Sine Curve Man, 1967
“Csuri created this revolutionary self-portrait, known as the first figurative computer drawing done in the U.S. As a fine art professor at The Ohio State University, he used an IBM 7094, considered one of the most powerful computers of the early 1960s. The 7094 was employed by NASA in both the Gemini and Apollo space programs, and it was used in early missile defense systems as well. The output of the 7094 consisted of 4-×-7-inch punch cards that stored information to drive a Cal Comp 565 drum plotter, specifying when to pick the pen up, move it, and put it down, as well as when the end of a line had been reached, and so on.”
This image of the plotter picture printed on plexiglass (the only one in reverse) is an example of Csuri’s pioneering experimentation with image remediation in the earliest days of computer art. “The final Sine Curve Man image was printed in 1967 on plotter paper and plexiglass and made into an animation, all demonstrating Csuri's early experimentation with multimedia. The idea of remediation (representing one medium in another) is a defining characteristic of the new digital age.”
The most famous example of this effect, which Csuri created back in the ’60s, is Michael Jackson’s music video Black or White (1991).
Unique silkscreen on plexiglass, 1967, size 40.5” x 41.5” (102.87x 105.41 cm)
In the Spalter Digital Collection
"Sine Curve Man" was a recurring motif in Csuri’s early computer-generated work. He created two versions of this piece, and this is the only large-scale red profile version on silkscreen ever produced. Considered possibly the first avatar ever, Sine Curve Man was described by forward-looking critic Douglas Davis in 1971 as “a complex blend of reality and mathematics that had a strange emotional power.”
Curator and scholar Jasia Reichardt, who included Csuri in the historic exhibition “Cybernetic Serendipity” at the Institute for Contemporary Art, London, England in 1968, featured a discussion of this work in her landmark book The Computer in Art (1971). The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York owns a version of Sine Curve Man from the same year as the present work, and included it in the 2018-19 exhibition “Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, 1965-2018.”
Sine Curve Man Two, 1967,Size 34 x 44 in. ( 86x 112 cm)
In the TokenAngels Collection
“For most of his professional career, Charles Csuri worked like any painter since the invention of easel painting. Then he discovered that computers could be programmed to produce images, and since that time, his total effort has been devoted to exploring the artistic potentialities made available by these new means.”
“In this sketch, I was looking at how frequency and phase changes might effect my original drawing. A more graphic quality might be achieved by repetition and a slight shift in the drawing. Also, I considered how I might use colored ink.”
In 1968, Csuri entered an international computer art contest and won with his piece “Sine Curve Man”,1967.