Georg Nees 1926-2015

GEORG NEES

 

Georg Nees is considered one of the founders of computer art and graphics. He was one of the first artists to exhibit his computer graphics at the studio gallery of the Technische Hochschule in Stuttgart in February 1965.

 

Nees studied mathematics and physics at the universities of Erlangen-Nuremberg and Stuttgart. He subsequently worked for Siemens as a software engineer, and was instrumental in their purchasing a ‘Zuse Graphomat’, a drawing machine operated by computer-generated punched tape. The machine was capable of creating geometric patterns and, although the programming language that Nees used (ALGOL) was designed specifically for scientific computers, Nees used it to create aesthetic images.

 

In 1969 he received his doctorate on the subject of Generative Computer Graphics under Max Bense, the German philosopher and writer. In 1977, he was appointed Honorary Professor of Applied computer science at the University of Erlangen. Nees is one of the “3N” computer pioneers, an abbreviation that has become acknowledged for Frieder Nake, Georg Nees and A. Michael Noll, whose computer graphics were created with digital computers. His works are in the collections of institutions such as Sammlung Etzold, Städtische Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, ZKM, Karlsruhe and Sammlung Franke, Kunsthalle Bremen in Bremen.