Generating Art in Symbiotic Systems A review of Francesca Franco, Generative Systems Art: The Work of Ernest Edmonds

Abstract

This essay reviews the book by Francesca Franco, Generative Systems Art: The Work of Ernest Edmonds (London: Routledge, 2018). This illustrated monograph discusses the primarily computer-generated work of Ernest Edmonds (b. 1942) in the context of twentieth-century art in Europe. Franco provides relevant technological history as she analyzes Edmonds’ paintings and interactive and digital projects, often created in collaboration. This book is a significant contribution to the history of computer art in which Franco affirms Edmonds’ focus on “the human’s way of working.”