Webster defines an algorithm as.
"a procedure for solving a mathematical problem (as of finding the greatest common divisor) in a finite number of steps that frequently involves repetition of an operation
broadly : a step-by-step procedure for solving a problem or accomplishing some end"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/algorithm
We can identify a few steps that happened with this art. They ground the various pigments and mixed it with different liquids and then applied the paint either by blowing it over their hands with their mouths or using a pipe to apply the pigment.
The history of algorithms goes back millennia. Arguably when an animal teaches another animal to solve a particular problem either by using a tool or technique that is an algorithm.
You may say that the hand placement wasn't precise or that art and algorithms just are completely different universes, but algorithms are used all over the place creatively. 3 point perspective is itself an algorithm, and many artists learn how to draw by tracing other people's art. The camera obscura was used by artists in the Renaissance in fact the defining feature of Renaissance art is the use of algorithms artistically. It was this rediscovery of ancient ways of thought that was then applied to art. Some people at the time were definitely upset by this and almost compared this new form of art as unnatural as being sacrilegious because only God can make perfection. I know this because I've studied art, art history, and also algorithms.
All of this is to say that people seem to be making the same arguments that have been used time and again against new forms of art that are revolutionary. Folk musicians hated sheet music, because they felt like their intellectual property was being violated. Musical notation itself is a form of imperfect algorithmic compression.
What I'm trying to do is expand your understanding of what an algorithm can be because a broader definition is actually useful in many ways. Children made many of these images and there is even evidence that the hands may have been a form of sign language.
https://phys.org/news/2022-03-ancient-handprints-cave-walls-spain.html
So if you aren't looking for meaning or you assume that something is meaningless because the patern isn't clear then you risk missing something truly profound.
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