THE ALGORITHM THAT GENERATES ICONOGRAPHIC PROGRAMMING
PROJECT 765 (FIRST BOOK COVER PROJECT), COVER OF THE 'UNIVERSALE SCIENTIFICA BORINGHIERI' BOOK COLLECTION
The initial pattern and the first book cover date to 1965. In this project, we find once again the themes of structure and modular programming, the codes that Mari developed in his early research in the field of perceptual ambiguity. The structure that characterised the first pattern from which the final cover image was generated – or, better said, programmed – was composed of a regular grid dividing the space into twelve squares. Depending on the contents of each book, Mari used to define the final programme that factorised, structured and multiplied the images that were to appear on the book covers. In this context, the programme did not develop into three-dimensional relations set into real space, such as in his Programmed Art Structures, but occupied only a two-dimensional virtual space, in the perpetual reorganisation of images deriving from the original one that constitutes the programme’s modular reference.
Mari’s structure, programme, and verification process established an allegorical analogy with scientific thought, the very subject addressed by this specific book collection, based on analysis, complexity, comparison, demonstration, process, etc.