Degrees of Disruption — V&A texts and collection records
Texts by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, reproduced as published, except the artist's news item at the end. Compiled 7 November 2026.
Display page (vam.ac.uk)
Source: Degrees of Disruption: Vera Molnar and Generative Art.
Degrees of Disruption: Vera Molnar and Generative Art
Featuring over 50 works by influential artist Vera Molnar and contemporary practitioners, this display explores how Molnar's early experiments with computers and algorithmic thinking continues to resonate with digital art today.
Display. Closes Sunday, 30 May 2027. V&A South Kensington, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL. Rooms 88A & 90. Free – no booking required.
Display highlights listed on the page: 'MicroImage', inkjet print, by Casey Reas, 2002, United States; 'Bonne Annee 1987', red plotter drawing, by Vera Molnar, 1986, Paris, France; 'Untitled (Imaginer, Construire)', lithograph of computer-generated drawing, by Vera Molnar, 1985, Paris, France; '(Des)Ordres', plotter drawing, by Vera Molnar, 1974, Paris, France; 'I'm Saying I'll Have to Check In', plotter painting, from collection 'Spring in the Winter', by Licia He, 2023, London, England; '"Parcours 10x10 cinq rectangles".', analog electrophotographic (EP) printing with dry toner, by Vera Molnar, 1976; 'Interruptions', plotter drawing, by Vera Molnar, 1969, Paris, France; 'Bonne Annee 1986', plotter drawing, by Vera Molnar, 1986, Paris, France; 'Bluena', digital print, by Harm van den Dorpel, from the series 'Algues Artificielles', 2016; 'Sketchbook A #64', digital pigment print, by William Mapan, 2023, France.
Members' talk (20 October 2026)
Source: Online Curator Talk: Vera Molnar and Generative Art.
Discover the art of Vera Molnar and her enduring impact on generative art today in this Members-only talk with Curator Melanie Lenz.
Members are invited to an introduction to Degrees of Disruption: Vera Molnar and Generative Art, a major display opening in October 2026. Introduced by its Curator, Melanie Lenz, the display brings together more than 50 works of art to reveal how Molnar used algorithms, executed by hand or machine, to question what art could be, while tracing the continued influence of her practice on contemporary generative artists.
Wall labels
Transcribed from an installation photograph on harm.work (Degrees of Disruption). The accent on Molnar's name could not be read at that resolution and is given as the V&A spells it elsewhere.
Generative Principles
Generative art is created by designing a system that produces the work. Rather than directly making an image, object, or performance, the artist defines a set of rules, instructions, or algorithms that generate it. The artist specifies parameters and constraints, then hands over some decision-making to the system, often introducing an element of randomness. Today generative art is often associated with the central role that automation plays in its production. Molnar's experimental, exploratory work paved the way for contemporary generative art, and her legacy continues to influence younger artists. The works in this section ask questions of agency, authorship, and creativity, reflecting on what emerges when an artist designs a process and relinquishes a measure of control.
Bluena
Harm van den Dorpel
2016
Van den Dorpel uses algorithms as a medium for creative expression to generate unforeseen forms beyond his full control. For this work, he developed a feedback-driven process between artist and software that shaped the final composition. He selected this image but also extended the process through his publicly accessible website Hybrid Vigor, inviting viewers to shape the algorithmic forms.
Inkjet print
Museum no. E.44-2021
(Beside a QR code:) Hybrid Vigor, Family Collection Dijkstra
The label for Algues Artificielles on the screen beside it is not legible in the photograph.
Collection records
Source: V&A Collections, records O1547615, O1547616 and O1551236, read through the V&A collections API on 7 November 2026.
Shared summary description
The three records carry the same first two paragraphs:
Harm van den Dorpel is a Dutch artist who specialises in net-based art. He is the first artist to sell a work purchased by cryptocurrency to a museum – his 2015 Event Listeners to the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts - as well as the co-founder of the block-chain based art marketplace left.gallery. His work, often hosted on interactive sites, explores relationships between humans and algorithms through generative models.
His work developed with the internet, going as far back as 2006 with his Revenant series, and 2008 with Ethereal Self and Ethereal Others, all of which hosted on now defunct websites. Ethereal Self was one of the earliest attempts at hosting images of people online, through consenting self-recordings via webcam. Ethereal Others displayed the visitors in a grid. At the time, the sites sparked public debate over internet privacy. Van den Dorpel's artwork grew as digital abilities did, and some of his subsequent works were visualisations of genetics (Death Imitates Language, 2016), linguistics (Nested Exchange, 2018), and pixels (Resolution Paintings, 2023). More recently, he has turned to NFTs (non-fungible tokens).
The prints continue: "This artwork is part of his series, Algues Artificielles, inspired by seaweed and jellyfish he saw on a family vacation. On his site, Hybrid Vigour, visitors are able to choose two drawings to combine. Each of these gives a new "generation" of drawings, with each subsequent generation having less and less diversity, until finally, there is a singular artwork left."
The software record begins its third paragraph instead: "This is the software behind his series, Algues Artificielles, …", and continues with the same sentences.
Dechayotic — E.43-2021
- Object type: Digital print, from the series Algues Artificielles. Made 2016. Accession year 2021.
- Physical description: "Composition comprised on overlapping blue and brown irregular curved shapes"
- Dimensions: height 101 cm, length 81 cm.
- Location: Prints & Drawings Study Room, level C.
- Bibliography: Arreola, P., Gardner, C. and Lenz, M. Digital Art: 1960s – Now. London: Thames & Hudson with the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2024, p. 119, fig. 27.
Bluena — E.44-2021
- Object type: Digital print, from the series Algues Artificielles. Made 2016. Accession year 2021.
- Physical description: "Composition comprised on overlapping blue, yellow and brown irregular curved shapes"
- Dimensions: height 101 cm, length 81 cm.
- Location: Prints & Drawings, Room 90, The Julie and Robert Breckman Gallery (on display in Degrees of Disruption).
- Bibliography: Arreola, Gardner and Lenz, Digital Art: 1960s – Now (2024), p. 119, fig. 26.
Algues Artificielles (software) — E.45-2021
- Title: Algues Artificielles, "assigned by artist". Object type: Algues Artificielles software. Made 2017. Accession year 2021.
- Materials and techniques: Javascript application.
- Physical description: "Version controlled (Git) set of files including a JavaScript app bundle, an HTML/CSS page and a Shell script to launch the artwork, amongst others stored on a USB contained in a metal box"
- Dimensions: memory card 8.7 × 5.6 cm; box container 9.5 × 6.8 cm; "Variable as work is projected".
- Location: Prints & Drawings Study Room, level C, shelf "Digital Art".
harm.work news item (17 January 2021)
Source: Three works enter permanent collection V&A London, by the artist. Teaser: "3 works enter V&A collection".
Very honoured that three of my works from the Algues Artificielles series entered the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.