Joseph Nechvatal - Orgiastic Abattoir

Orgiastic Abottoir,
2004, computer-robotic assisted
acrylic on canvas
224x168cm

Joseph Nechvatal (born 1951 in Chicago, USA) lives and resides within Paris, France and New York, USA for teaching at the School of Visual Arts in New York City (SVA) and Stevens Institute of Technology.
During 1991 and 1993 he was a resident artist at the Louis Pasteur Atelier along with the Saline Royale/Leodoux Foundation's computer lab in Arbois, France. Some years later Nechvatal collaborated with programmer Stéphane Sikora in a delve into viral artifical life drawing inspiration on his time in France on the Computer Virus Project (using computer viruses as a creative strategem) he took part in.

A painting of his I have chosen to analyse is the Orgiastic Abattoir which like many of his works was created using the assistance of computers and computer-robotics.
If I were to hazzard a guess at the painting's production I would assume that he used a robotic arm (possibly attached to his in turn and acts similar to a stylus) to replicate his brush strokes as he made certain hand motions.This is similar in method to the performance artist Stelarc who also used a prosthetic arm made of latex and other materials, it was used in a variety of his performances during the 1980s to 1998. Although I could be mistaken about this assumption I consider it to be the most relatable to the past history of computer-robotics.

This piece frustrates me because it strikes me as a painting and not a work of computer-robotics art (i.e. because of its cybernetic ties I would assume it to look more 'mathematical' or have a more digital approach) but this plays more to a subtlety within the painting. However I do like the 'patchy' effect on the work as I think it makes it seem as if it is deteriorating in an organic manner.
I also think this piece is near impossible to reproduce because although it uses the assistance of computers it is still a physical painting and not a file saved to a computer or portable device therefore making it a unique work of art for the area its tied to.

Stelarc displaying his robotic arm.

A. Michael Noll,

“Computer Composition With Lines”,1964.

This is the outcome I would expect Nechvatal's

 to be similar to, an entirely digital art composition

completely  constructed using a computer as a

processing tool to create an image.  

Information/image source (Joseph Nechvatal): http://artnews.org/artist.php?i=597
Information/image source (Stelarc): http://stelarc.org/?catID=20265
Information/image soucre (A. Michael Noll): http://noll.uscannenberg.org/