Austrian science fiction writer, media artist, speleologist, co-founder of Ars Electronica in Linz and physicist Herbert W. Franke died near Munich on Saturday at the age of 95. His wife wrote on Twitter: “Herbert liked to call himself the dinosaur of computer art. I, Susanne, am devastated that our beloved dinosaur has left the earth.”
Franke was born in Vienna in 1927, where he also studied physics, chemistry and philosophy and obtained his doctorate in theoretical physics. From 1951 to 1956 there were already first publications as an author.
In addition to his literary work, which he also performed under the pseudonyms Sergius Both and Peter Parsival, Franke has always been involved with new media and technologies. As early as the 1950s there were exhibitions of his computer art at the MAK in Vienna.
“Computer artists from the very beginning”
“As a computer artist from the very beginning,” he experimented with generative photography in 1952, “but as early as 1954 he first used an analog computer and then, from the 1960s, the first mainframe computers for his abstract ‘algorithmic’ art based on mathematical principles. “, as he explained in Linz in May during the press presentation of his exhibition. In 1979 he co-founded the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz. From the 2000s he was a pioneer of the Metaverse, the 3D world “Z-Galaxy” built and operated with his wife Susanne Päch – a space with rotating exhibitions on the Internet platform Active Worlds.
In 2007 Franke was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, First Class. The German PEN club member previously had the Dr. Benno Wolf Prize from the Association of German Cave and Karst Explorers for achievements in cave exploration and the Computer Art Prize from the Association of German Software Manufacturers.
Source: Krone
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