on Toshareproject.it - curated by Bruce Sterling
FERAL FILE
https://feralfile.com
–GRAPH
Announcing a new exhibition of software art and plotter drawings, curated by Casey Reas.
Exhibition Opening:
November 30, 2021
14:00 UTC+0 (10pm Shanghai, 3pm Berlin, 11am São Paulo, 6am Los Angeles)
Collecting begins one hour later
Feral File and Bitmark are pleased to announce the gallery’s tenth exhibition, featuring plotter drawings from six international artists who are transforming how code is rendered through drawing machines.
Participating artists:
Aleksandra Jovanić (Serbia)
Iskra Velitchkova (Spain)
James Merrill (United States)
Julien Gachadoat (France)
Licia He (United States)
Tyler Hobbs (United States)
Each of the artists in –GRAPH has created one software artwork that creates 30 unique physical drawings. Twelve sets (bundles of all six works) will be made available to collectors, as well as 11 of the editions from each artist. The pieces will be auctioned to the highest bidders, and the first collector of each edition will receive the corresponding plotter drawing shipped directly from the artist’s studio. Each software NFT includes millions of other compositions that are embedded in the software that can be viewed through an interface created by each artist.
Curator Casey Reas on –GRAPH:
“When I made my first plotter drawings, I can say without exaggeration that it completely transformed my understanding of the history of computer-generated drawings. Before, I had vaguely understood how they were created, but now I felt their production in detail… Each drawing is truly unique and is often the result of careful physical adjustments and extreme patience.
Making plotter drawings is difficult and wonderful, and the artists in –GRAPH are passionate about this medium. These artists all share a love of working with visual systems and writing code, and transforming how the code is rendered through drawing machines.”
Preview of the Artworks:
Julien Gachadoat — Umwelt (Pictured Above)
Julien Gachadoat’s “Umwelt” relies on the combination of a subdivision algorithm and a curved-line-drawing algorithm to produce a set of minimalist compositions. Each image in the series is the result of partitioning a square into a series of smaller areas and then filling those areas with a dense group of curved lines. The spacing of these lines, their orientation, and their precise curvature are defined by harmonic functions that create rhythms within a spatial geometric melody.
Aleksandra Jovanić — (The illusion of) depth of knowledge
“(The illusion of) depth of knowledge” by Aleksandra Jovanić. Image courtesy of the artist and Feral File.
“(The illusion of) depth of knowledge” by Aleksandra Jovanić. Image courtesy of the artist and Feral File.
In “(The illusion of) depth of knowledge,” Aleksandra Jovanić explores apophenia, the tendency to perceive a connection or meaningful pattern between unrelated or random things. Each drawing in the series is generated through random numbers, but the internal connections suggest that more is happening. In Aleksandra’s words, these images show “how things in life are pretty simple most of the time, but we tend to complicate them.”
Iskra Velitchkova — “CHERTI”
“CHERTI” by Iskra Velitchkova. Image courtesy of the artist and Feral File.
“CHERTI” by Iskra Velitchkova. Image courtesy of the artist and Feral File.
Iskra Velitchkova’s “CHERTI” is a series of drawings that explore the relationship between physical drawings and software drawings. On that topic, Iskra writes, “The difference between digital and physical allows me to see the process itself. The constraints of the pen, the paper, and many other circumstances that only happen in real life make me more aware of how much we can learn from technology and its capacity to produce complexity.” The software drawing seen in the web browser is a small window of the full composition, to show more detail. The physical drawing reveals the whole picture, and both views are displayed together to convey this relationship.
Chaos Blocks — James Merrill
“Chaos Blocks” by James Merrill. Image courtesy of the artist and Feral File.
“Chaos Blocks” by James Merrill. Image courtesy of the artist and Feral File.
James Merrill’s “Chaos Blocks” drawings explore the tension between order and chaos. Each drawing in the series is reminiscent of a geological drawing, and we see them created on the screen as each layer draws on top of the next. After the layers are created, each is filled with an unexpected, vibrant pattern. James is reacting against the inhuman perfection that often characterizes visual art created through machines. With this focus, his work has a strong relationship to many of the first plotter drawings created in the 1960s that explored randomness to circumvent precision. James amplifies this further with his library of dense and meticulous patterns.
Licia He — Endless Monologue
“Endless Monologue” by Licia He. Image courtesy of the artist and Feral File.
“Endless Monologue” by Licia He. Image courtesy of the artist and Feral File.
With “Endless Monologue,” Licia He reflects on questions that she subconsciously asks herself like, “Who am I?” and “Is this correct?” In thinking about these repetitive and constant questions, she writes, “They are soft murmurs yet enormously demanding. They are intricate but chaotic. Gloomy or bright, they are all colorful, tangled, and bizarre.” A selection of 31 phrases from her internal monologues are the seeds for the random number generator that defines each artwork in the series. The visual manifestation is a dense surface of flowing curves that intersect and create networks. When she uses paint and brushes to translate her images from code to paper, these lines merge into solid blocks as the paint spreads through the paper.
F(l)ight — Tyler Hobbs
“F(l)ight” by Tyler Hobbs. Image courtesy of the artist and Feral File.
“F(l)ight” by Tyler Hobbs. Image courtesy of the artist and Feral File.
Tyler Hobbs’ “F(l)ight” a study of the aesthetic overlap and differences between the natural world, hand-made artwork, and algorithmic tendencies. It’s a return to his long-standing interests in the continuum of representational images to total abstraction. In relation to his idea that code and algorithms become increasingly important within culture and art, Tyler says, “I am interested in what parts of the analog world we can capture, what we can improve, and what is lost.”