Art as Algorithm - the computer generated art of Jason Salavon

Jason Salavon is an artist who uses computer programs to produce visual art.  More specifically, he typically takes a series of images, say 2001:  A Space Odyssey, digitizes them and runs a series of algorithms to produce a work of art. 

Emblem (2001: A Space Odyssey) 2003. To create this 48” x 48” digital photograph, Salavon designed an algorithm to average the colors in each frame of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Organized in concentric rings, the frames follow the narrative, starting in the center. Along with Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driverand Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, this piece is part of Salavon’s Emblem series. All three, he says, are by “auteur filmmakers who are sort of demanding and control-freakish.”

A detail of Emblem.

This is derived from an IKEA catalog.  Resembles Color Field Painting, doesn't it?

Catalogue (200-201)   2007

              Digital C-print mounted to Plexiglas


              26 " x 43". Ed. 5 + 2 APs.

This suite of ten prints abstracts selected facing-page layouts from the 2007 IKEA catalogue based upon the original page design, leaving only color and structure.

With an estimated 175 million copies distributed in 2006, the IKEA catalogue is thought to have surpassed the Bible as the most published print-work in the world. This group of three projects ( 374 Farben, Field Guide to Style & Color, and Catalogue) transforms that ubiquity of design into varied pure color arrangements.

Another IKEA image.

He also did a series on the Top 10 Music Videos of all time on MTV and produced an image of each video.  This is the video Express Yourself, frame by frame, reading from top left to bottom right.

MTV's 10 Greatest Music Videos of All Time: 10. Express Yourself   2001

              Digital C-print mounted to Plexiglas


              27 " x 38". Ed. 5 + 2 APs. 

MTV compiled a millenium list of the "Greatest Music Videos of All Time." Each of the videos in the top 10 of this list were digitized in their entirety and the individual frames were simplified to their mean average color, eliminating overt content. These solid-colored squares were then arranged in their original sequence and are read left-to-right, top-to-bottom.

The next work I can't show you because it is a video on the artist's website.  Here is the URL:  http://salavon.com/StillLife/StillLife.shtml.  His description is better than anything I can provide.  I encourage you to go to his site and check out the visually stunning and intellectually fascinating works he has displayed and described there.  For you tech heads, there appear to be technical notes on every work of art illustrated.

Still Life at the Speed of Sunrise   2005

                Custom software and industrial LCD panel.


                Continuous loop 1hr 20min. Ed. 5 + 2 APs. 

A photo-realistic, completely synthetic, presentation of a pitcher and 2 tumblers. Over the course of 80 minutes these objects are constantly, but imperceptibly, changing in form, position, and material. This ultra-slow, everpresent rate-of-change aims to map the pace of natural phenomena into a more consumer/domestic space.

Fun stuff that makes you think about the nature of art in the computer and media age.