Harold Cohen (British, 1928–2016) For Nancy in Friendship, 1984
AARON Plotter drawing / Ink on paper
57 × 76 cm
Collection of Bre Pettis
PION.2021.003
Description
An ink-on-paper drawing generated by AARON, Harold Cohen's landmark art-making program, and executed by a computer-driven pen plotter in 1984 — the year Cohen published the hand-colored 'First Artificial Intelligence Coloring Book' of AARON drawings and exhibited at Pittsburgh's Buhl Science Center. By this date AARON's biomorphic line drawings were edging from evocative abstraction toward the plants and human figures that would define its later-1980s work. The parenthetical dedication, 'For Nancy in Friendship,' indicates the sheet was inscribed by Cohen as a personal gift, a common fate for individual sheets among the thousands of unique drawings his machines produced.
Sources: https://computerhistory.org/blog/harold-cohen-and-aaron-a-40-year-collaboration/ · https://whitney.org/exhibitions/harold-cohen-aaron
The little character in the lower right of the drawing is really special — this one is my favorite of the bunch. I would love to know who Nancy was.