1830s-1860s - Mechanical Animation Devices
1832-1834
Phenakistoscope & Zoetrope
Belgium, Austria, England
First mechanical devices creating illusion of motion through persistence of vision - artists cede control to mechanical rotation and optical principles
First human-machine collaboration in animation - mechanical precision creates movement beyond direct human control
1920s-1940s - Direct Film Animation
1935
Len Lye's "A Colour Box"
London, UK
First direct film animation - painting and scratching directly onto film strips, ceding control to camera mechanisms and projection apparatus
Revolutionary cameraless animation - artist collaborates with mechanical film projection to create movement
1940s-1960s
Norman McLaren's Cameraless Animation
National Film Board, Canada
Systematic development of direct animation techniques - engraving, painting, and manipulating film stock without cameras
Establishes direct human-machine film collaboration - mechanical projection amplifies hand-drawn marks
1950s - Electronic Systems Enter Art
1950
Ben Laposky's Oscillons
Cherokee, Iowa, USA
First electronic art using cathode ray oscilloscopes and sine wave generators to create "electrical compositions"
First electronic/computer art - artist cedes control to electronic wave patterns and oscilloscope mechanics
1951
John Cage's Music of Changes
New York, USA
Uses I Ching chance operations to compose piano music, removing individual taste and memory from artistic decisions
First systematic use of chance operations - artist removes personal control, ceding decisions to autonomous system
1953
Gordon Pask's MusiColor
London, UK
Interactive cybernetic system where machine 'gets bored' with repetitive input and seeks variety independently
First truly responsive cybernetic art system with autonomous behavior that exhibits independent decision-making
1960s - Cybernetic Sculptures & Computer Graphics
1973-2016
Harold Cohen's AARON
California, USA
Creates autonomous drawing program that evolves over 40+ years, generating original artworks independently
Longest-running AI art collaboration - machine develops independent artistic 'style' and autonomous creative decisions
2010s-2020s - AI Art Revolution
2015-present
Sougwen Chung's Drawing Operations
New York, USA / International
Collaborative drawing with robotic arms that learn from and respond to human gesture in real-time
Direct human-robot collaboration in real-time art creation - both human and machine contribute autonomous creative decisions
2022-2023
Refik Anadol's Unsupervised
Museum of Modern Art, New York
AI system trained on MoMA's collection autonomously generates interpretations of 200+ years of art history
AI autonomously reinterprets art history - first generative AI work in MoMA permanent collection