"Lichtreflex Rotation"

gelatin silver print

"Photomechanical transformations arose under the aspect of programming aesthetic structures, the production of which can be formally described according to the findings of a superordinate, rational aesthetic and whose process is based on two principles," was Gravenhorst's dry introductory statement on his Photomechanical Transformations in a first publication, edited jointly with Gottfried Jäger and published by him himself, following an exhibition. As the two principles he mentions the aesthetic principle of design and the technical process of realisation. And further: "The aesthetic principle refers to the methodical production of aesthetic states and can, according to Max Bense, be understood as an aesthetic of production or generative aesthetics. In this way Gravenhorst refers to the father of computer-based art of the time, the philosopher Max Bense (1910-1990), who taught at the former Technical University of Stuttgart and whose lectures and writings produced the first generation of computer artists (still a taboo word at the time) in Germany.
(Gottfried Jäger, July 2016)

Generative photography is an art movement founded by Gottfried Jäger. It is based on the ideas of Max Bense ("generative aesthetics") and Herbert W. Franke, with whom Jäger was and still is a close friend. The term first appeared at the exhibition "Generative Photography" at the Kunsthaus Bielefeld in 1968, where, in addition to Jäger, the artists Pierre Cordier, Kilian Breier and Hein Gravenhorst were exhibited. Forerunners of this movement were artists such as Heinz Hajek-Halke, Carl Strüwe and Manfred P. Kage, who were also shown in Bielefeld by Gottfried Jäger (as curator). These exhibitions in the mid-1960s were very popular and as a result a chair of photography was established in Bielefeld. From the 1970s onwards, Gottfried Jäger and Karl Martin Holzhäuser taught there as professors of Generative Photography, and annual symposia on theory formation were also held there. In 1975 the compendium "Generative Photography", edited by Gottfried Jäger and Karl Martin Holzhäuser, was published with a foreword by Herbert W. Franke.
(Georg Bak, Zurich 2017)