Elena Asins' 1980s Computer Art Explores Universal Grammar at KOW Berlin

KOW in Berlin presented 'Machines to Change the World,' a tightly focused exhibition of rare 1980s works by Spanish computer art pioneer Elena Asins from February 15 to March 14, 2020. The show featured austere computer printouts arranged in grids, including pieces like Canons 18/11 (1989) and 3 in 3 Perspective Scale 33 newplan (Nr.1-49) (1989), where abstract forms undergo constant permutation. Asins, who died in 2015 at age seventy-five, studied semiotics with Noam Chomsky and applied concepts like universal grammar and Ramsey's theorem to her practice. Her work combines digital animation, sculpture, concrete poetry, and two-dimensional forms to suggest invisible systems underlying reality. The exhibition highlighted her use of cybernetics and combinatorial theory to create nonrepresentational sequences that evoke both Minimalism and allover painting. A 2011 retrospective at Madrid's Museo Reina Sofía previously showcased the Euclidean rigor of her broader practice. Asins also studied Mozart's music, whose sense of resolution parallels the intuitive logic in her abstract compositions. The show's title carries ironic resonance given how computer technologies have transformed society through automation, social media, and warfare. Her idealism offers theoretical optimism by suggesting disorder is merely an illusion within larger structural patterns.