assign1 Sol LeWitt

Sol LeWitt
An Artist whose works earned fame in the late 1960's, Sol LeWitt, specialized in wall drawings and structures. Although LeWitt specialized in these two areas he also did works of drawing, printmaking and painting. As an American artist LeWitts works were linked to the movements of conceptual art and minimalism.  

Here is an example of the instruction given by LeWitt for one of his wall drawings
(http://artport.whitney.org/commissions/softwarestructures/text.html)

Wall Drawing #85




The plan for Wall Drawing #85 defines four quadrants, each filled with different patterns of colored lines:



85. Same as 63, but with four colors.

63. A Wall is divided into four horizontal parts. In the top row are four equal divisions, each with lines in a different direction. In the second row, six double combinations; in the third row, four triple combinations; in the bottom row, all four combinations superimposed.





Implementing this description in software was an exercise in translation, simply converting the instructions into a format the computer will understand. Through this act, the decisions intended for the draftsperson were made by myself, the programmer. A few obvious differences appear as a result of this re-coding. Computer screens have a much coarser resolution than a wall and as a result, the finished work lacks the warmth of a drawn surface in a physical space. In addition, machines can draw lines with absolute precision so all the imperfections in a physical drawing are removed, giving the rendering different characteristics than those intended by LeWitt. Do these differences distort the result? If this is a work of conceptual art, the concept should remain regardless of the medium.