In a 1975 essay, Aldo Giorgini describes software components of a numerical laboratory for visual experiments.

"Sometimes I consider myself a fisherman. Computer programs and ideas are the hooks, rods and reels. Computer pictures are the trophies and delicious meals. A fisherman does not always know what the waters will yield; however a fisherman may know where the fishing is good, where the waters are fertile, what type of bait to use. Often the specific catch is a surprise, and this is the enjoyment of the sport."
(Clifford A. Pickover, 1990)

"My interest is not to reduce or simplify the interface metaphors [...]. Instead of attempting to hide the interface elements [...] I want to place the emphasis on the mapping, and exploit its role in producing content."
(Joanna Berzowska, circa 1996)

"The real challenge is to discover the intrinsic properties of the new medium and to find out how the [brush] stroke you 'draw' via computation is one you could never draw, or even imagine, without computation."
(John Maeda, 1999)

"Computation [...] is the only medium where the material and the process for shaping the material coexist [...] The only other medium where a similar phenomenon exists is pure thought."
(John Maeda, 1999)

"The protean nature of the computer is such that it can act like a machine or like a language to be shaped and exploited. It is a medium that can dynamically simulate the details of any other medium, including media that cannot exist physically. It is not a tool, although it can act like many tools. It is the first metamedium, and as such it has degrees of freedom for representation and expression never before encountered and as yet barely investigated."
(Alan Kay, 1984)