Clint Fulkerson – Autocatalytic life-forms

Cross
Cross Section of a Pre-Fab Pollen Grain – Clint Fulkerson

Clint Fulkerson is one of a growing number artists dedicated to hand generating computer-like patterns, geometries and complex mathematical forms. The procedural aspect of mark-making Clint uses is derived from an auto-catalytic self-organising principle, a self-reflexive recipe that has as much in common with morphological systems as it does drawing.

‘I create my artwork through the slow application of decisive marks. As I draw, I follow a loose formula based on what I’ve already drawn, filling areas of the picture plane gradually, without making initial layout sketches. This makes the final product somewhat unexpected and emergent.’

In this sense the drawing could be seen to be a system in action whereby local agents (drawing marks) define successive marks to create global structures of complexity that are often unaware of their ongoing mutating configurations.

This emergent behaviour has been noted in morphological systems and biological colonies, at length. No surprise, then, that many of Clint’s drawings have titles alluding to the development of organisms such as meiosis and mitosis. In some some of the drawings Voronoi-like meshes appear to generate tensile forces of subdivisioning cellular activity.

Related:
Emma McNally – Emergent Cartographies
Bruce Pollock – A Scroll Through the Alluvial Cellular Terrain
Robert Horvitz – Quantum Symmetries
Matt Shlian – Everything, Everything
Erwin Keustermans – Patterns by Partition
Human Robots & Space-Filling Emotions

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