LP (180 Gram)
Original Artwork by Peter Beyls
Numbered & signed edition of 25 ex.
d’or060
This is the first publication dedicated fully to the work of Belgian early electronic composer Peter Beyls (1950).
Previously, his music was published as part of compilations of the IPEM institute (Institute for Psycho-acoustic and Electronic Music), released by Metaphon and Creel Pone.
This work is among the very first computer generated pieces, composed, performed and recorded in 1980 at Vorst Nationaal, Nacht van de Poëzie (Night of the Poetry) in Brussels, Belgium.
Peter Beyls works on the intersection of computer science and the arts. He develops generative systems in music, the visual arts and hybrid formats. Beyls studied music and computer science at EMS, Stockholm, the Royal Music Conservatory, Brussels and the Slade School of Art, UC London. He was a researcher at ICCMR and was awarded a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Plymouth UK, for his research on evolutionary computing applied to real-time interactive music systems. He published extensively on various aspects of digital media, in particular, real-time interactive music systems, generative art and, in general, the application of Artificial Intelligence for artistic purposes.
Beyls pioneered the use of cellular automata in the field of computer music while at the VUB AI-Lab. His work was widely exhibited and performed at conferences like Siggraph, ICMC, Imagina, ISCM, Generative Arts and ISEA. He was invited professor at a.o. the University of Quebec, Montreal, California Institute of the Arts, Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts, the School of Visual Arts, New York and the Osaka Arts University, Japan. Until September 2016, he was a research professor at CITAR, Catholic University of Portugal, Porto. He is currently a visiting researcher at the Department of Media Art, University College Ghent, specifically developing a project at KASK Laboratory aiming to interface aesthetic and biological processes. Beyls is also a is a visiting professor at Artec, University Paris VIII Vincennes-Saint Denis, Paris, France.
Peter Beyls has been involved with ISEA (the International Symposium on Electronic Art) since the early 1990’s, he is currently a member of the IIAC (ISEA International Advisory Committee). In addition, he is an associate with Ear to the Earth, New York, Intermedia Projects, Albuquerque, NM and the Algorists collective.
Beyls was initially active in electronic music, as a composer of tape music. Later on, he developed various analog live electronic music systems. In close partnership with Michel Waisvisz, he designed and built the early prototypes of the crackle box synthesizer at STEIM, Amsterdam (1973-1975). While teaching at the Vrije Academie/Psychopolis, The Hague, Beyls develops various collaborative projects with Dutch experimental filmmaker Hero Wouters. Around the same time, Karel Goeyvaerts and Lucien Goethals were his mentors at the IPEM Studio, Ghent. In the mid 1990s Beyls performs extensively in a trio with John Van Rymenent and Geoff Leigh. Over the years, Beyls’ engagement with music systems evolved from home-made electronics to time-sharing computers to laptop performance.
Beyls conceives of computer media as active partners in a creative process, a methodology he refers to as “conceptual navigation”. Software is written in order to explore ambiguous intentions. Once an idea is formalized in a program, one can evaluate its imaginative potential by way of the feedback that program provides. Since a program reflects the objectives of the artist, programming is considered a method of aesthetic introspection. Software is thus instrumental as a functional, materialist means allowing the active manipulation of otherwise purely conceptual constructs.
Over the years, Beyls’ work has primarily centered on generative systems, including extensive series of machine drawings, human-machine interactive music systems using machine-learning and interactive audiovisual installations, many of them using computer-vision. A clear line of thought underpins the evolution of his artistic thinking: from methodologies borrowed from conventional AI (knowledge-based systems) to Artificial Life oriented systems exploring the notion of emergent functionality. An experimental, exploratory attitude is core to his work.
Beyls is equally fascinated by the problem of translating digital/virtual artifacts back into the tangible analog world as to make them available for humans to be experienced. This raises questions of how digital art is connected to the sensual parameters of human physicality and how it can be referenced/understood from the whole of human culture and the massive depth of its history. A monograph documenting his oeuvre was published by MER Paperkunsthalle in 2014. The event coincided with a major survey exhibition at IMAL, Center for Digital Culture, Brussels. A more recent collection of texts entitled Coming Full Circle, (2019) was published by the Verbeke Foundation Belgium following a solo show at the Verbeke Museum. Beyls’ work is represented by Gallery DAM, Berlin, Germany.
a side
– The Hollow Man Part I. (20:12 minutes)
b side
– The Hollow Man Part II. (20:12 minutes)
Live concert with computer, 1980.
All Music by Peter Beyls
Vorst Nationaal, Nacht van de Poëzie (Night of the Poetry) organized by Guido Lauwaert – openingperformance – 16 februari 1980
Mastering, vinylcut Astres d’Or
“(The Hollow Man) … was fully programmed – with 2 realtime inputs in parallel: (1) triggering certain functions via the computer keyboard and (2) manual manipulation of the VCF filters in the Oberheim 4 voice. The program generates evolving patterns – gradual transformations with algorithmic principles that I also used to make drawings. “
“In performance, it involves human-machine collaboration with shared initiative and an equivalent level of artistic autonomy. I also call it symbolic interaction – the difference between responsive systems and interactivity – documented in a recent paper – attached here for your information.” (PB)
Artwork Description:
A series of 5 unique pen plotter drawings on chromogenetic prints, each in an edition of 5.
298-298 cm.
Peter Beyls is part of a group called the “Algorists”, originally created by Jean-Pierre Hébert (who coined the word) and Roman Verostko. They stated that artists who create an object of art with a process that includes their own algorithms are identified as algorists. There are no more than 10 artists worldwide who pursued a career in this medium in combination with plotter drawings over the past 50 years. Beyls is amongst them. Pen plotters became less important after the year 2000, when newer printing methods gained momentum and were more effective. However, in recent years some younger artists started using affordable pen plotters again. After all, a drawn line, even if it is based on an algorithm, may have a different appeal than the slick appearance of an inkjet print.
Peter Beyls considers the act of drawing a “thinking machine”. Intrigued by the possibilities of computer-programming he created his first drawings in 1974 at Ghent University. He continued his research in algorithmic drawing in 1977 at the Slade School of Art in London and has never stopped since. Aesthetically he was interested in a wide range of concepts from basic geometric forms to organic structures which were usually executed in small series with variations.
This is his most recent series of drawings, from this year, 2022.
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