As I progress in my quest of finding computer art data from Aldo Giorgini’s state, I have discovered very intriguing traces of early pixel-based simulations. It is exciting to see so much material that I (and probably nobody else) has seen before. Giorgini was in a constant duality between art and technology. Many would think that this duality is a plus, but to him it only meant a struggle. After the early computer art scene from the 1970s faded away in the 1980’s, Giorgini had several dilemmas to deal with. The personal computer, as opposed to the mainframe computers, were more accessible to people, and were vastly commercialized. I found some 80’s clippings offering IBM or Commodore computers. Around 1980, Giorgini aquired a Tektronix 4027, a raster based computer. This jump from the “vector” foundations of CalComp to the pixel-based technologies in Tektronix presented a challenge to Giorgini, since it is a drastically different technology, that was also incipient at that time. During all of the 1980’s, Giorgini’s work in computer art became less intense and he became more focused in his work with the HEC-2 and HEC-1 software from the Hydrologuc Engineering Center. The majority of his classes were in this subject and developed several manuals for his classes at Purdue and this institution. In 1983, he won a grant with the Apple Education foundation for the creation of the “Apple Hydraulics”, an apple version of HEC. Giorgini was obsessed with fluid simulation, even his non-computer paintings resemble the fluid turbulences that he plotted. He continued to use CalComp throughout the 1980’s, but did some simulation work in the full-color tektronix.

In the above images we can see similar simulations using different technologies. The one of the left is CalComp and the one on the right is a photo from the tektronix screen. It seems like Giorgini tried to produce some raster-based art, but struggled to produce image outputs. The CalComp plots outnumber the color pictures and he might have just feel creatively limited. His work using CalComp allowed him to reproduce the image at very a big scale, and to produce screenprints.

However, I have some indices that he tried to create a framework for artistic production in Tektronix, in a similar way that he did with his softwares “Fields” and “Light”. At Giorgini’s state I have found several manuscripts and folders with the title “Palette”. In his CV, he mentions an existing published report about this software, but as for now I have only found several manuscripts with numeric formulations and text.

I am hoping to find more about this program. As a result of this software he won an art prize in Germany in 1984.

The late life of Giorgini, was full of trips around the world. He became a knowledgeable resource for HEC-2 and was invited to conferences in Morrocco, Tokio and Italy. He had a very busy schedule that included teaching, publishing, reviewing and traveling. He collaborated with his graduate students, whom he had friendly and long lasting relationships. Giorgini was very much liked based on the correspondance and student evaluations found. In contrast to this, his faculty colleagues at the Civil Engineering department did not support his promotion to full-professor based in the fact that he was more known as an artist. In a letter found, voting committee members argued that he didn’t have enough publications for the amount of years that he had been at Purdue. Is it possible that Civil Engineering department “repressed” an innovative artist? In a similar way, last month his murals have been removed from the potter engineering center, with the argument that they seem dated. Today, the new buzz word is “Innovation”, but the institutions that say that foster it don’t really understand how innovation happens and  they jump into fast conclusions. Innovation is a very slow process that takes years of not-knowing. The academic world is all but innovative, with the faculty and tenure system, when professors are only valued for the amount of publications, rather than the significance of their discoveries. Yes, this makes me sad, angry. Why is it that nobody at Purdue is interested on taking care of Giorgini’s murals? Is it for the same reasons that he didn’t get his promotion in 1990? Are we just using Innovation in technology as a buzz concept but not really embracing it?

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I have been working at Aldo Giorgini’s studio for the last couple of weeks. I can’t describe the thrill of having access to such valuable materials. Kelly (Mass’ wife) has been allowing me into the house to work in this project.  Tomorrow will be the fourth time I go and my feelings are very complex in regard to this experience. First of all it has been entertaining to try to find a meaning of the amount of information in the place. There is a lot of stuff (clothes, flyers, old magazines, records, tapes, manuscripts, teaching materials, personal objects, newsclippings, and a lot of dirt…) to be sorted and I am on my way of doing this. I am just touching the tip of the iceberg… Lots of materials are Civil Engineering research and class materials. His work with the software? HEC-2 for hydraulics simulation seems to come up a lot in documents from 1985-1989. This research allowed him to review books in the subject of HEC-2 and computer aided fluid simulation. During this period, Giorgini carefully created the illustrations using the computer and embellish them using letraset (adhesive) black and white patterns to create fills and variety of surfaces. One that brought my attention was the ones mounted on bigger panels that simulate a turbulence. In one corner of the printed plots, that at this point they are still calComp prints, there is a variable “T” for “time” suggesting image sequences. Was Giorgini’s interest on creating animated movies of this graphics? In prior conversations with Mass, he mentioned the existance of some photographed “frames” of a bridge simulation project. His bridge simulation images from a 1979 paper entitled “Bridges as Sculptures”, written by Giorgini and presented at a CE conference in Atlanta,later became the Landscape series and furthermore in 1998, the cover of the Screaching Weasel album.

Other things are salient, such as his CE conference in Morrocco, in 1988. I think this trip meant a lot to Giorgini… I just have an instict that he had a connection to Arab Africa because of his early life in the Eritrea…One of the manuscripts was in arab. Did he also visit Eritrea? I noticed in his tickest that he stopped for about 20 days in Rome. I guess I gotta keep focused in the computer art and not get caught up on other mysteries… so many of them. What matters? What is meaningful? – Everything and nothing.

In regard to computer art, the findings are rich and less abundant. Evrey now and then I find correspondance with galleries and brochures of exhibits in which he participated. Also found some brochures of the “Computer art day” at Purdue. Now I can be for sure which computer artists visited Purdue in 1975. In addition to Chuck Csuri, Robert Mallary, Kenneth Knowlton, Colette and Jeff Bangert, I recently discovered the participation of John Whitney and Lilian Schwartz. This is exciting if you are into computer art history… They are all pioneers!

Last but not least are my findings of a folder with the manuscripts for “Palette” a computer software developed by Giorgini to produce pixel-based graphics. I think this development was for tektronix… In the picture above you can see his numerical approach to color and pattern. Please be reminded that this is circa 1979 when the pixel-based computing is early, underdeveloped, expensive and incipient. In short, pixel-based monitors are another different technology that became ubiquitous in the “Personal Computer” revolution, which marks the end of “computer art” and the beggining of “digital art.”

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