In Theorem: Sequences within the Douglas Kagi Study Collection

Inspired by artworks recently donated by Dr Douglas Kagi, In Theorem: Sequences within the Douglas Kagi Study Collection investigates the influence of computing on art and the intersection of creative practice with science.

The Kagi Study Collection includes several works made by Eduardo Paolozzi (1924–2005), a pioneer of Pop Art in the United Kingdom. Paolozzi’s The Alan Turing suite was inspired by the life of Alan Turing, prized for cracking Nazi Germany’s ‘Enigma’ code. The mechanic imagery paired with written equations and stories relating to Turing’s legacy share the similarly bright, optimistic colours characteristic of late-twentieth-century computing marketing and ephemera.

As Paolozzi depicts the development of the modern computer, Harold Cohen (1928–2016) spent the latter half of his career creating artificial intelligence to discover if a program could not only think but be creative. Cohen’s program AARON was capable of generating art, and one of the many prints it produced is on display for the first time since its acquisition by Monash University in 1994. Paired with this print is the same DIGITAL VAX 11 series of computer processing units that Cohen operated his program AARON on, the VAX 11/780.

Alongside these artworks, the exhibition includes objects from the Monash Museum of Computing History, under the custodianship of Professor Judy Sheard and Barbara Ainsworth. Featured here is computing equipment including a Burroughs B7800 board that was purchased in 1985 for the Monash University Clayton Computer Centre, which at its prime was incredibly powerful with double the processor capacity of the University’s existing VAX 11/780s.

The precision of a machine is not the only way to explore hypotheses that drive artistic exploration as Tess Jaray (b.1937) has experimented through her art with the possibility of geometric forms as generators of space by transforming a flat surface into a vortex of optical illusions. The print from her Thorns series appears meticulously calculated, yet Jaray insists that it is the shapes themselves that guide her hand rather than a preconceived formula.

Curated by Jennifer Hunt, Monash University graduate and recipient of the MUMA/BAHC Curatorial Training Program. Supported by Monash University Museum of Art | MUMA and Monash Art Design and Architecture, this award supports a paid internship at MUMA for a student graduating from the Bachelor of Art History and Curating.

^{Image: Eduardo Paolozzi, Turing 5 2000, ething on paper colour photo screen print, 76.0 x 52.5 cm (sheet). Douglas Kagi Study Collection, Monash University Collection. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gift Program by Dr Douglas Kagi.}