Computing the Spatial Explorations of Roberto Matta

Generative design tools are occasionally employed in architecture to produce shapes. They can also provide researchers with different analysis capabilities by enabling new approaches and interpretations of case studies. This contribution presents the research on some artworks of the Chilean surrealist artist Roberto Matta Echaurren (1911–2002) using software applications coded with the Processing creative programming language. The selected works belong to Matta’s spatial exploration dating between 1936 and 1938 and consist of six architectural illustrations and the essay ‘Mathématique sensible—Architecture du temps’ (1938). The methodology employed in developing these applications entails digitally analyzing the artist’s work by extracting computable elements and subjecting them to computing mechanisms (sorting, combinations, randomization, etc.) that produce configurations similar to those designed by Matta.