Ken Knowlton | |
|---|---|
 Knowlton in 2007 | |
| Born | Kenneth Charles Knowlton June 6, 1931 Springville, New York, U.S. |
| Died | June 16, 2022 (aged 91) Sarasota, Florida, U.S. |
| Spouses |
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| Children | 5 |
| Academic background | |
| Education | Cornell University (BS,MS) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD) |
| Doctoral advisor | Victor Yngve |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Engineering Art |
| Sub-discipline | Computer engineering Computer graphics |
Kenneth Charles Knowlton (June 6, 1931 – June 16, 2022) was an American computer graphics pioneer, artist, mosaicist and portraitist. In 1963, while working atBell Labs, he developed theBEFLIX programming language for creating bitmap computer-produced movies. In 1966, also at Bell Labs, he andLeon Harmon created the computer artworkComputer Nude (Studies in Perception I).
Kenneth Charles Knowlton was born to Frank and Eva (Reith) Knowlton inSpringville, New York, on June 6, 1931. He completedhigh school one year early, then enteredCornell University to studyengineering physics. After finishing his undergraduate degree, he continued to a master's degree.[1] He completed his M.S. in 1955; the title of his thesis was "X-Ray Microscopy with a Modified RCA Electron Microscope."[2]
In 1962, Knowlton earned hisPh.D. degree from the Department of Electrical Engineering at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology in 1962 under the supervision ofVictor Yngve. His thesis was titled "Sentence Parsing with a Self-Organizing Heuristic Program".[3]
In 1963, Knowlton developed theBEFLIX (Bell Flicks) programming language for bitmap computer-produced movies, created using anIBM 7094 computer and aStromberg-Carlson 4020 microfilm recorder. Each frame contained eight shades of grey and a resolution of 252 x 184. Knowlton worked with artists, includingStan VanDerBeek andLillian Schwartz. He and VanDerBeek created thePoem Field animations. Knowlton also created another programming language namedEXPLOR (EXplicit Patterns, Local Operations and Randomness).[4][5][6]
In 1966, he prepared an animated film as an introduction to the Bell Telephone Laboratories' Low-Level Linked List Language (L6).[7]
In 1966, Knowlton andLeon Harmon were experimenting withphotomosaics, creating large prints from collections of small symbols or images. InComputer Nude (Studies in Perception I) they created an image of a reclining nude (choreographerDeborah Hay),[8] by scanning a photograph with a camera and converting the analog voltages to binary numbers, which were assigned typographic symbols based on halftone densities. It was printed inThe New York Times on October 11, 1967, as the first full frontal nude published in the paper, and exhibited at one of the earliest computer art exhibitions,The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age, held at theMuseum of Modern Art inNew York City from November 25, 1968, through February 9, 1969.[1][4][9][10] The artwork inStudies in Perception also launchedRobert Rauschenberg'sExperiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.).[1] In 1969, Knowlton and Harmon continued the series withGulls (Studies in Perception II)[11] andGargoyle (Studies in Perception III).[12]
Knowlton's work had been previously exhibited atCybernetic Serendipity, an exhibition held at theInstitute of Contemporary Arts inLondon from August 2 to October 20, 1968.[13]
Knowlton co-invented Ji Ga Zo withMark Setteducati, released in the United States on March 30, 2011. Ji Ga Zo is a puzzle in which the user assembles a mosaic from 300 shaded pieces to form a digitized image from the user's own photograph.[1]
Technology historian Jim Boulton worked with Knowlton to reconstruct the algorithm used to generateStudies in Perception I, which was used to make a remastered version of the original work in 2016. As a fundraiser forRhizome, Knowlton and Boulton used the algorithm in 2022 to generate a portrait of E.A.T. director Julie Martin,Studies in Perception IV: Julie Martin.[8]
Knowlton had three sons and two daughters from his first marriage to Roberta Behrens, which ended in divorce.[1] His second wife, Barbara Bean, died before him.[1] He died at a hospice facility inSarasota, Florida, on June 16, 2022, ten days after his 91st birthday.[1]
