Artwork
Pathway Series
Pathway Series is a drawing by Roman Verostko. It dates from 1987 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
About this work
Roman Verostko’s *Pathway Series* from 1987 is a drawing made using a pen plotter. He wrote code to let a machine draw lines on its own. The algorithm picked shapes, spacing, and colors for each line.
Verostko started this in the early 1980s. By 1995 he and others called themselves Algorists. That means artists who use their own computer rules to make art.
Check out Verostko’s work next.
Overview
Roman Verostko’s *Pathway Series* (1987) is a computer‑generated drawing produced by a pen‑plotting device. The work emerges from a custom program that directs the plotter to render lines autonomously, with the computer determining their form, spacing and hue.
Technique & Style
Verostko wrote software that translates algorithmic instructions into physical strokes. The plotter, equipped with multiple pens, follows a set of coded rules that govern each line’s geometry, distribution across the page, and colour selection, resulting in a composition of interlocking, precisely rendered paths.
Subject & Meaning
The piece explores the interaction between deterministic code and visual randomness, allowing a machine to “improvise” within parameters set by the artist. The resulting network of lines suggests pathways and connections, inviting viewers to contemplate order, chance, and the role of the creator in mediated processes.
History & Provenance
Verostko’s experimentation with algorithmic drawing began in the early 1980s, following his development of the *Magic Hand of Chance* program (1982‑85). By the mid‑1990s he, together with peers such as Jean‑Pierre Hébert and Hans Dehlinger, identified as “Algorists,” a term for artists who embed original algorithms in their practice.
Context
*Pathway Series* belongs to a broader movement of computer‑assisted art that emerged as personal computers became capable of controlling peripheral devices. The work reflects a period when artists were redefining the hand‑made gesture through programmable machines, bridging digital logic and traditional drawing media.
Artist & collection
Artist
Roman Verostko spent years hand-coding his drawings, like a programmer who never left the art studio.
