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@JanRobertLeegte: Formal generative art is dead, conceptual generative art is just beginning.

@saintsonso: except formal generative art is not dead. just look at someone’s practice like Zach Lieberman.

@JanRobertLeegte: I was paraphrasing the current meme on X. But my opinion is how stunning a lot of the current generative art is, adding a conceptual dimension would add the part that is missing for me to be fully complete.

@zachlieberman: I’m curious what you mean, like conceptual art ? Or something else ? I engage with concepts all the time like optics, light, texture, rhythm and color.

@JanRobertLeegte: I would say you are describing formalism or formal generative art here very precisely. What I'm pointing at is work of which the primary role is to reflect or enact a concept, rather than to exist as aesthetic ends in themselves.

@zachlieberman: I still am not completely understanding (forgive me) and I read this as a little dismissive — if a work is for example exploring a natural phenomenon, is that not a concept? Does the concept need to be non visual?

@JanRobertLeegte: It the work centres around all the visual aspects as you summed up, that would follow the tradition of formalism. If it would want to emphasise the idea of the waterfall, then it would fall to conceptualism. It's a different starting point.

Fine — on my side I read your original comment as dismissive (like there’s no concepts there) and I think there’s a broad amount of work (not just my own but of the community) that falls into that second category. And the first is fine / important too.
Jan Robert Leegte
@JanRobertLeegte
I was tapping into the current meme out there. In the last few years an insane amount of formal generative work has been made, which has really covered a lot of ground. In the second cat a lot of work is still to be done imo.
8:01 PM · Jul 10, 2025
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Jan Robert Leegte
@JanRobertLeegte
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Jul 10
Also I think it can be good to be clear art historically. Like for example this work of you (a beauty), also reading the full description, is 100% formalism. Why make the water muddy and not call a spade a spade.