July 17, 2015
“The computer is irrelevant to the creation of these images. The computer is central to the creation of these images.”
Mark Wilson
NEW WORK
Mark Wilson, a pioneer in the artistic use of computers and software, is quite happy to make this completely contradictory statement about his artistic practice. He has been in totally immersed in the process of digital art making for 35 years.
A good part of the problem has been the art world’s attitude towards computers. Thirty or forty years ago there was hostility towards art made with computers. That attitude still lingers, but today most artists make some use of computers in their work.
Wilson’s use of the computer is primal in that he writes all his own software and that software is used to create his images.
These recent works by Mark Wilson are reflections of the algorithmic nature of complex and visually rich images. Using the software he has written, these works combine both vibrant geometric patterns with precise and comple...
The digital painting, "Butterfly Effect - Homage to Lorenz", by Gloria King Merritt, and related video art titled "Butterly Effect - Transformation", are inspired by the scientific work Edward Norton Lorenz, an American mathematician, meteorologist, and a pioneer of chaos theory. He introduced the strange attractor notion and coined the term "butterfly effect".
Lorenz built a mathematical model of the way air moves around in the atmosphere. As Lorenz studied weather patterns he began to realize that they did not always change as predicted. Minute variations in the initial values of variables in his twelve-variable computer weather model would result in grossly divergent weather patterns. This sensitive dependence on initial conditions came to be known as the butterfly effect.
Lorenz is also considered the father of Chaos Theory.