Frieder Nake

Frieder Nake

Frieder Nake (born December 16, 1938 in Stuttgart) is a professor for computer graphics at the department for computer science at the University of Bremen and visiting professor for hypermedia design at the University of the Arts Bremen. He lives and works in Bremen, Germany.

He has taught in Stuttgart, Toronto and Vancouver, and has been in Bremen since 1972. He specializes in interactive computer graphics, digital media, computer art, and semiotics. He has been a visiting professor at Universitetet Oslo, Aarhus Universitet, Universität Wien, University of Colorado at Boulder.

He was one of the first to exhibit digital computer art in 1965 (Galerie Wendelin Niedlich, Stuttgart). In the same year, other exhibitions were staged by Georg Nees in Stuttgart and A. Michael Noll in New York. Nake, Nees and Noll are generally recognized as pioneers of computer art, and in this context are sometimes called the three big 'N's.

He also was one of the first to analyze links between aesthetics and information theory. His book Ästhetik als Informationsverarbeitung (1974) is one of the first in this field, and greatly helped to promote research on the borderline between science and art.

In the 1970s he was an active member of the Communist League of West Germany (KBW), for which he stood as a candidate in the Bremen Bürgerschaft elections.

Public collections

Examples of his work are held by the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Kunsthalle Bremen and other institutions.

References

• Nake, F. (1974). Ästhetik als Informationsverarbeitung. (Aesthetics as information processing). Grundlagen und Anwendungen der Informatik im Bereich ästhetischer Produktion und Kritik. Springer, 1974, ISBN 3211812164, ISBN 9783211812167
• Nees, G. (1994). Wer ist der bedeutendste Computergrafiker? In: Computer art faszination 94. Dr. Dotzler Medien-Institut, Frankfurt/Main, 1994, ISBN 3930617005, p 255.
• Nake, F. (2009, Spring) The Semiotic Engine: Notes on the History of Algorithmic Images in Europe. Art Journal, 76-89.
• Wolf Lieser. (2009) Digital Art. Langenscheidt: h.f. ullmann. pp. 18-19 & 46-19
• Beddard, H. & Dodds, D. (2009) Digital pioneers. London: V&A Publishing. pp.6-8

External links

• Biography at MediaArtNet (English) (German)
• Google Scholar: numerous links to scientific articles referencing Nake's work
• Entry about Frieder Nake in the data base of early computer art
• List of works held by the Victoria and Albert Museum