040502 (i23-3377) was produced during Harold Cohen’s “Digital Prints Era” (2002–2004), a pivotal period in which the artist expanded the generative capabilities of AARON through increasingly ambitious large-format compositions. Famously presented in the exhibition Untouched by Hands at the Earl & Birdie Taylor Library in San Diego, these works were produced using Cohen’s wide-format Roland printer and reflect his evolving approach to scale, spatial construction, and representation.

Throughout this series, AARON dissects and reimagines natural forms, particularly potted plants, experimenting with their arrangement in space, from tables and tiled floors to their eventual liberation from pots altogether. The series represents a crucial departure from earlier representational forms, as Cohen allows AARON to manipulate these elements autonomously, creating a seamless blend of human input and machine-generated imagery.