Herbert W. Franke

Computer artist, scientist, philosopher (1927-2022)

[Herbert W. Franke @HerbertWFranke]

@FLAMINGODAO Thank you, Flamigo, for mentioning of these historic apple codes by Herbert from 1982. It was always one of our favorites. Herbert showed it several thimes in lectures. @Foundation_HWF

[FLAMINGO 🦩 @FLAMINGODAO]

ZENTRUM #77 by @HerbertWFranke

"ZENTRUM is a dynamic, endlessly running abstract animation made of structural elements and random codes. The random generator ensures that each endless loop is unique"

[art meets science @Foundation_HWF]

Feindliche Übernahme
Für die deutschsprechende Community: Interessantes Interview von Gunnar Sohn mit Hans Esselborn, einem der besten "Franke-Versteher": Oligarchen auf dem Weg den Weltraum zu privatisieren - und die Warnungen von SF-Autoren wie Herbert W. Franke @HerbertWFranke , Frank Schätzing und anderen.
https://t.co/cfEXxqGdbu

[art meets science @Foundation_HWF]

Here and there:
ball-lightning, sulfur mist
ultraviolet light

ASTROPOETICON by Herbert W. Franke

The foundation is proud to announce that @ShutaYasukochi is doing the sound design for the wonderful Saeko's @Sko_hr artwork, one of the poems of ASTROPOETICON celebrating Herbert's 100th birthday in 2027. @HerbertWFranke
Here is a first glimpse into her worlds.

[Interface gallery @Interface_art]

@HerbertWFranke lived three lives at once: physicist and speleologist, generative artist and curator, science‑fiction author and future thinker. Long before Web3, he treated caves, computers and metaverse-like worlds as connected laboratories for visual experiments/2

[Interface gallery @Interface_art]

In the 1950s, physicist and cave researcher @HerbertWFranke descended deep underground to photograph unknown worlds and turned those experiences into early generative art on oscilloscopes and, later, computers /1

[Herbert W. Franke @HerbertWFranke]

@LGschnitzer isn't it fantastic? A 15 year old person. Keep it up, Laurin.

[Herbert W. Franke @HerbertWFranke]

@LGschnitzer Laurin, that is great! Congratulations to you. Keep it up!
To the world:Laurin is 15 years old ... the next generation of generative art.

[art meets science @Foundation_HWF]

Herbert W. Franke's P-Principle

Right now, much of my time is dedicated to the final editorial preparations for the third book of the Edition Herbert W. Franke, published by Deutscher Kunstverlag and Foundation HWF. To me, this is Herbert’s most important book, as it perfectly blends science and art. @HerbertWFranke

The main theme:
In modern physics, the interplay between natural laws and chaos is considered a fundamental principle of pattern formation, evolution, and the preservation of life. The most important link is the concept of deterministic chaos, upon which the self-organization of matter is based. It developed through the research of Edward Lorenz. In contrast, non-deterministic chaos loses any hidden mathematical structure, such as that found in the Lorenz attractor. There are then no underlying rules left to govern the system as they do in deterministic chaos. For many, this is the reason why they reject the influence of true randomness in nature as fundamentally non-deterministic pure noise. For Franke, this was the starting point for his reflections on the P-principle. He systematically developed the interplay between law and true randomness on a higher level: as an information-theoretically superimposed control structure. While pure, non-deterministic chaos scatters blindly in all directions, the overarching information-theoretic moderation of the P-principle ensures that the evolution of the cosmos receives a clear direction: increasing complexity. The program allows chaos to occur at those points where innovation, evolution, and biodiversity are intended to arise (e.g., in mutations). At the same time, however, it confines chaos through the laws of nature to prevent the system from "crashing" into total chaos. Thus, the development of the cosmos receives a teleological principle that inevitably leads to consciousness and intelligent structures within this calculating space.

To explore his concept of 'calculating space', he experimented with cellular automata, which we are now making accessible once more for this anniversary year through a joint project with the Vienna Museum of Science and Technology.

