[blondin]

> Also, an artist's constraints are often self-prescribed, and they can easily change them if they like.

the most amazing art (both graphics and music) i have seen on computer were from atari, amiga, & c64 demosceners. these artists had real software and hardware contraints.

i like what you said about it being a spectrum though. i think it's hard to tell when engineering becomes art and art becomes engineering. but one can easily spot pure (for its own sake) engineering or pure art.

[lioeters]

There's also a fair bit of "engineering for engineering's sake" (as a parallel of "art for art's sake" - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_for_art's_sake), "divorced from any didactic, moral, politic, or utilitarian function".