Joan Truckenbrod is recognized as a pioneering figure in digital art. Since the 1960s, she has explored the intersection of technology, handcraft, and ritual, becoming one of the earliest artists to use computer programming to create algorithmic drawings and digital textiles.

Prior to working with code and programming a main frame computer, Truckenbrod was creating a series of ink drawings on paper by hand. These drawings embodied systems thinking, and included a series of related elements in which she explored different combinations in compositions, thereby exploring a generative process. Of influence was the book Designing Programmes (1964) by Karl Gerstner, which outlined strategies for problem solving processes in areas such a typography.

Expanding on her hand drawing systems, in the mid-1970s Truckenbrod began to experiment with computer programming in FORTRAN. Writing of that period in 2006 she says: "I developing algorithms within programs to create instructions for pen plotter drawings to be created. Incorporating variables in the mathematical, algebraic formulas in these algorithms was a generative system for creating programmed pen plotter drawings, with extensive potential working in X Y Z spaces. As the values in variables were/are systematically changed and shifted, the series of drawings exhibited a wide range of visual dynamics. Shifting depths, intensity of lines and movement created expressive drawings."