[art meets science @Foundation_HWF]

🟪ASTROPOETICON 🟪
Sixteen poems by Herbert W. Franke, transformed into immersive sceneries by invited members of our generative art community to commemorate the Herbert W. Franke centennial in 2027

👉Quote by Natalia Oliwiak
For me, ASTROPOETICON is a space for exploring and visualizing Herbert W. Franke‘s poetry through immersive fulldome projection, which merges inner and cosmic journeys. My focus is to bring the audience into transcendental experiences—a metaphorical journey into unknown worlds, suspended between hope and emptiness, between the promise of new worlds and memories of an idyllic past.

Thanks Natalia, the Foundation is honored to have you on board.

Stay tuned for moreinformation about our project!

@JoshuaDavis @_weidi_ @marioecg @Studio_De_Wilde @Marteriumx @Sko_hr @piotrbinkowski @loackme_ @plutonicmind @_juanrg92 @JuliusHorsthuis @HerbertWFranke

[art meets science @Foundation_HWF]

🟪 Latest News 🟪
Foundation Herbert W. Franke
Cooperation with Vienna Museum of Science
👉HWF's Cellular Automata

The Foundation has entered into a cooperation agreement with the Vienna Museum of Science and Technology and the Austrian Mediathek. The goal is to work alongside the Software Archive & Collection—based at the museum’s research institute—to preserve a portion of Franke’s digital computer programs for the long term and to make them accessible to the public both online and offline in the exhibition.
Starting point are Herbert's programs with cellular automata from 1992 - 95. @HerbertWFranke

[art meets science @Foundation_HWF]

🟪ASTROPOETICON 🟪
Sixteen poems by Herbert W. Franke, transformed into immersive sceneries by invited members of our generative art community to commemorate the Herbert W. Franke centennial in 2027

👉Quote by Frederik @Studio_De_Wilde
What draws me to the ASTROPOETICON community is its commitment to dissolving boundaries between art, science, and technology. —continuing a lineage where poetic thinking becomes a tool for exploring unknown territories.

Thanks Frederik, the Foundation is honored to have you on board.
Stay tuned for more quotes from our invited artists!

@JoshuaDavis @_weidi_ @marioecg @Studio_De_Wilde @Marteriumx @Sko_hr @piotrbinkowski @loackme_ @plutonicmind @_juanrg92 @JuliusHorsthuis @HerbertWFranke

[art meets science @Foundation_HWF]

🟪ASTROPOETICON 🟪
Sixteen poems by Herbert W. Franke, transformed into immersive sceneries by invited members of our generative art community to commemorate the Herbert W. Franke centennial in 2027

👉Quote by Natalia Oliwiak
Natalia’s statement: For me, ASTROPOETICON is a space for exploring and visualizing Herbert W. Franke‘s poetry through immersive fulldome projection, which merges inner and cosmic journeys. My focus is to bring the audience into transcendental experiences—a metaphorical journey into unknown worlds, suspended between hope and emptiness, between the promise of new worlds and memories of an idyllic past.

Thanks Natalia, the Foundation is honored to have you on board.

Stay tuned for more quotes from our invited artists!

@JoshuaDavis @_weidi_ @marioecg @Studio_De_Wilde @Marteriumx @Sko_hr @piotrbinkowski @loackme_ @plutonicmind @_juanrg92 @JuliusHorsthuis @HerbertWFranke

[art meets science @Foundation_HWF]

🟪ASTROPOETICON 🟪
Sixteen poems by Herbert W. Franke, transformed into immersive sceneries by invited members of our generative art community to commemorate the Herbert W. Franke centennial in 2027

👉Quote by Shaoyu Su
As participating artist, I want to honor Herbert W. Franke as a truly visionary pioneer whose work helped define the meeting point of mathematics, structure, and visual art, showing with remarkable clarity that formal systems and scientific thought can also be sources of beauty, imagination, and poetic depth. What feels especially moving to me is that his legacy is not confined to the early history of computer art; his writing and artistic vision remain open enough to speak across generations, allowing each new era of media, from early computation to contemporary digital graphics and beyond, to rediscover his ideas in its own way. In that sense, his poetry feels timeless, because it leaves room for future forms and future technologies while preserving a rare intellectual elegance and sense of wonder. My own work is similarly grounded in reality and mathematical structure, using them as an anchor from which speculative worldbuilding can open into alternative temporalities and possible futures.

