Generative: A Computer Art Documentary

Generative explores the artists and engineers who first brought computers into the creative process, transforming ideas of how art could be made. Through rare archive and interviews with figures including Vera Molnar, Manfred Mohr and A. Michael Noll, alongside a new generation of artists, the film traces their early experiments with code, chance and machines. More than half a century later, Generative reveals how these radical ideas continue to influence artists today, opening new ways of thinking about what it means to make art.
Coinciding with the Degrees of Disruption: Vera Molnar and Generative Art, the filmmaker Ben Spilling has created a special cut of the documentary for the V&A, offering audiences an exclusive preview.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the film's director and producer and V&A digital art curator Melanie Lenz.
Part of the V&A’s Digital Art Season: On Agency which runs until 3 December 2026, exploring the fluid boundaries between human and machine agency.