Ben Laposky, the Father of Computer Art?

January 23, 2007 4:49 PM

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 (11 comments total)

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

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