In a 1975 essay, Aldo Giorgini describes software components of a numerical laboratory for visual experiments.
"Sometimes I consider myself a fisherman. Computer programs and ideas
are the hooks, rods and reels. Computer pictures are the trophies
and delicious meals. A fisherman does not always know what the waters
will yield; however a fisherman may know where the fishing is good,
where the waters are fertile, what type of bait to use.
Often the specific catch is a surprise, and this is the enjoyment of
the sport."
(Clifford A. Pickover, 1990)
"My interest is not to reduce or simplify the interface
metaphors [...]. Instead of attempting to hide the
interface elements [...] I want to place the emphasis
on the mapping, and exploit its role in producing
content."
(Joanna Berzowska, circa 1996)
"The real challenge is to discover the intrinsic properties
of the new medium and to find out how the [brush] stroke you 'draw'
via computation is one you could never draw, or even imagine,
without computation."
(John Maeda, 1999)
"Computation [...] is the only medium where the material
and the process for shaping the material coexist [...]
The only other medium where a similar phenomenon exists
is pure thought."
(John Maeda, 1999)
"The protean nature of the computer is such that it can
act like a machine or like a language to be shaped and
exploited. It is a medium that can dynamically simulate the
details of any other medium, including media that cannot exist physically.
It is not a tool, although it can act like many tools.
It is the first metamedium, and as such it has degrees of freedom
for representation and expression never before encountered
and as yet barely investigated."
(Alan Kay, 1984)