Casey Reas, Software Structures #003A, 2004/2016/2026.
Custom software (black and white, silent), Dimensions variable.
Courtesy of the Whitney Museum Collection and the artist.

Software Structures begins from Sol LeWitt’s instruction-based wall drawings and considers how conceptual art can provide a framework for understanding software as an artistic medium. Casey Reas initially translated three of LeWitt’s sets of instructions into code, using them as the basis for a series of computational variations. From this process, he developed his own “structures”: written formulations describing how elements within a work should behave and relate to one another before any particular software implementation was determined.

The project therefore moves deliberately between image, language and code. An initial visual idea is refined into a verbal system of rules, which is then realised through software. Rather than treating code simply as a tool for producing an image, Software Structures foregrounds the underlying logic of the work and the act of interpretation required to translate instructions into executable form.

Twenty-six works emerged from three principal structures, each emphasising different possibilities within the same conceptual framework, including variation in interpretation, process and technical realisation. The project presents not only the resulting works, but also their source code and accompanying commentary, making the relationship between concept, instruction and execution visible.

Reas developed the project in collaboration with Jared Tarbell, Robert Hodgin and William Ngan. Originally created as Java applets, the works were later rebuilt by Reas in JavaScript in 2016 as browser support for Java declined, allowing the project to remain accessible in contemporary web environments.

Casey Reas, Software Structures #003B, 2004/2016/2026.
Custom software (black and white, silent), Dimensions variable.
Courtesy of the Whitney Museum Collection and the artist.

Software Structures begins from Sol LeWitt’s instruction-based wall drawings and considers how conceptual art can provide a framework for understanding software as an artistic medium. Casey Reas initially translated three of LeWitt’s sets of instructions into code, using them as the basis for a series of computational variations. From this process, he developed his own “structures”: written formulations describing how elements within a work should behave and relate to one another before any particular software implementation was determined.

The project therefore moves deliberately between image, language and code. An initial visual idea is refined into a verbal system of rules, which is then realised through software. Rather than treating code simply as a tool for producing an image, Software Structures foregrounds the underlying logic of the work and the act of interpretation required to translate instructions into executable form.

Twenty-six works emerged from three principal structures, each emphasising different possibilities within the same conceptual framework, including variation in interpretation, process and technical realisation. The project presents not only the resulting works, but also their source code and accompanying commentary, making the relationship between concept, instruction and execution visible.

Reas developed the project in collaboration with Jared Tarbell, Robert Hodgin and William Ngan. Originally created as Java applets, the works were later rebuilt by Reas in JavaScript in 2016 as browser support for Java declined, allowing the project to remain accessible in contemporary web environments.

Kate Vass interviews Casey Reas, artist and co-creator of Processing, the influential programming language and environment that has shaped generations of artists working with code.

In our History of Generative Art series, we spotlight Processing. Created in 2001 by Casey Reas and Ben Fry, it made programming accessible to artists and designers, helping shape code into a powerful medium for visual and interactive art.

The Le Random team speaks with Casey Reas, artist, UCLA professor, and cofounder of Processing and Feral File, about the history of generative art, the overlooked importance of experimental video art, and more.

Casey Reas and Lauren Lee McCarthy explore the future of social software with Alex Estorick in this conversation for Right Click Save.

EMERGENCE is conceived as a living exhibition and traces the evolution of complexity from simple computational rules to collective intelligence. Released over six weeks, each chapter reveals new artists and conversations exploring how interaction gives rise to pattern, organism, and society.

In 2024, as we journeyed five years back in time to revisit the "Automat und Mensch" show, our aim was to reflect upon the trajectory of Al in art and the evolution of generative art over the past half-decade.

In conjunction with the exhibition Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952-1982, LACMA's Art + Technology Lab presents a two-part digital work by Casey Reas: a simulation of and homage to Victor Vasarely's unrealized proposal for LACMA's Art and Technology Program (1967-1971).

The Automat & Mensch exhibition is, above all, an opportunity to put important work by generative artists spanning the last 70 years into context by showing it in a single location.

In Tox Screen, Casey Reas transformed local television broadcasts through custom software, scrambling their images and narratives into a wall-sized generative video installation.

In CENTURY, Casey Reas transformed 100 influential twentieth-century artworks into algorithmic compositions, reflecting on a century of art history through software and print.

The Art of Code brought together Golan Levin and Casey Reas in an early two-person exhibition exploring software as an artistic medium.