Thanks Shaoyu, the Foundation is honored to have you on board.

Stay tuned for moreinformation about ASTROPOETICON!

@JoshuaDavis @_weidi_ @marioecg @Studio_De_Wilde @Marteriumx @Sko_hr @piotrbinkowski @loackme_ @plutonicmind @_juanrg92 @JuliusHorsthuis @HerbertWFranke

[art meets science @Foundation_HWF]

I visited the Festival der Zukunft in Munich today and experienced a diverse, top-tier program—ranging from Rocco Helmchen, Celon Cen & Welu Ge and Sergey Prokofyev to Sébastien Labrunie. Together with Alexandra Wolf, he Sergey also responsible for the film selection. Huge congratulations to all of you for an inspiring day under ther dome!

[art meets science @Foundation_HWF]

🟪CONTACT ATTEMPT 🟪
Festival der Zukunft
👉Saturday, July 4th, 2 pm
Planetarium Deutsches Museum, Munich
free admission

Tomorrow, our 30 minute fulldome production showing a few works of our Open Call finalists will be presented in the planetarium program of the festival. I will give introductory information to the project. Works by Arseniy Tyurin & Alisa Voronina, Bard Ionson, Fairlix, Nico P, Strayltd & plutonic mind, and one poem of the commissioned work "The Message" by Sasha Stiles & Technelegy celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Arecibo Message in 2024.
@sashastiles @BardIonson @niemeyerfelix @plutonicmind @HerbertWFranke

More information
https://t.co/2t1x9ZUa6U

[Ludo @Ludowe]

Mystery Villeroy & Boch tiles from the 80s by @HerbertWFranke.
Unique artifacts of early computer art.

[Herbert W. Franke @HerbertWFranke]

@Ludowe Hey Ludo, now that I see those tiles, I remember Herbert's project with V&A in the early 1980s better. We had a few copies , but I haven't seen them in the last 30 years. The project was just an initial test, and it ended at this point. Were did you find them?@Foundation_HWF

[art meets science @Foundation_HWF]

🟪ASTROPOETICON 🟪
Sixteen poems by Herbert W. Franke, transformed into immersive sceneries by invited members of our generative art community to commemorate the Herbert W. Franke centennial in 2027

👉Quote by Weidi Zhang @_weidi_
I would be very happy to be part of the ASTROPOETICON community project. The project strongly aligns with my research, especially my ongoing work in fulldome immersive environments and my exploration of the intersection of science fiction, interactive generative art, and computational art.
I am also a great admirer of Herbert W. Franke. His unique position across science, speculative fiction, and early computer art has been deeply inspiring to me.

Thanks Weidi, the Foundation is honored to have you on board.

Stay tuned for more quotes from our invited artists!

@JoshuaDavis @_weidi_ @marioecg @Studio_De_Wilde @Marteriumx @Sko_hr @piotrbinkowski @loackme_ @plutonicmind @_juanrg92 @JuliusHorsthuis @HerbertWFranke

[art meets science @Foundation_HWF]

🟪 ASTROPOETICON 🟪
Sixteen poems by Herbert W. Franke, transformed into immersive sceneries by invited members of our generative art community to commemorate the Herbert W. Franke centennial in 2027

👉Quote by Markus @Marteriumx:
I’m deeply honored to be one of just 16 artists chosen for ASTROPOETICON, giving me the chance to visually interpret one of Herbert W. Franke’s poems. Franke was a true pioneer who shaped the very foundations of computer graphics and generative art - a visionary who fused technology, science, and creativity decades before digital tools became widespread. For me, joining this project feels like a personal bridge to that remarkable legacy, connecting my own exploration of form, color, and emotion directly to the roots of the medium I love.

Thanks Markus, the Foundation is honored to have you on board.

Stay tuned for more quotes from our invited artists!
@JoshuaDavis @_weidi_ @marioecg @Studio_De_Wilde
@Sko_hr @piotrbinkowski @loackme_ @plutonicmind @_juanrg92 @JuliusHorsthuis @HerbertWFranke @Marteriumx