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Graphics EU Sci-Fi The Almighty Buck

SF Writer/Digital Art/NFT Pioneer Herbert W. Franke Dies at Age 95 (artnews.com) 20

On July 7th Art News explained how 95-year-old Austrian artist Herbert W. Franke "has recently become a sensation within the art world the crypto space," describing the digital pioneer as a computer artist using algorithms and computer programs to visualize math as art. Last month, the physicist and science fiction writer was behind one of the most talked about digital artworks at a booth by the blockchain company Tezos at Art Basel. Titled MONDRIAN (1979), the work paid tribute to artist Piet Mondrian's iconic geometric visuals using a program written on one of the first home computers.

Days before this, Franke, who studied physics in Vienna following World War II and started working at Siemens in 1953, where he conducted photographic experiments after office hours, launched 100 images from his famed series "Math Art" (1980-95) as NFTs on the Quantum platform. The drop was meant to commemorate his birthday on May 14 and to raise funds for his foundation. The NFTs sold out in 30 seconds, with the likes of pioneering blockchain artist Kevin Abosch purchasing a few.

In one of his last interviews, Franke told the site that blockchain "is a totally new environment, and this technology is still in its early stages, like at the beginning of computer art. But I am convinced that it has opened a new door for digital art and introduced the next generation to this new technology." It echoed something he'd said in his first book, published in 1957, which he later quoted in the interview (a full 65 years later). "Technology is usually dismissed as an element hostile to art. I want to try to prove that it is not..."

This morning, long-time Slashdot reader Qbertino wrote: The German IT news site heise reports (article in German) that digital art pioneer, SF author ("The Mind Net") and cyberspace avantgardist Herbert W. Franke has died at age 95. His wife recounted on his Twitter account: "Herbert loved to call himself the dinosaur of computer art. I am [...] devastated to announce that our beloved dinosaur has left the earth.

"He passed away knowing there is a community of artists and art enthusiasts deeply caring about his art and legacy."
Among much pioneering work he founded one of the worlds first digital art festivals "Ars Electronica" in Austria in 1979.

Franke's wife is still running the Art Meets Science web site dedicated to Franke's work. Some highlights from its biography of Franke's life: Herbert W. Franke, born in Vienna on May 14, 1927, studied physics and philosophy at the University of Vienna and received his doctorate in 1951... An Apple II was his first personal computer which he bought 1980. He developed a program as early as 1982 that used a midi interface to control moving image sequences through music....

Only in recent years has "art from the machine" begun to interest traditional museums as a branch of modern art. Franke, who from the beginning was firmly convinced of the future importance of this art movement, has also assembled a collection of computer graphics that is unique in the world, documenting 50 years of this development with works by respected international artists, supplemented by his own works....

As a physicist, Franke was predestined to bring science and technology closer to the general public in popular form due to his talent as a writer, which became apparent early on. About one-third of his nearly fifty books, as well as uncounted journal articles...

Franke's novels and stories are not about predicting future technologies, nor about forecasting our future way of life, but rather about the intellectual examination of possible models of our future and their philosophical as well as ethical interpretation. In this context, however, Franke attaches great importance to the seriousness of scientific or technological assessments of the future in the sense of a feasibility analysis. In his opinion, a serious and meaningful discussion about future developments can basically only be conducted on this basis. In this respect, Franke is not a typical representative of science fiction, but rather a visionary who, as a novelist, deals with relevant questions of social future and human destiny on a high intellectual level.

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SF Writer/Digital Art/NFT Pioneer Herbert W. Franke Dies at Age 95

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  • by ERJ ( 600451 ) on Sunday July 17, 2022 @01:12PM (#62710050)
    Author of the Dune series that passed away 30+ years ago.
  • by franzrogar ( 3986783 ) on Sunday July 17, 2022 @01:13PM (#62710052)

    Never heard of him and after visiting his official website, I got a real physical headache from viewing his "art", so no "art" for my taste.

  • Back then lots of people were writing code that produced images. The difference is, most of them didn't call themselves "artists".
  • Kind of throws shade over your life's work.

  • It's a pity (for the typical Slashdot reader) that the bulk of Franke's work is only available in German. But worse, I think, for his legacy is the apparent absence of any substantial examples of his fiction online. Maybe someone with better German language skills could put up legal links to his works besides the art and YouTube video on his official website?

    I don't know, but maybe, here's one case where the notoriously stricter German copyright laws are getting in the way of a fair assessment of a writer's

    • Second that. Ypsilon minus [goodreads.com] is as relevant as ever in present times.
      R.I.P.
      • From my fairly meager knowledge of German, the plot reads like a common anime theme of the Matrix cyberpunk variety. But this one was written in 1976, so predates William Gibson by about a decade, although John Brunner may have already written Shockwave Rider. [wikipedia.org]
        • From my own humble knowledge of present German literature I can assure you that being distributed by Germany's most exclusive publishers Suhrkamp Verlag is a privilege granted to very few [SF] authors. I don't even need to mention that our *cough* much appreciated ./ arts and literature critics further up in this thread never have heard of them. But that's fine. Somebody has to read all these comic books and admire velvet paintings and "realistic reproductions", after all. For reasons I don't even want to k
          • I'd agree, since both the US and UK have publishers that target the sci-fi market. Some of them appear to be still independent and not subsidiaries of some vast media empire. Is there actually a German publisher (of any country) that specializes in sci-fi?
    • Here you are: https://sf-encyclopedia.com/en... [sf-encyclopedia.com]
      • Thanks. It seems a number of Franke's works have been translated into English. However, the link is mostly a shopping list, even if a better one than the usual Big Online Bookstore. So it won't be of much help to those interested in sampling his works first. I mean, there are short fiction works of Asimov and Heinlein, to name a few US authors, available online (apparently legal since these appeared in defunct sci-fi pulp magazines before US copyright "reform" put a default copyright on all works, whether a

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