Harold Cohen
Harold Cohen presents London at the Tate Computer Drawn Pictures (series), 1983 and The Age of Intelligent Machines, 1987, in the Historical Artists Room
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Dating to 1983 this work was generated and drawn by AARON during an exhibition of Cohen’s work at the Tate Museum in London. Following displays at the De Cordova Museum Lincoln, Massachusetts, in 1982, and The Brooklyn Museum in 1983, the Tate marked the third tour stop for the drawing machine. After its demonstration in London, AARON journeyed to the Arnolfini in Bristol
More general information and about the Untitled works:
AARON, the pioneering AI program developed by Harold Cohen, evolved through several distinctive phases. It began with the creation of simple, evocative shapes that gradually grew more complex, allowing for a rudimentary sense of perspective. Cohen was inspired by the natural drawing process of children, who start with basic squiggles and shapes before advancing to more defined forms. His transformative 1973 visit to the petroglyphs of Chalfant Valley, California, further enriched his vision, illustrating how a system of marks can effectively convey imagery. Initially, AARON produced works in black and white, but in the late 1980s, Cohen expanded on this practice by adding vibrant colour by hand, drawing on his expertise as an established abstract painter.
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The Age of Intelligent Machines by Artist Harold Cohen
Harold Cohen (1928–2016) is celebrated as a pioneer in computer and AI art. Cohen conceived the software in the late 1960s at the University of California, San Diego, and named it AARON in the early 1970s. These two documentaries trace Cohen’s groundbreaking journey in merging art and technology, including the Tate Gallery in London. As artificial intelligence tools for image creation have entered the mainstream with text prompt–driven software such as DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion, Harold Cohen: AARON provides important historical perspective. It also offers deeper explorations of ideas about creativity, authorship, and collaboration in the context of AI.
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Cohen’s academic career spans over fifty years and the institutions he has been associated with include the Camberwell College of Arts and the Slade School of Fine Art in London, Carnegie Mellon University, UC Berkeley, and UC San Diego. He was the Director of the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts at UC San Diego from 1992–1998, and has been Professor Emeritus at UC San Diego since 1994. This video Is The ACM SIGGRAPH Awards Talk from Harold Cohen, the 2014 recipient of the Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement in Digital Arts for his pioneering achievements in creating art through artificial intelligence and machine autonomy.
科恩的学术生涯跨越了五十多年，曾于坎伯韦尔艺术学院（Camberwell College of Arts）和伦敦斯莱德美术学院（Slade School of Fine Art in London）、卡内基梅隆大学（Carnegie Mellon University）、加州大学伯克利分校（UC Berkeley）和加州大学圣地亚哥分校（UC San Diego）等院校任职。 1992 年至 1998 年，他担任加州大学圣地亚哥分校计算与艺术研究中心主任，并自 1994 年起担任加州大学圣地亚哥分校名誉教授。本视频为 Harold Cohen 的 ACM SIGGRAPH 颁奖演讲。他于 2014 年获得 ACM SIGGRAPH 终身成就奖，以表彰他在人工智能和机器自主创作艺术领域的开创性贡献。
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Harold Cohen remarked, " I was probably the only person who considered the computer to be potentially an autonomous art making entity." Pioneer of computer art Harold Cohen passed away in 2016 at the age of 87. In one of his final interviews in May 2015, he spoke with Studio International from his home studio in Encinitas, California, reflecting on his career that began in London. Cohen was among the first artists to incorporate AI theories into artistic practice, redefining the boundaries of creativity and technology.
哈罗德·科恩曾说“我可能是唯一一个认为计算机有可能成为自主艺术创作实体的人”。作为计算机艺术的先驱，科恩于2016年去世，享年87岁。2015 年，这是科恩一生中最后一次采访中，他接受了Studio International 访谈并回顾了自己从伦敦开始的职业生涯。科恩的贡献在于他是最早将人工智能理论与艺术实践融合的艺术家之一，他重新定义了创造力和技术边界。