CYBERFLOWER, Sunshine Version I

Roman Verostko (born 1929 USA) was one of the earliest artists experimenting with algorithmic art - work created using an algorithm or set of instructions written by the artist - and has been a key figure in its development. He was a member of the ‘The Algorists’, a term coined in 1995 to describe a set of artists, who, since the 1960s and 1970s, had been working with a shared interest in the use of bespoke software for generating art using the computer.

This drawing began from a set of co-ordinates randomly chosen by the computer which offered a starting point for each of the curved lines. By subtly adjusting the parameters within which the computer could make its choices, Verostko was able to maintain some control over the image. This balance between what the artist has described as 'random selection and rational control' is the driving force behind much of Verostko's work.