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Thesis Info
- LABS ID
- 00532
- Thesis Title
- Generative Art as Experiment
- Author
- Andres Wanner
- E-mail
- hello AT pixelstorm.ch
- 2nd Author
- 3rd Author
- Degree
- Master of Applied Arts in Visual Arts
- Year
- 2013
- Number of Pages
- 59
- University
- Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, Canada
- Thesis Supervisor
- Ingrid Koenig
- Supervisor e-mail
- icharkoenig AT gmail.com
- Other Supervisor(s)
- Dr. Maria Lantin, Dr. Karmen Franinović, Dr. Chris Jones
- Language(s) of Thesis
- English
- Department / Discipline
- Visual Arts
- Copyright Ownership
- Andres Wanner
- Languages Familiar to Author
- German, English, French
- URL where full thesis can be found
- eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=9aa1fc48-b155-4588-abaf-67608f96eee2%40sessionmgr4005&vid=0&hid=4208&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=ECUAD.109583121&db=cat04308a
- Keywords
- Mechanical drawing machines, Robotics, Art and Science, Generative Art, Appropriation, Glitch
- Abstract: 200-500 words
- This thesis investigates my generative art practice with mechanical drawing machines, for
which the relationship between humans and technology provides the larger context. The
comparison between machinic and software-based generative art systems acts as a starting
point for reflections on technology in general.
Producing pictures with self-made, commissioned or appropriated drawing machines, my
practice aims at subverting the instrumental nature of technology, and emphasizing its
anthropological dimension. The practice focuses on inaccuracies, errors and deviations from
my attempts at control. The glitch (a short lived, unexpected disturbance) is discussed as a
way of highlighting the production process of a picture.
My research explores the media-specific Eigensinn (obstinacy) of drawing machines, a
synergetic force colliding with the intentions of myself as a human creator. Calling up
technological history, I argue that making art with technology is a paradoxical endeavour,
which I embrace as a way of investigating subjectivity in my aesthetic decisions and art
making. The emotion of surprise, resulting from this collision, is presented as my primary
motivator for engaging with generative art.
The seeming autonomy of generative art systems brings up questions about the authorship
of such practices. These are contextualized with other practices less based on the hand of the artist than on the manipulation of symbolic entities, e.g. readymades (Duchamp), and
conceptual art (LeWitt).
I draw a connection from my hands-off methodology to the scientific experiment, which
runs without the interference of the scientist. My machine drawings are compared to scientific
graphs and the artist studio is paralleled to the science laboratory.