Jenn Karson: Own Your Dataset

+ Mark Wilson on making computer art since 1980
+ Harold Cohen: AARON at the Whitney

The debut issue. Vermont-based artist Jenn Karson uses AI and CNC tools to “heal” damaged leaves and explores what artist-made datasets can do. Generative art pioneer Mark Wilson talks about code, chaos, and his forty years in computer art.

We tell how Bantam Tools helped make new work by the late Harold Cohen, using his original AARON code and custom-built plotters, for the Whitney Museum of American Art. UK artist Andee Collard takes us inside his solo show The Machine Garden, and James Merrill offers a guide to fountain pens for generative work: pens, ink, and paper.

Inside issue no. 1

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Rearview + Upcoming
PlotterFest24, Bantam Tools goes brick-and-mortar, and the must-see digital art exhibitions this spring.
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Artist Statement: Andee Collard
Inside his process for The Machine Garden, a solo exhibition at Lowell Ryan Projects.
8
Getting Started with Fountain Pens
James Merrill offers a tutorial on his signature process.
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Jenn Karson: Own Your Dataset
The Vermont-based artist and early AI adopter plots a new path through the multiverse.
21
The Pioneer: Mark Wilson
A wide-ranging conversation with the digital art icon.
26
Harold Cohen: AARON
Making new work posthumously at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
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The Challenge: Plot the Landscape
An open invitation to machine artists to reimagine landscapes through their art machines.

Machine Arts No. 1 · Spring 2025

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