Tabor Robak is a New York-based artist known for creating multi-channel video installations and generative artworks. Robak’s work has been exhibited and collected internationally at renowned institutions such as the The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met), Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Whitney Museum of American Art, Serpentine Galleries, National Gallery of Victoria, Albright Knox, Migros Museum, and others. In 2014, Robak was named in Forbes’ 30 under 30 in Art. Robak has guest lectured M.F.A. students at Yale and co-taught an MFA course on real-time 3D at New York University. I had the pleasure of chatting with Tabor in advance of his upcoming Art Blocks project Colorspace.

Jeff Davis: Tabor, it’s great to meet you and have an opportunity to learn more about your creative practice. How did you first get into making art?

Tabor Robak: I have been making art on the computer my whole life. As a young child, I scribbled in black and white in MacPaint and Kid Pix on a Macintosh Classic II. In grade school, I made animations in HyperCard and designed mockup logos and websites for video game cheat codes. In high school, I loved participating in “Photoshop Tennis” on internet message boards, designing Dance Dance Revolution icons and wallpapers to share on Mac customization websites, and creating websites in Flash, hosted on Angelfire, that would take two hours to load over 56k.

Then in college, I was able to experiment and grow my work conceptually in class, while developing a formal/technical skill set working commercially on my days off—the combination of these practices was very creatively stimulating and informs my work to this day. I attended the Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) as a general fine arts major combining classes from the graphic design program and fine arts program to form my own “digital art curriculum” as a suitable major did not exist then. At that time, I would upload work online and create interactive websites, and eventually discovered the net.art community where my work gained some momentum thanks to websites like rhizome.org. During this time, I supported myself doing Photoshop retouching for brands like Nike and Adidas, sometimes processing 300 images a day. I also created vector illustrations for the instruction manuals of Canon’s digital cameras for a few years in a row, and worked on animations for Showtime, MTV, and others.

JD: Given all your interest in using the computer as a tool for art, it makes sense that you would eventually start exploring creative coding. When did you start pursuing generative techniques?

TR: I created my first generative works in 2010. Shortly after graduation, I discovered an early version of Unity3D and fell in love with the ability to combine programming, interactivity, animation, 3D modeling, and 2D design into one medium. Since then, creating generative artworks using game engines has been a cornerstone of my practice. For my first New York solo show in 2013, three of the four works shown were generative: 20XX, Algos, and Free-to-Play. At the time I lacked the hardware to display them running in real time, so each work was essentially screen captures of generative iterations rendered to video. In 2016, I presented a solo show titled “Sunflower Seed,” composed entirely of generative artworks presented as live code. At that time, I was heavily inspired by the idea of the random seed, essentially token.data in Art Blocks terms, and by the idea that through procedural generation I could potentially discover a random seed that would create an artwork more beautiful than if I had designed it in a linear fashion, similar to the emergent beauty of nature. Since then, I have continued to present my work in numerous exhibitions both locally and internationally and the scope of my work has continued to expand with newer generative works displayed as multi-channel video walls powered by high-end gaming PCs with file sizes up to 40GB.

JD: When did you discover NFTs as a possible medium?

TR: I first encountered NFTs a few years ago but it was not until learning specifically about Art Blocks that I became interested in making my own. What I find fascinating about the Art Blocks platform and format is that it uses the technology to create new artistic possibilities that were not previously possible. This is because the existence and form of the artwork is intrinsically connected to the medium, given that the code is stored on the blockchain and the actual process of minting the token creates the data that feeds the randomness in the artwork. The platform also adds an additional layer of depth to the artwork in that it can be experienced as individual tokens or conceptualized as the total range of possibilities described when viewing the collection as a whole.

JD: That’s awesome to hear! We’re thrilled to be able to work with you too. How would you say your creative practice has changed over time?

TR: My practice has mostly grown in terms of scale, complexity, and my own personal knowledge and skills. For example, my earliest works were created in a 7x7 ft. bedroom in Brooklyn, on a computer that could not render video larger than 720p. I always worked on mock-ups and never knew how something would look physically, or if everything would even work, until it was installed in the gallery one week before opening. In 2021, I opened my studio in Tribeca and was finally able to experience my work in a physical setting before an exhibition. I use each new artwork I create as an opportunity to learn a new skill or technique. For example, with A* (2014) I learned how to set up a networked video wall with Brightsign media players, with Northstar (2019), I learned to use the real time of day and location of the work to sync the lighting in a real time 3D scene to the outdoors, and with Colorspace I’ve learned a ton about crypto, interfacing with the Ethereum blockchain, and brushed up on some Javascript techniques in the process.

