The Co-Op. A Different Kind of Business.

For me, the German digital art pioneer, Manfred Mohr, represents a fascinating example of what I term ‘creative augurs,’ after ancient Roman or Greek religious figures who would supposedly ‘listen to the future.’

An early innovator of what he called ‘programmed expressionism,’ Mohr championed the creative possibilities of algorithms throughout the 1960’s, but he needed extremely large and powerful institutional computing machines complete with technical support to generate the type of artwork he envisioned.

The Paris Institute of Meteorology offered him the use of their advanced meteorological computer so that he could generate his algorithmic art at night whilst the institute conducted its primary role of forecasting future weather patterns by day. This creative co-existence allowed Mohr to create what he called the “super-version” of himself, and to find serendipitous creative arenas otherwise inaccessible, and which facilitated dynamic and technically progressive work that he may not have achieved ordinarily.

Can large public commercial and civic institutions develop analogous policies with such coordinated, collaborative and educational ends? By tendering open utilization of their personnel, hardware, software, and technical expertise, can they become the champions of new creativity for the wider enrichment of society, where support for the arts is not forthcoming from central government?