Waldemar Cordeiro and Arteônica: rewritings of digital art in Brazil and Latin America

Abstract

In the passage of time from the 1960s to the 1970s, the Brazilian artist Waldemar Cordeiro (1925–1973) developed his first works in computer art by applying the mathematical concept of “derivative function.” Around the same time, he organized and took part in exhibitions, and composed a series of essays envisaging that the use of digital resources would become an inevitable process for the future of information reception and artistic communication. A closer look at Waldemar Cordeiro's production, both artistic and theoretical, after almost 50 years of his first forays into the field of art and technology, is an excellent opportunity not only to revisit his trajectory, but to rewrite the history of digital art and our conception of it, locating Brazil and Latin America as situated centrally, not peripherally, in relation to the European and North American narratives. Drawing from theorists in the field of informational esthetics as well as scholars in the field of media such as Arlindo Machado and Vilém Flusser, this article seeks to demonstrate, through the analysis of Waldemar Cordeiro's theoretical–artistic productions, the relationship between his work, the field of cybernetics, and his utopian and social vision of artistic production.