_Libra_ functions as a manifesto that rejects digital art made from mimetic processes – the emulation of traditional analogue mediums and techniques. Such techniques are ubiquitous in digital art and arguably hamper the development of genuinely new aesthetics and new discourse for such a budding medium. 

Artists use digital mediums to mimic physical characteristics like brush strokes or textures of clay. It is not to say that these effects are not successful. Emulation of analogue artworks grants the digital work a natural, relatable and seemingly physical character. This use of the medium simultaneously distances the work from typical connotations of digital artworks being lifeless, flat, precise, and rigid. Perhaps this mimicry makes the work feel ‘finished.’ Digital techniques infiltrated painting in the 90s and early 2000s. At that time artists like Albert Oehlen and Jeff Elrod merged digital and analogue techniques to create a sort of ‘screen space’ on the canvas – something somewhere between a painterly space and a digital space. The Skarstedt Gallery, who originally presented Oehlen’s exhibition titled Computer Paintings, proclaimed that limitations in computers pushed Oehlen to ‘finish’ the paintings by hand – the paintings “required a human hand to enhance the final product.” That is to say that Oehlen augmented the digital works with an analogue technique. This is quite related to the current movement in digital art. Digital artists augment their works with emulations of analogue techniques. This observation raises the question: what does digital art look like when it does not emulate analogue art? Can such a work exist and feel ‘finished’?

To investigate such questions, _Libra_ generates imagery from first principles and default settings – two conflicting concepts that when brought together bring balance to the artwork. Each invocation of the algorithm directly uses the hash as the paintbrush: _Libra_ creates color-fields and blurs by placing the hash characters onto the canvas until it is sufficiently covered. Each character is initially recognizable as a letter or number – something we may all be familiar with. As the screen fills with more and more characters, some become unrecognizable and part of a larger system. Through these actions the hash is transformed into minute and carefully placed strokes that create illusions of light, space, and form that is unique to the screen space in which digital art lives. The remaining, recognizable characters ground our eye and act as a ‘staffage figure’ in a landscape painting. 

_Libra_ rejects traditional standards of aesthetics and beauty; Instead, _Libra_ embraces self-reflexivity and a contemporary definition of  kitsch – often a pejorative used to describe ‘low-brow’ or naïve artwork that is appreciated ironically or in a cult-like manner. In this series, a colored dot is dragged around the canvas both irrationally and without control. Drawing our attention in, this dot transfixes the viewer in an effort to shift the viewers’ attention from glancing at the work to a sustained look. These strokes are naïve and highly stylized – they embody the kitsch – and are mockingly-emulative of painterly marks and linework and grants the work a tone of self-reflexivity. Kitsch is obtained with drop shadows that create simple but satisfying _trompe l’oeil_ effects and fabricate a false sense of depth. Such an effect can be interpreted as humorous: this is an obvious and ironic representation of depth – it is totally fake and recognizable as fake on the flat digital display in which _Libra_ lives. 

Libra is a careful balancing act that creates form and color only to erase it.

Libra

**SCRIBBLINES** are a tribute to countless drawings that are being created every day during monotonous meetings and are forever lost in trash.

Almost everybody has experienced doodling (or scribbling) at some point in our lives to keep our brains active. The mental state of doodling is between awareness and daydreaming and is known to often inspire creative ideas. Studies have shown that this idle scribbling actually plays a significant part in helping a person concentrate and focus. 

There are many types of idle scribbles - *real world objects (e.g. houses, hearts), people, faces, squiggles, boxes and cubes, ladders and stairs, spider webs, triangles, swirls*, among others. "Scribblines" has always been my favorite idle drawing.  At the core of each piece is a pivot line, created by a random algorithm. This pivot line defines the shape of the entire art piece. Every additional line traces around the pivot line. Computer generated lines allow for perfecting what is never possible in the “pen and paper world” and thus make this, somewhat obsessive, exercise compelling to the perfectionist’s eye. All these become the basics for the Scribblines features.

**Precision**. Even with great effort it is hard to follow the outlines precisely. In scribblines, the lines precision varies from inaccurate (to simulate hand shaking micro movements) to robotically perfect precision.
**Determination**. In a real world environment it is unlikely to find enough time or perseverance to fill in the whole paper surface and finish these drawings. Due to this I chose most of the generated Scribblines to fill the whole screen. However some pieces are set to be finished as a 'bulk' shapes and not fill in the whole piece.
**Paper**. The backgrounds imitate typical types of paper in lighter or darker colour. There are few special 'sticky note' papers in the algorithm as well.
**Pen**. The most variability is produced by opening all possible pen options. Pen thickness can vary from "Rollerball - Ultra Fine" to "Marker - Extra Bold". The most variability is provided by variable line widths in one piece. Random line feature chooses from several line width possibilities for each single line. Thickening or thinning line features creates beautiful shapes with a fade-in or fade-out effect. A similar effect is achieved also by varying line color in some of the pieces.

Scribblines

Event Horizon Sunsets are a class of art works generated through an algorithm which uses Perlin noise to modulate the color, shape, and convexity of a continuous surface. The sunsets are generated instantly in a practical infinity of combinations, and it is possible to write a machine learning classifier that selects the most beautiful ones. Event Horizon Sunset (Series C) follows two previous series of Sunsets, with 5 and 9 works respectively. Series C is special because some of the randomly generated Sunsets have a "close proximity".

Event Horizon Sunset (Series C)

“…the box was a fascist symbol and the architecture of freedom/democracy needed something besides the box.” - Frank Lloyd Wright.    Freeplan explores the early 20th-century modernist architectural concept “open plan” which indicates the dissolution of rooms and the visual building boundaries. Instead of conventional boxes, freely placed partitions, floors, structures, and other elements create a feeling of space. The transaction hash determines the overall architectural composition, context, existence of components, and representation style. Each iteration is scaled, oriented, and numbered like a proper architectural project.

Freeplan

Paths is an animated journey across various subterranean and aboveground environments. To fully experience the project, you need to see it in high resolution with a capable GPU. Make sure that your browser uses your dedicated graphics card if any, and that you get a good frame rate. Control keys: 1-4 (change speed), 9 (fill aspect ratio), 0 (original aspect ratio), space-bar (play/pause)

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Paths #337

Darien Brito

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