Form is everywhere. From geometric constructs to the complexities of nature, form communicates the intent of the artist-designer. It assumes the role of language, it becomes his voice which he employs to express his will - like the material he sculpts to engage his audience in conversation.
The making of form involves a linear process where individual actions are thought and later composed. Each choice is an intentional act executed to achieve an intended outcome. From mimetic paintings to digital imaging, the act of making is embodied with every carefully placed stroke.
Form-finding, on the contrary, involves an emergent process. No explicit decisions are considered or made resulting in derived rather than imposed outcomes. The aesthetics of nature in its diverse multiplicity gives testimony to such an approach. Its natural forms arise from changing conditions acting upon physical material - each occurrence a unique process of becoming.
The assembly of form is dictated by a designer’s tool of choice. Shape, colour, texture are some of the differing variables altered between the use of pencil and brush. The digital graphic composition softwares of today reproduce these aesthetics but much has remain unchanged in the way forms are assembled - a canvas for drawing on with several digital tools simulating physical rendering apparatus. One is expected to compose in a linear sequence (the “undo” action is sequential, as each action is recorded in steps) translating ideas from mind to canvas. Such a process is inherently limited to one’s intentionality and to the capability of individual software functionalities.
Exhibited is a series of experimental software developed to attempt an escape from such limitations, these programmes are simulations of systemic process intended to find and redefine form. By using simple rules, an emergent aesthetic is derived from the interactions of these sets of rules which surpass intentionality and the conventions of commercial software functionalities. With these software, the artist-designer can find forms. Forms derived from a process of change.
