Piehler, Heike M. 2002. Die Anfänge der Computerkunst. Frankfurt/Main:dot-Verlag

The book by Heike Piehler originates from her doctoral dissertation (University of Kiel, Germany, 2000). It gives a comprehensive overview of the beginnings of “computer art” in the 1960s. The author’s perspective is from art history with curiosity. Chapters are on collections in Germany, early exhibitions (quite comprehensive, but not complete), predecessors, a broad chapter of almost 200 pages on many technical, aesthetic, and stylistic aspects, including a bit on generative information aesthetics and picture processing. The concluding fifth chapter attempts to contextualise the topic of computer (or algorithmic) art but remains on the level of a few narrow aspects. An appendix offers some useful collections of data, as e.g. exhibitions, publications, documents.