Mark Making, solo show at Mediaruimte, Brussels, Feb 29-March 31, 2012

Mark Making is a summary of recent works using mechanical machine processes to explore drawing in physical media (metal, styrene and MDF). Pieces on display include a new Wall Exploder tape drawing, Arc Drawing 1+2 and three CircGrid pieces on anodized aluminum as well as a new series of drawings on MDF titled ArcSurf.

Mark Making is organized in connection with the Generator.x 3.0: Code to Atoms workshop at iMAL. My thanks to Yves Bernard and Lab[au] for making these two events possible.

Announcing Generator.x 3.0: From Code to Atoms, a workshop and exhibition focusing on digital fabrication and generative systems. This event is an evolution of Generator.x 2.0: Beyond the Screen, which took place in Berlin during Club Transmediale 2008. Generator.x 3.0 is produced by iMAL in collaboration with Marius Watz.

Context: Digital fabrication drastically changes manufacturing by democratizing access to industrial tools as well as changing the way objects are produced, opening the door for the on-demand creation of bespoke objects. Combined with the “craft” of code it becomes possible to directly connect parametric software processes to an instant manufacturing workflow, turning bits into atoms and introducing a paradigm that is radically different from traditional 3D modeling.

Generative systems shift the focus from static models towards a computational logic – what Bruce Sterling calls processuality. Here objects are understood as mere instances of a family of forms, produced by a specific interaction of parameters. Such forms may be data-driven or created through interactive means, adapting to conditions coded into the system. The artist becomes a “gardener” of possible forms, harvesting desirable results in an iterative process of coding and prototyping.

Workshop format: Participants will be chosen from a call for projects, with a focus on experience combining coding practices with digital fabrication. We will have large and powerful laser cutter machine on site, as well as several low-cost 3D Printers (Makerbots). The main software tool will be Processing (http://www.processing.org), but we also welcome users of other coding tools like VVVV, PD or OpenFrameworks.

The workshop will be hands-on and geared towards producing projects ready for exhibition at the end of the project. Participants will be expected to be familiar with code and generative strategies. There will be short tutorials demonstrating certain techniques, but the main focus is on the participants’ own independent work.

Call for projects: Submit projects or concepts for consideration through the online form on the iMAL web site.

Support: Generator.x 3.0 is produced by iMAL, and is made possible by the support of the Brussels-Capital Region, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, and our sponsors Hackable-devices (Paris and Ghent) and i.materialise.

My previous sites unlekker.net and evolutionzone.com will remain online, with the intention of preserving them as-is so that they become time capsules of their respective periods. Buried deep in evolutionzone.com there is even a copy of my oldest portfolio site, which went online in 1996 and features Java applets that still run correctly.

This time capsule strategy might make for some awkward viewing, but at least it’s a truthful archive.

Given Nov 26, 2011 at Code Camping Amsterdam, Hack de Overheid, Amsterdam

Laser drawing on plywood
2x panels, 12″ x 30″

Following up on my Makerbot residency, I’ve developed a number of form studies specifically intended for the Makerbot. The low cost allows a real exploration of the serial nature of a single system, rather than selecting one single “perfect” form.

Wall drawing created using a projected image traced out with painters tape. The drawing plays with issues of flatness and dimensionality, flattening the virtual form against the physical surface. Features are distorted when not seen from the vanishing point of the original projection.

Created for Kinotek 3: Automatic Writing show, organized by the San Francisco Film Society.

Prime Hex is a continuation of the previous Prime installation, featuring fluorescent tubes arranged in a hexagonal geometry.

Object #5 is a parametric form developed with reference to previous 3D printed objects. The model was created in Processing and the parts CNC milled.

Site-specific wall drawing for “Extrusion” show at ROM for Kunst og Arkitektur, projected software piece drawn out using artist tape. First use of this drawing strategy to fill a larger space.