GoKawiilLe Random launches 'Living Timeline' tracing generative art to 71,000 BCE cave markings
Digital art institution Le Random has released an interactive project called The Living Timeline, which maps the history of generative art from prehistoric markings to contemporary AI diffusion models. The timeline includes crosshatched ocher engravings found in Blombos Cave in South Africa, dated to roughly 71,000 BCE, as an early example of rule-based or systems-driven creative output.
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By framing ancient human mark-making alongside modern AI tools, the project suggests generative art is better defined by process and systems than by technology, which could reshape how curators and historians categorize the field. This broad historical framing may also serve to legitimize AI-generated art by placing it within a much longer human tradition rather than treating it as a recent, isolated phenomenon.
- Le Random's The Living Timeline presents an interactive history of generative art spanning tens of thousands of years.
- The project includes 71,000 BCE engravings from Blombos Cave as an early generative art example.
- The timeline connects ancient rule-based creation methods to contemporary AI diffusion models.
Source: fastcompany.com, 2026-10-13
Published there as: “This cool interactive visual argues that generative art began in a cave”
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