Archives for the Month of September, 2008

Robert Walden – Ontological Roadmaps

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Ontological Surveillance Maps – Robert Walden

Robert Walden’s drawings are overt process based recordings of labour intensive mark making journeys, which result in his Ontological Road and Surveillance Maps. Using ink, pencil and acrylic on paper his city structures move from linearity and order and gradually transform organically into urban sprawls. The cellular nature of these drawings, not surprisingly, also implies biological entities with tendrils, lichen colonies or even tree bark – nature’s little cities. Yet again these kinds of procedural drawings hint at universal pattern formulae generated by loop-based self-organising principles.

Related
Julya Sets & Fractal Cities
Borges, maps, terrains & Neogeography
Human robots and space-filling emotions

Dmitry Gelfand & Evelina Domnitch – 10000 Peacock Feathers in Foaming Acid.

10000 Peacocks Feathers in Foaming Acid

While deep below the earths surface at Cern physicists try to unravel the secrets of the formation of the Universe, artists Evelina Domnitch & Dmitry Gelfand send a probe through the slight space of a soap bubble membrane allowing a different perspective on our embryonic cosmological past. ‘A Vacuum or semi-vacuum encased within a gravity and temperature sensitive elastic skin – the scenario of an early universe’. The probe in this case is a laser beam that scans the emergent thermodynamic surface patterns of the bubble which refracts back to us images of galactic whorls and vortexes.

Aside the excellent documentary pictures for 10000 Peacock Feathers in Foaming Acid, you can also read of a historical context for this piece. Their annotation includes mentions of the intriguing soap film calculator and more recent soap film soft drives as well a sonic eavesdropping device made by Leon Theremin for the KGB in 1945.

Dylan Martorell – Infinights & Hinteredacts

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Melbourne based artist and musician Dylan Martorell uses an organic procedural method to build up complex mythologies using ‘structural building blocks of nature as a reference point’. Mostly drawn in ink, incredible complex filigree structures contain animals and other worldly people that betray his influences including occult material. Aleister Crowley, psychic self-defence manuals and witchcraft miscellany infuse his work. The other side of the coin seems to be an interest in the accounts of explorers and naturalists – the two interests combine convincingly in his drawings. At times the imagery almost becomes unsettling as it combines with excellently executed complexity. Also of interest are his related sculptures and metal-musical drawings.

Le Name Festival, Lille – More electronic art and music.

Today, the 18th September sees the opening of Le Name Festival in Lille, an electronic music and multimedia showcase organised by Art Point M. Hosting a spectrum of techno/electro DJ’s and VJ’s it looks to be a crammed packed, giddy event. If the Channel Tunnel permits (A fire destroyed part of it last weekend) I’ll be heading over to do a 5 hour, 9 screen real-time geometric visual set with the talented info-visualiser and generative artist Oli Laurelle (Transphormetic Vs Yesyesnono) on Friday – Ivan Smagghe and Tim Paris will be spinning the discs. On Saturday I’ll be performing a 360-degree live show of my sound synched feedback visuals & other anti-gravity structures at the Lille Planetarium.

Busy times, Dataisnature will resume normal services shortly!

MINITEK – electronic culture in NYC

This weekend, 12th-14th September, sees the arrival of Minitek Festival of Electronic Music & Innovation in midtown Manhattan, New York. The festival features 3 club nights of fine minimal tech and electro house music from the crème of the scene, including the crowd pulling Ritchie Hawtin who’s headlining the last night. Aside from the music the festival includes a day and night program of generative visuals, electronic performances and interactive installations. The day event, it should be mentioned is at the legendary the Astroland amusement park at Coney Island!

I’ll be winging my way over to Minitek to show some of my video feedback pieces reworked for the club environment. See you there.

Flickr Fruits #18

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Sound Memory (Oslo Rain Manifesto) – Marius Watz

Marius Watz’s ‘5 Days Off: Frozen’ set is a document of an exhibition Marius curated recently at the Melkweg Club in Amsterdam. The exhibition took a novel approach to the presentation of work using sound analysis. Rather than present the usual software real-time work, the show was concerned with static works, either prints or sculptures – audio transmissions frozen in space-time.

Appearing to blur the boundaries between human handy work and computational precision are some new doodle/scribble systems by Dave Bollinger. Particularly refined is 20080826A from the OCD set. There’s is a real sense composition through the use of spatial arrangement and scaling of individual elements, as well the kinds of marks used. Never has a Processing sketch looked so hand drawn.

Yuji’s Systematic Transformation Structure set contains a development cycle of work done at the Crankbrook Academy of Art and Architecture. Elegant geometric constructions are made in MDF and paper.

Pavillion Tone’s Pattern collection conveniently groups found, drawn and painted patterns into 12 sets. Dataisnature’s eye immediately homes into the optical/mono patterns. Not to be missed though is the colourful Repeat Patterns set containing no less than 275 photos. Radiant photons dazzle the eye in modulation.

Puntsche’s Strips and Stripes set takes you on a journey along undulating monochromatic highways and flyovers, classily rendered in pure space.

Sting Chen’s set of graphic works from 2005-2006 contain detailed drawings of what appear to be parts of alien organisms, organic biological matter, tendons, cells and morphogenetic filaments. The rounded cellular elements are often counterparted with sharp spikes – these things look they were not designed to interact with human beings!