Material Defines Possibilities
Every artistic material has intrinsic properties. Code's properties: executable (it does something when run), parameterisable (behaviour can change without changing structure), exactly reproducible, and delegable (decisions can be entrusted to it).
Execution: The Work as Behaviour
A painting is an object. A programme is a behaviour. You don't look at a programme — you observe it over time. It changes, reacts, evolves. This distinguishes generative art from computer-generated imagery: the work is the computation itself, observable in its unfolding.
Parameterisation: The Space of the Work
When you paint a shape, you paint that shape. When you program a shape, you define the conditions under which shapes can appear. The programme is a space of possibilities, not a particular instance.
Delegation: Co-authoring with Chance
Programming a work often means delegating some decisions to the system — controlled randomness, time, visitor interactions. In classical programming, unexpected behaviour is a bug. In creative coding, it can be a discovery.
Artists Who Opened This Territory
Vera Molnár programmed geometric drawings in the 1960s before GUIs existed. Manfred Mohr explored 4D geometry on plotters. Harold Cohen developed AARON, a programme that painted autonomously. Their work established that code can be an artistic material in its own right.