Scherzo for Matrix and Figures/INFORMATRIX 1970-1996

In its initial, linear implementation, SMF I(1970-75) was developed with the aim of setting up a process of figure composition on the plane, that would be structured enough to be significant and open enough to allow a wide margin of unpredictability.

In a second phase(1977-1978), the program was refined and broadened to include order relations of figures in situations of partial overlap.

A first version of SMF in the form of an interactive book titled Informatrix was developed in 1972. Shown here are a number of pages from the second version of the book, developed in 1978 and published in 1979. The user is encouraged to use the book, not only for the production of pictures, but also for the discovery and invention of one's own compositional rules and procedures. In this sense Informatrix stands to the computer as a flip-book stands to film.

In its latest embodiment Informatrix has been restructured and posted on the web in 1996. At this stage, InforMatrix sets up a situation in which certain personal stylistic preferences can be revealed to a participant through an interactive visual dialogue and in terms of the common ability to understand and reason by analogy.

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