Harold Cohen

Untitled (i23-3934), 1973–1974, is a rare early drawing produced during Harold Cohen’s formative years at Stanford University in the early 1970s, a pivotal period in the development of AARON, the artist’s groundbreaking artmaking system. The work belongs to a small group of drawings created using the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Language (SAIL) and a Calcomp plotter.

Alongside works from the CYC and EVOC series (1973–1974), the drawing exemplifies Cohen’s early experiments in algorithmic composition and generative form. Though machine-executed, the line retains an expressive sensibility that foreshadows the emergent visual language of AARON. The contours loop and fold into themselves, suggesting spatial awareness rather than randomness.

These Stanford works are especially significant for their rarity. Only twenty-six known examples were produced over a two-year period, several of which were hand-coloured by Cohen using coloured pencil. These interventions introduced a collaborative dialogue between artist and machine to which Cohen would repeatedly return throughout his career. The works from this period function as foundational experiments, marking the beginning of Cohen’s decades- long effort to develop AARON through visual principles derived from nature, abstraction, and portraiture.