+++ First NFT drop by Herbert W. Franke on the Quantum platform
+++ Collection of 100 images sold in 30 seconds
+++ Crypto community on Twitter honors digital pioneer and thinker with numerous tweets
On May 31 at 5 pm on the platform of Quantum the first auction of a collection of works by Herbert W. Franke began. After only 30 seconds, all 100 works from the Math Art series were sold. Afterwards, there has been a downright explosion of tweets on his Twitter account @HerbertWFranke, which now counts more than 14,000 followers. In unison, they celebrated the visionary and these historical works of the universal genius.
Herbert W. Franke is considered a pioneer of media art. As early as the 1950s, he placed his own artistic creative process on an analytical footing with works of generative photography. For his light photographs, he was already experimenting at that time with various machines – from X-ray apparatuses to microscopes to an analog computer – and investigating technologies with mathematical methods for their creative potential. As a scientist, the PhD physicist was also concerned from the beginning of his artistic activities with the analytical penetration of the phenomenon of art between principles of order and random influences, thoughts that he first published in detail in 1957 in the book “Art and Construction – Mathematics and Physics as a Photographic Experiment”. In it he deals extensively with the mathematics of stetic functions as an aesthetic design element. In an interview Quantum asked him about the series and his thoughts.
Based on the methodologies of cybernetics and information processing, he developed a perception-theoretical model of the aesthetic as early as the 1960s, which abstracted art to such an extent that it not only unified all types of art, but also the reception of art as well as the creative process of the artist himself. At this time Franke was already working with digital computers, which also helped him to prove the fundamental possibility of “quantifying art” with information-theoretical methods.
Franke saw in the computer the future universal machine for all art forms, which in his view, published as early as the 1950s, would increasingly become autonomous art producers with the help of mathematical codes designed by artists. In today’s world of crypto-artists and the metaverse, his early thoughts are considered the foundation of the modern developments of this widely respected art trend.
The proceeds from the NFT sale of the Math Art series will go towards setting up a new foundation, which his wife Susanne Päch will establish. The “art meets science – Herbert W. Franke Foundation” will promote the development and public accessibility of the pioneer’s works via the Internet, exhibitions and events, and preserve them for posterity. In the future, the foundation will also support research projects that will further develop the bridge built by the visionary between the world of art on the one hand and that of science on the other, using the latest research methods in the 21st century.
Herbert W. Franke VISIONARY
Exhibition at the Francisco Carolinum
Linz | Austria
March 30. – June 12, 2022