Groupe Art et Ordinateur, Kammerer Luka et Jean Baptiste
Kempf
Last Monday (Wednesday the 22th, May 2017), we had the chance to visit an interesting an
art exhibit from the named “Groupe Art et Ordinateur de Belfort” (GAOB) at Belfort Tour 46. This
group is composed by two people, Kammerer Luka and Jean-Baptiste Kempf.
In 1971, the artist Kammerer Luka, was a German teacher at Belfort’s IUT and met JeanBaptiste Kempf. From their collaboration, one year later (1972), the «Groupe Art et Ordinateur de
Belfort» (GAOB) appeared. This exhibit traces the story since its creation to their more contemporary
realizations and questions the idea in history of art and computing.
The GAOB is not only a simple group of artists, they have created a complete universe, an
independent and usable alphabet, always based on algorithms and computer science. From the
beginning to now they constantly have refused to be paid and worked for the city of Belfort, the
citizens of Belfort, in collaboration the inhabitants of Belfort. They for example, created the famous
entrance hall of Belfort’s IUT or different sculptures for Peugeot’s museum at Sochaux.
Alphabet based on the Markov chain
Bar code number 39 carpet
However, all their works are given to the city of Belfort and are created to embellished the
banality of the everyday life, and the pallor of urban landscape.
Paul Laîné.