Ben Laposky
Oscillon 4, 1952
Vintage silver print
10 x 8 inches
With the date and Laposky's Oscillon Electronic Abstraction hand stamps bearing the image number verso.
With the date and Laposky's Oscillon Electronic Abstraction hand stamps bearing the image number verso.
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“Science and art may sometimes be combined to produce visual effects of strange beauty,” wrote Ben F. Laposky in the catalogue for his 1953 groundbreaking show of “electronic abstractions,” which...
“Science and art may sometimes be combined to produce visual effects of strange beauty,” wrote Ben F. Laposky in the catalogue for his 1953 groundbreaking show of “electronic abstractions,” which were some of the earliest machine-made images and the beginnings of computer art.
Born on a farm in 1910 in Cherokee, Iowa, Laposky was a sign painter and draughtsman by trade, pursuing artistic endeavors in his off-hours. He began work on his “electrical compositions” in the late 1940s, influenced by Futurist literature on “light paintings” as well as an article in “Popular Science” which proposed the use of television testing equipment to generate decorative patterns.
Though he called his designs “oscillons” as a reminder of their technical origin, he was quick to remind the public that his were artistic inventions. He often stressed, “the electric abstractions are not chance patterns—they are composed for their aesthetic values by the selection and control of specialized electronic circuits.” (An assertion which recalls the debate of AI-generated art today). Furthermore, the patterns on the oscilloscope screen were never intended to be the finished products. As evidenced by the stamp on the verso of each print which reads, “design composition and photography by Benjamin F. Laposky,” credit that implies he considered both aspects as two parts of a whole.
To create his art, Laposky utilized a machine called an oscilloscope, a device similar to a television receiver which was used by scientists and engineers to study electrical wave-forms.
He connected the machine to other electrical and electronic circuits to create an almost infinite variety of forms. He used different controls to modify the size, shape, brightness and position of the traces of light which appeared on the screen of the oscilloscope, and then photographed the results with a high speed camera.
He likened his creations to “visual music,” writing in 1961 one that “the emotional appeal of the oscillons is perhaps similar to that of the abstract sounds of music. Creating impressions of sweeping rhythms, many reveal the means of their formation by the pulsating trace of the oscillating electron beam.”
Born on a farm in 1910 in Cherokee, Iowa, Laposky was a sign painter and draughtsman by trade, pursuing artistic endeavors in his off-hours. He began work on his “electrical compositions” in the late 1940s, influenced by Futurist literature on “light paintings” as well as an article in “Popular Science” which proposed the use of television testing equipment to generate decorative patterns.
Though he called his designs “oscillons” as a reminder of their technical origin, he was quick to remind the public that his were artistic inventions. He often stressed, “the electric abstractions are not chance patterns—they are composed for their aesthetic values by the selection and control of specialized electronic circuits.” (An assertion which recalls the debate of AI-generated art today). Furthermore, the patterns on the oscilloscope screen were never intended to be the finished products. As evidenced by the stamp on the verso of each print which reads, “design composition and photography by Benjamin F. Laposky,” credit that implies he considered both aspects as two parts of a whole.
To create his art, Laposky utilized a machine called an oscilloscope, a device similar to a television receiver which was used by scientists and engineers to study electrical wave-forms.
He connected the machine to other electrical and electronic circuits to create an almost infinite variety of forms. He used different controls to modify the size, shape, brightness and position of the traces of light which appeared on the screen of the oscilloscope, and then photographed the results with a high speed camera.
He likened his creations to “visual music,” writing in 1961 one that “the emotional appeal of the oscillons is perhaps similar to that of the abstract sounds of music. Creating impressions of sweeping rhythms, many reveal the means of their formation by the pulsating trace of the oscillating electron beam.”