Micro Arts is a new magazine launched last autumn. It covers the wide area of graphic art created upon microcomputers (and in some cases by micros). As well as producing the magazine, there is a range of software for the Spectrum and the BBC.

Martin Rootes has written the BASIC routines which generate the "art" on MA3. Textures, mixes, seas of colour, solids, filling and washing over the screen canvas make this an interesting program. The probability of certain types of overlay occurring change throughout. There are circles and rectangles, hatching and random use of the BBC's ability to "combine" colours logically.

Vortex produces mathematical shapes in four colours. You can choose which ones. Limited but pretty. Mondrian is animated graphics, coloured squares outlined in black being spun into position, colours swapped, and shapes switched. Mondrian reminds me of some of the caption graphics being used on the television. It's all in BASIC and very impressive from a performance point of view. Whether it is art is up to you.

Pic-Swap is based on card graphics used at the Moscow Olympics. An Assembler routine holds two screens in memory and swaps them over in sections. Runner is based on a photo sequence in the style of Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase". It won't run on discs systems without being downloaded!

A very promising start from Micro Arts. Graphics are one of the key areas in home computing and they can be quite inspiring on the BBC. Try this package for size. Can the computer produce great works of art? Is it just a tool for the human artist? All worth thinking about and testing for yourself. MA3 helped to remind me that the BBC is fun as well as very useful. Contact Micro Arts at PO Box 587, London SW4 9PH.

Melvyn Wright