Code generated scripts and illustrations are presented as 'illuminated' pages reminiscent of medieval manuscripts. The scripts and illustrations were executed with a multipen plotter coupled to a PC. The plotter draws from an array of technical pens loaded with links mixed in the studio. All brush strokes were plotted using Chinese brushes adapted to the machine's drawing arm. The program code is written in Basic with the plotter protocol in the digital microprocessor/plotting language. Each page, plotted on rag paper, is enhanced with a touch of pure gold or silver leaf, applied by hand. However the illuminated 'initials' (design elements) are always code generated and machine plotted.
The 'illumination' for each work was realized with code driven improvisations based on a single initiating stroke. This stroke, generated by randomly cast control points, can be seen in the brush strokes. Software procedures provide parameters to create reflecting or mirror strokes on either or both axes or none at all. The 'script' headers and initials are derived algorithmically from the same set of relations; thus a 'self-similarity' permeates the whole.


Technical Background

HW: PS/HI Plotter
SW: Artist's Proprietary

Roman Verostko was born in Tarts, Pa. in 1929. He studied at the Pittsburgh Art Institute, St. Vincent College, Latrobe, Pa., at the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, and in Atelier 17, Paris. He worked in various colleges in the USA and in China (Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts). Director of the Fourth International Symposium on Electronic Art. His computer generated art has been shown numerous times in the USA (e.g. SIGGRAPH '92 Art Show, Chicago), in Finland, Monte Carlo (Institut National de l'Audiovisuel, 1992 and 1993, Australia (Third International Symposium on Electronic Art in Sydney, 1992) and South Korea (Seoul International Computer Art Festival, 1992).