ARTIST STATEMENT

Curiosity as a Driving Force

I always had a fascination with trying to understand how things work. What underlying rules, mechanisms, or set of instructions make something function? This curiosity didn’t just lead to taking things apart (and with some luck putting them back together again) but it fueled an innocent sense of discovery to figure out how the world works.

As a kid, I felt this same sense of wonder when watching movies filled with special effects. Back then, the visual effects were mostly practical (“Alien”, “The Thing”), but you could feel we were on the verge of a digital breakthrough with movies like “Tron", “The Abyss” and "Terminator 2”. Documentaries and books that offered a look behind the scenes often intrigued me more than the movies themselves. It was a magical world where matte paintings, animatronics, visual effects, and so much more came together to pursue the common goal of taking the audience on a trip of wonder and excitement.

And of course I wanted to create such a fantastic world myself and share this experience with my audience: friends and family. I used what was available at the time, like Lego bricks and all kinds of crafting materials, to build my own little, functioning systems. 

Mutual — 2022 — Long form collection released on GEN.ART
Mutual #267 - Ordered, Interaction & Excited State

The Intersection of Art and Science

I wasn’t aware of it back then, but the intersection of art and technology, of creativity and engineering, would stick with me for the rest of my life. 

It was during my studies in graphic design that I came across the technology of Flash: one of the first software tools that enabled you to build animations and interactive experiences in the browser. It was a pivotal moment as it became apparent to me that creativity and logic are not necessarily opposed forces, but can be complementary or even reinforcing.

There was this creative outpouring from innovative pioneers like Flight404 (Robert Hodgin), Praystation (Joshua Davis), Elixir Studio (Arnaud Mercier), Presstube (James Paterson), Yugop (Yugo Nakamura), and many more. The underground atmosphere of this emerging DIY subculture felt exciting, especially because the tools that these people used to craft their amazing works were readily available on your own computer. It inspired me to dissect and analyze their creations in an attempt to understand the inner workings of these captivating visuals and interactive experiences.

Dendrites — 2023 — NFT + physical plot collection released on HODLERS
Dendrites #002 & #019

Technology and Design

I noticed that many artists in the generative art scene made the journey from technical development to the art space. I took the opposite path, starting from a background in graphic design and getting into the technical aspects through self-study.

As my work is rooted in visual aesthetics and design principles, I believe this has given me a unique perspective on generative art. The use of contrast and negative space can enhance the tension in a piece, while attention to composition and color can make a work feel balanced and coherent. So I approach generative art from a mindset where visual aesthetics are just as important as the technical execution. This crossover of design and technical skill allows me to create works that resonate on both an intellectual and emotional level.

Monograph — Work in progress / Unreleased

The Computer as a Collaborative Partner

When building my first experiments with Flash, the computer felt like a perfect fit and an ally. It could accomplish what would take ages or just be impossible to create when done by hand, by leveraging its computational power: calculation, logic and repetition. The experience of designing this way felt so much more dynamic than creating visuals with the traditional tools. By varying and randomizing parameters in the system you could create new iterations and generate unexpected outcomes. This is where the magic happens: the system has the power to surprise!

It’s through the unexpected aspect of this design and development process that the computer becomes more than just a tool. It almost becomes a creative partner, discovering new pathways in symbiosis. And by collaboratively generating all these unimaginable possibilities, the artist takes on the responsibility of the curator: selecting, pruning and carving out the artistic path forward. 

When designed this way, the system can start to feel like a living organism with its own set of rules, and sometimes even one that resembles a personality. Occasionally rewarding the artist for the time and effort invested in analyzing, iterating and refining. But it can also behave in elusive and challenging ways, like a reluctant beast, almost impossible to control its internal complexity and unpredictable nature.

Linea Recta — 2023 — Long form collection released on VerticalCrypto Art
Linea Recta #027 & #148

The Illusion of Control

The symbiotic relationship between the artist and the system poses the question: is the artist trying to gain a sense of illusory control over his creation? By creating entities that sometimes feel alive and can autonomously produce a range of varying outputs, does the artist pretend to be a god for a moment? In the process of constructing, analyzing and trying to fundamentally understand a system, does the artist indulge in having a sense of full control over his creation?

If so, this feeling is often short-lived and illusory when confronted with the elusiveness of the ghost in the machine. In this sense, creating a generative system is an exercise in power and its limitations. For me the act of creation is less about achieving control and more about the experience of an ongoing process. It is about embracing serendipity, an exercise in flexibility and finding beauty and wonder in unexpected outcomes.

This can be a reminder of the duality of our human experience. Trying to gain control, but at the same time becoming very aware of the unpredictable nature of the world we live in.

In this tension between control and surrender, between artist and creation, we realize the creative process is as much about exploration and discovery as it is about knowledge and control.

Mitosis — 2024 — Long form collection released on Vivid
Mitosis #361 & #253

Sharing With the Audience

As a generative artist, I try to convey a sense of wonder, unpredictability and excitement to my audience. While a deep understanding of the system’s inner workings isn’t necessary, I’d like to inspire others to start exploring and making discoveries on their own. It’s a bonus if they take an interest in how a system is constructed and what the underlying concept is, but ultimately, an output should be able to stand on its own, aesthetically and autonomously. My work is the result of a dynamic process and is an open invitation to look closer and ask questions, while enjoying the interplay of shapes, patterns and colors. My goal is to bridge the intellectual and the emotional.

Interfaces — 2023 — Series of 4 plotted works on A1 size
Interfaces 003 — Motion capture data "Der Liebhaber" by Marco Goecke

The Process as a Playground

For me, the process of developing a generative system unfolds in a very organic way. I typically start out with a simple geometric or mathematical idea and start building on this. Like an explorer, the coincidences, tangents and decisions lead me further down an unknown path, simultaneously surprising and frustrating me along the way. And as a project progresses and evolves, new ideas emerge and coalesce into a more coherent concept.

In this sense, my approach to generative art is deeply personal. Since I want to fundamentally understand the functionality of a system, I try to avoid relying on external code or libraries. Or at least try to understand the code as well as I can, if I do decide to use dependencies. This mindset dates back to my days as a web developer, where I felt conflicted between trying to understand every line of code and having to deliver on time and within budget.

Fortunately, as a generative artist I have the freedom to shift from a production centered workflow to a process where there is time and space for exploration, experimentation and learning. At its best, the practice of creating generative art is a fun playground without any limiting constraints. 

In my opinion, one thing remains indisputable, and that is the intricate beauty of the natural world. I get inspired all the time by patterns I see around me. And as much as we try to emulate the wonders of the natural world, we will never be able to surpass them. 

It is probably an inherent human quality to be curious, to try to learn, analyze and make sense of our world. But sometimes we need to relax the analytical mind, slow down and just enjoy what we are blessed with. By taking a step back we can try to find a balance between our desire to understand and our ability to marvel at the world’s beauty and mystery. At the heart of my journey is the desire to cultivate and protect a child-like wonder about this wonderfully strange world we live in.