Artist Statement
The catalyst for this project is the work of Sol LeWitt, specifically his wall drawings. I had a simple question: "Is the history of conceptual art relevant to the idea of software as art?" I began to answer the question by implementing three of Lewitt's drawings in software and then making modifications.
After working with the LeWitt plans, I created three structures unique to software. These software structures are text descriptions outlining dynamic relations between elements. They develop in the vague domain of image and then mature in the more defined structures of natural language before any thought is given to a specific machine implementation.
Twenty-six pieces of software derived from these structures were written to isolate different components of software structures including interpretation, material, and process. For each, you may view the software, source code, and comments.
Dimensions variable
About Casey Reas
Casey Reas co-created Processing, an open-source programming language and environment for creating images and animation. Reas began writing software to produce his own complex images, which take the form of prints, installations, and site-specific digital murals. “I write software to draw millions of lines in a few seconds,” he says, “to make thousands of calculations and decisions in a fraction of a second, to go beyond what my mind can imagine without its digital extension.” The abstract patterns and shifting structures contained within his images and animations explore ideas of transformation and evoke systems both organic and synthetic.
American, b. 1972, based in Los Angeles, California
