couple of centuries old. Galanter argues
that generative art didnt start with
computers, and he doesnt think it will end
there either. You could take a look at
traditional artists such as Escher notes
from his research show that he formulated
sets of rules in order to produce complex
tiling patterns, thus showing the
generative nature in his works. (Philip
Galanter, Modeling Creativity: Case
Studies in Python, 2013).

Stars, M.C Escher (1948)

While Eschers work cannot be fully defined as generative, it gives us a clear example of
how traditional art and generative art are connected. The reason as to why Eschers work
isnt a true example of generative art is simple: drawing traditionally means you are in
control of the process, whereas the generative way of drawing involves relinquishing some of
that control (Theo Papatheodorou, Grow Your Own Art!, 2016).
If the main difference between these two types of art is control, how do they relate to each
other? In order to answer this question I had to do more research on people who consider
themselves generative artists.
Traditional art relates to generative art in the sense that they are both created by someone.
Created using different ways, but in the end it was still a person who came up with an idea. It
also relates in the way that when you are drawing straight from the hand without an idea in
mind, its sort of randomly generated, and within generative art, you can use the
algorithmic rule to randomly generate something within your code as well. (Tyrone Bautista,
2016).

Julia Provaas
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Generative Mandala (left) vs. Traditionally Drawn Mandala (right)

This also corresponds with Papatheodorous article, which states that generative art isnt
purely deterministic: by using randomness in a generative work, it adds unpredictability, and
the path is chosen by sheer chance. Theres only one problem with this. Its nearly impossible
to randomly generate something drawn by hand. Bautista claims drawing straight from the
hand without having an idea in mind is the equivalent to randomly generating, however
you still have some control over what youre doing. As mentioned earlier, the key difference
between traditional art and generative art is control and lack of control.
This, however, does not necessarily mean that it is impossible for a traditional piece of art to
be considered generative art.
According to the Theory of High Modernism, painting was pronounced to be the 'Royal
Road' of artistic practice. It seems that ever since this doctrine has been challenged, painting
has been a medium for different arguments, together forming one simple question: Which
road should art follow in the future? (Jan Verwoerd, Why Are Conceptual Artists Painting
Again?, 2010) The article further explains how the growing rate of artists using paint as a
medium continues to develop a bigger influence on different kinds of art, such as conceptual
art.
What does conceptual art have anything to do with this, though? Its important to look at
different kinds of art in order to understand the different kinds of influences within these
branches of art. What is traditional arts influence on generative art? To answer that, we
have to look at how different artists go about their ideas and concepts.
If a conceptual statement can be adequately formulated in terms of painting, then artists
paint. But if a different medium proves to be more useful, they turn to for example
installations. In this context anybody who looks at the medium alone is missing the most
important thing. (Jan Verwoerd, Why Are Conceptual Artists Painting Again?, 2010)
From this we can conclude that the concept itself is the most important factor within any
piece of art. How its created is less important, but it seems many artists turn to traditional
ways of creating art as a way of conceptualizing.

Julia Provaas
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Bautista believes the biggest influence traditional art has on generative art is the concept,
which is an important factor in creating art in general. You have an idea in mind, how are you
going to map it out? In the case of generative art, focusing on the programming aspect of it,
are you just going to write lines of code and see where it takes you?
Its a possibility, however Bautista conceptualizes by creating a sketch the traditional way
before he starts digitalizing anything: Your ideas change as you continue working on your
project, maybe you want a line to move differently or a different colour, it doesnt matter,
because that sketch is not your final result. Its a guideline.
Traditional artists and generative artists arent so different from each other. They both
established the art of creating, even if they arent using the same methods or using the same
mediums. An artist rarely starts painting or starts writing lines of code, they are the same in
the way that they come up with an idea. Concept sketching is an important factor in creating
art, and it is the defining factor in how traditional art influences generative art.

Julia Provaas
CMD1A

REFERENCES
Bautista, T. (2016, March 18). Interview Research Principles. Retrieved March 18, 2016 from
http://juliaolivero.tumblr.com/post/141254715926/research-principles-interview
Boden, M.A., Edmonds, E.A. (1965). In What Is Generative Art?. Retrieved April 4, 2016 from
http://research.it.uts.edu.au/creative/eae/intart/pdfs/generative-art.pdf

Galanter, P. (2004, September 16). Generative art is as old as art. An interview with Philip
Galanter. Retrieved March, 2016 from http://www.artificial.dk/articles/galanter.htm

Galanter, P., De Smedt, T. (2008-2013). In Modeling Creativity: Case Studies in Python.

Retrieved March, 2016 from Google Books:
https://books.google.nl/books?id=Bp7KwpmFBzoC&pg=PA31&lpg=PA31&dq=escher+genera
tive+art&source=bl&ots=biWGG3meQj&sig=av_xXjJcY-9IlUBPkxWf8-WqYw&hl=en&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwi4uLXctozMAhVEnA4KHeeHAcYQ6AEIIjAB#v=onepag
e&q=escher%20generative%20art&f=false

Papatheodorou, T. (2016, February 24). Grow your own art! How generative artists combine
rules with chaos. Retrieved March, 2016 from https://www.doc.gold.ac.uk/blog/?p=2013

Verwoert, J. (2005). In Why Are Conceptual Artists Painting Again? Because They Think Its a
Good Idea. Retrieved March, 2016 from
http://www.afterall.org/journal/issue.12/why.are.conceptual.artists.painting.again.because.