Art by computer program = = programmer creativity

The designation 'computer artist' seems to carry little meaning these days. Observing that computers permeate artists' daily lives is hardly news. Observing artists fulfilling their creative role by entering into collaborations with computer programmers or heading up teams of technical experts to support the electronic needs of their multi-media, interactive, or installation work is common place. But observing artists who program in the strict sense of the word, by writing code in a symbolic language to implement algorithms, is still enough of a novelty that it continues to raise questions about what it truly means to say that an artist is a person who is "skilled in the creation of aesthetic works". Based on practical experience writing computer programs to output aesthetic imagery, I outline what I believe it means for a programmer-artist to be creative.