JD: We highlighted a few of your accomplishments in the introduction, but would you like to elaborate a little bit more on any of them?

TR: Yes, I have been able to realize two major goals of mine recently. One was the acquisition of Colorwheel by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the second was having my first solo presentation at a museum, which was my room-scale installation titled Megafauna—an acquisitive commission by the National Gallery of Victoria in Australia presented as part of their 2020 Triennial exhibition. Colorwheel (2017) is nine-channel generative artwork wherein my software creates a liquid painting synced to the time of day, with colors, textures, and movement are based on hundreds of 4k images representing each of earth’s biomes captured at all times of day. Megafauna is an immersive installation consisting of eighty networked screens, a reactive soundscape based on a real time floor projection, and holographic wall decals. The work plays with the idea of emergent AI in various industries as imagined in the troupes of popular fiction. Finally, debuting Colorspace as an Art Blocks curated selection feels like a major accomplishment. I have spent the past five months fully dedicated to this project and I cannot wait to share it with the community.

JD: Well let’s get to it then, shall we?! What was the inspiration behind Colorspace?

TR: My initial inspiration was the file size limitations imposed by storing on the Ethereum blockchain. The idea of making a file as small as possible is so different from the way I have approached my artwork in recent years. I came to appreciate how this made every line of code feel precious and it made me feel excited to come up with an idea and execute it as simply as possible—little puzzles, like designing and implementing an animated typeface in just a couple kilobytes. It struck me that the entire project would be able to fit on a floppy disc which made me think back to my original tools and inspirations, some of which I mentioned earlier, for example: Kid Pix, desktop customization, and screensavers ranging from the original After Dark collection, to the iconic Windows 3D Pipes, and Mac OS X’s ubiquitous Flurry.

In that way, I began to think of the piece as drawing an arrow through time, a tribute to the past, present, and future of creating on the computer. Within the piece I have programmed a variety of brushes, user interfaces, and other elements that draw inspiration from all the references I have mentioned. I’ve also tried to incorporate some of the feelings of using a computer into the piece: the fun of basic interactivity, the in-the-zone feeling of a coding binge, the chaos of an unknown error, or the comfort of having your favorite snack at hand.

JD: Yes, I think you’ve found a way to channel all of those influences in your project. I remember thinking how wild the project was when I first experienced it, and there was this sense of discovery in trying to make sense of the outputs as I went through it. What would you like collectors to look for in your project as the final series is revealed?

TR: The first thing I hope collectors notice is the verbose boot-up screen which was both fun to make and sets the tone for the piece. It also reveals some of the defining features of their mint with some specific info that cannot be found in the project features. For example, each mint consists of a selection from eight brushes, six accents, and seven erasers that each have three style variations and three intensity variations, each with different probabilities, and this info is only revealed on this screen. These values are, however, combined into a “Style + Intensity Rank” that can be found in the project features. The second thing I hope they notice is some of the basic interactivity I have added to the piece—for me, just having a customized cursor is fun, but there is a lot more. There are seven UI possibilities and any of them can be hidden by clicking the “X” and restored with the Shift key. Additionally, the piece can be shutdown with ESC, the icons and popups can be clicked on, you can draw on the canvas, and the rendering speed can be tweaked with the left and right arrow keys.

Third, I hope they notice the variety amongst the mints: the wide range of color palettes, special features like Malware and Boot Failures, and the potential to get the “UI: Invisible” feature—good for collectors who would like to install the work in a more painterly way. I have designed this work to look good anyway you may want to experience it, it looks great on a smartphone screen, as a projection, or even as a multi-channel video installation. Finally, I’d like them to know that the first fifty mints will receive a classic big box PC software release of Colorspace. Including a shrink-wrapped full color box with holographic seal of authenticity, floppy disc containing the source code with your token incorporated, user’s manual/art book, a signed poster based on the output of your token, old school certificate of authenticity, stickers and other goodies—shipping Q3 2022.

JD: I mean that package looks amazing, what an awesome addition to the project. It’s been great speaking with you! What’s the best way for people to stay updated with your work?

TR: My website and Instagram are always updated with my latest, and you can learn more about Colorspace at taborrobak.com/colorspace. I am also participating in two group shows this summer, How to Win at Photography at the Photographers’ Gallery, in London opening in June, and Art & Videogames at The Palace of Venaria in Italy, opening in July.

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First published 23 May 2022: In Conversation with Tabor Robak