This program was realized in collaboration with Matjaž Hmeljak between 1970 and 1971 at the Centro di Calcolo of the University of Trieste on an IBM 7040, using the programming language FORTRAN IV.

The program combines square elements on a grid. Elements form modules and the modules, in turn form compositions. Eight basic elements were derived from a 25 square grid showing a cube in an oblique or axonometric projection. By convention, the front (white) face of the cube is square, while the upper and left faces are parallelograms inclined by 45°.

Each module consists of 5×5 elements. The composition consists of 5×5 modules. The resulting computation can subsequently be visualized using graphic devices or by different means, including interactive modes.

Generally speaking, the concept for the creation of the T.V.C. images is similar to the premises underlying generative aesthetics as proposed by Max Bense, in so far as these have incorporated concepts from informatics, linguistics and semiotics.

In algorithmic terms, the T.V.C. program is subdivided into three parts. The first part consists of a finite number of graphic signs, i.e. the eight basic elements. The second part comprises a set of syntactic rules for the combination of signs that the computer can distribute with different degrees of randomness, ranging from the highest order (reconstruction of the cube) to maximum disorder (basic elements scattered by chance). The third part concerns qualitative criteria. In the T.V.C. programme the random factor corresponds to the frequency of occurrence of the white basic elements. The computer calculates this frequency on a statistical basis, and consequently adopts one of the nine compositional modes set by the programmer for the completion of the modules.

From a linguistic/semiotic point of view, the T.V.C. program is unusual, if compared to the concepts and works done at the time, for which the qualitative degree achieved by a given artistic program corresponded to the possibility of perceiving larger – and therefore simpler structures – than an indistinct conglomeration of basic elements.

The T.V.C. program is structured on three different levels. From a linguistic point of view, the basic elements can be thought of as letters of the alphabet; the eight modules generated after each combination as words, and the compositions as sentences, i.e. sequences of words that, when grammatically connected, assume a certain meaning. While at the time, the programs used to be structured mostly on two separate levels: that of the letters of the alphabet and that of the words, seldom reaching the sentence level.

The system’s combinatorial possibilities range from a combination of basic elements that faithfully reproduces the cube in an oblique projection to a totally random combination. The set of qualitative criteria acts as a filter between these two extremes, by moderating the inanity of redundancy with the unpredictability of surprise, given by a granular structuring of chance. A subtle balance is thus created that finds expression in the quality of a single composition in relation to the quality of all possible compositions.

(Edward Zajec)
http://www.thebrainproject.eu/e_2006/zajec.php#zajec . 09.Apr.2010.