Frieder Nake and the Ethics of Cold War Computer Art

In 1971, artist Frieder Nake denounced the production of computer art. Paradoxically, Nake, a pioneer of computer art, participated in groundbreaking exhibitions across Western and Eastern Europe in the 1960s. These shows blurred boundaries between artists and scientists to evaluate the viability of art as visual research for its aesthetic and social potential. This article reexamines Nake’s position in context, from his initial understanding of generative art’s redemptive political role and his later view post-1968, following revolutions that demonstrated computers’ entanglement with the North Atlantic capitalist military-corporate research complex.