Flies, 1966
In his early period, Csuri explored randomness using a number generator to determine the placement of toy soldiers in works like “Random War”, 1967 and flies in “Feeding Time”, 1966.
From 1966 to 1967 Csuri frequently used houseflies as a recurring theme in his plotter works showing a sense of levity. In “Feeding Time”, each fly’s size, orientation, and landing position were determined randomly, highlighting his fascination with chance and unpredictability.
In the Spalter Digital Collection
Feeding Time, 1966 (close-up)
“A common housefly seemed to have a place in the context of an intelligence which will replace human beings. Possibly feeding off some residue left behind when the heat of the planet burns all the circuit boards.”
— Charles Csuri
“Flies”, 1967 was displayed at the Centre Pompidou as part of the Coding the World exhibit in 2018 & is in the Permanent Collection of the V&A Museum in London.
“Fly Plotter”, 1966 (4’x6"‘) exhibited at the Act I of the Charles Csuri Memorial Exhibition at Hopkins Hall Gallery in Columbus, Ohio.
“This work prefigures much of the current and future work being done in algorithmic control software used to guide robotic systems. ”