Georg Nees
German mathematician and computer scientist (1926-2016) whose 1969 dissertation under Max Bense is described by ZKM as the first PhD thesis in the field of computer art.
What they make
Georg Nees is described, in the archive.org catalog record for his dissertation, as “a German academic who was a pioneer of computer art and generative graphics.” The same record groups him with Frieder Nake and A. Michael Noll as the “3N” — three computer pioneers “whose computer graphics were created with digital computers,” rather than by hand.
Method
Georg Nees (23 June 1926 – 3 January 2016) was a German academic. The dissertation, »Generative Computergraphik«, was written under Max Bense, Ph.D. 1969. Beyond supervisor and title, the gathered record doesn’t describe the generative procedure itself — no algorithm, no parameter, no description of what the program actually computed. That’s a real gap in what’s documented here, not a detail being withheld.
Signature works
The one titled work in the record is the dissertation itself. No other named piece is attested in the material gathered for this page.
What they pioneered
ZKM’s biographical page states that the dissertation “was the first Ph.D. thesis in the field of computer art” — a claim about the degree, made by ZKM, not extended here to any exhibition, venue, or specific artwork.
Where the work was shown
The record lists four exhibitions, and they are worth having as dates rather than as a claim about who was first: »computer-grafik« at the Institut für Philosophie und Wissenschaftstheorie, Technische Hochschule Stuttgart, in 1965; »computer graphic« at the Dům umění města Brna in 1968; Cybernetic Serendipity at the ICA in London, also 1968; and the Venice Biennale in 1970.
In their own words
No direct quotation from Nees appears in the material gathered for this page. Both excerpts are third-party description — ZKM’s biography and archive.org’s catalog entry for the dissertation — not his own words.
Connected to
Part of: 3N
Works: Achsenparalleler Irrweg · Gardinen · Kugel in der Kugel · Mikadospielhaufen / Falterschwarm · Schotter · Spuren von Bedeutung