University of Virginia Library

University Engineer Recognized
For Producing Computer Drawings

Future artists may reminisce of
old masters in terms of "Burroughs
5500" rather than of "Titian blue"
if a present trend in art continues.

A student at the University's
School of Engineering and Applied
Science is using a B5500 computer,
electronic plotter and mathematical
equations to create works of art.

Two drawings in a 14-piece
computer art collection have won
national recognition for fifth-year
engineering student William A.
Carpenter by being featured in
"Computers and Automation Magazine's"
seventh annual computer art
contest.

In the first stages of existence.
Mr. Carpenter's winning works,
"The Lightly Lit Lite" and "Molecules,"
were mathematical equations
in his mind. Programmed into
equipment in the University's computer-science
center, the equations
emerged in the form of magnetic
tape. The actual drawing was done
by a Calcomp 570 plotter, as it
digested the tape.

Persons who have difficulty
visualizing sines, cosines and various
quantities of "n" may be encouraged
to know that Mr. Carpenter
isn't always certain about how
things will appear. "I get a kick out
of deciding what I want and coming
out with something different," he
says.

One squiggly line which always
jumps off the plotter in the same
way, though, is Mr. Carpenter's
signature. He says he spent a month
teaching the computer to sign his
name to finished drawings.

After graduation next June, he
hopes to do graduate work in
computer science and applied math.
Unlike Mr. Summer, who has
published a book of his art and
expressed plans for a career in
computer art, Mr. Carpenter has no
such aspirations. Slipping his entries
for another contest into a mailbox,
he says that he will "continue
computer art just for my own
enjoyment."