Intersections - Nguyen Dang Binh

Art Papers Chair
Paul Brown
4^16
Realtime, onscreen art
ARTIST STATEMENT
4^16 continues a program of work that I began in the 1960s.
Around that time, under the influence of the European Systems Art
movement, I began to think of the artwork as a generative process
(for example, a series of instructions) that manifested itself in some
tangible form. In 1968, I discovered computers and programming,
and since 1974 these have been my primary working methodologies.
Most of my time-based work over this period has used cellular
automata to drive a permutative system based on tiling symmetry.
These works often have vast internal spaces (4^16 is capable of
generating 4,294,967,296 images), and the cellular automaton
provides a mechanism for exploring this variety in a non-linear
and non-repetitive way.
The work also explores aspects of human cognition and,
in particular, the ability to perceive and then interpret patterns
in both structured and random visual data.
Electronic Art and Animation Catalog Art Gallery Jury Artworks
CONTACT
Paul Brown
Artist and Writer
PO Box 413
Cotton Tree, Queensland 4558 Australia
paul@paul-brown.com
www.paul-brown.com/GAllERY/
TIMEBASE/COlCORN/INDEX.HTM
TECHNICAl STATEMENT
The image is composed of 16 tiles that can each be placed on one
of four orientations, and the title of the work reflects this simplicity.
In this implementation (and there are several; the work is essentially
still in progress) the cellular automaton works on a system of
“favourite” neighbours for which there is no perfect relationship.
The work was originally made using Macromedia Director, but more
recently it was recreated using Processing by Casey Reas and Ben
Fry. In this latter instantiation, it is a lot more flexible, and I am able to
work through new ideas and variations more easily.