"An Artist's Journey in Art and Science: From behind the
Iron Court to Present-Day America".
Leonardo, the Journal of the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology, October, vol. 39, #5, (the MIT Press, Boston, Ma.) pp.402-409 and 436.
ABSTRACT
The artist traces his work from its beginnings behind the Iron Curtain in 1967, when cybernetics became the driving force of his creative process, to the present day. Given the scarcity of information and the absence of access to Western experimental work in Romania, this step was the unlikely result of a purely personal train of thought. He went on to lecture and write extensively to promote cybernetics and explain his approach to art, which was highly unconventional in the context of the times. Two directions emerged and remain the focus of his work today: the S-Band, an interactive art machine, and the Meta-Phorm, a behavioral geometry articulated by cybernetic mechanisms.Click to see the article. This is a 7.9Mb PDF file. The opening time on a fast connection such as DSL, cable, or better, may be in the range of 25--30 seconds.
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Artist Statement. Siggraph 33nd Edition.
The work is a storyboard that describes a development in two stages. In stage one I build a Meta-Phorm.
A Meta-Phorm (meta + metaphor + form) is intended to be the visual appearance of an abstract creative proposition by setting geometrical forms into a game relationship that emulates a cybernetics model (a situation where various structures or systems are interconnected by input, output, and feedback events).
I consider all the visual elements that participate in the build-up from the fine-art point of view. The scripts, graphs, and formulas in the left side alongside the 12 profiles at the bottom of the page, describe geometrical events of the developments in the central image and provide an environment for it. Any included symbol fulfills two meanings: the mathematical sequence and as a visual sign in the fine-art composition. Therefore, not all the mathematical developments are detailed, and they are inserted only when considered appropriate from the final composition’s point of view. I use conventional and/or personal mathematical symbols.
In stage two, the Meta-Phorm created in stage one is handed over to the mathematical operations buried deep in the multiple features oh the software/hardware. They analyze, recognize, and extract electronic/ mathematical attributes that the image is reduced to and reorganize, shift, and transform them. Connected as a mathematical continuum of numbers and formulas, the colors, their shape, and the surfaces they occupy are handled simultaneously and therefore make up a new unified Meta-Composition, which could not be invented otherwise.
By its very nature, my concept originates, exists and unfolds in the realm of abstract thinking. But the computer is required if the work is to become visually explicit and reach its full potential. Everything needed to accomplish it is provided by commercially available technologies. Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator are the main tools here. They provide filters and effects that I use in overlapping and recurrent successions to serve the concept of the
"Cybernetic Ceremony in Black Velevet" a Power Point presentation at the Art Gallery Presentations/Art Sketches: Creative Manipulation of Space, Time, and Image, Siggraph 2006.
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2005
Artist Statement. Siggraph 32nd Edition.
These works belong to the Meta-Phorms category. In keeping with the spirit of the Renaissance, Meta-Phorms are artworks that combine science, mathematics, and computer techniques, while pointing to spirituality. I coined the term to describe a special geometry developed as a tool for artistic creation that encapsulates cybernetic mechanisms.
Mathematics encapsulates nature and knowledge through the use of symbols and abstract concepts. My process mixes the abstract concepts and disencapsulates the results in a reconfigured nature that is parallel and unforeseen.
These elements of geometry can be understood as “thinking” entities, capable of discrimination and reacting independently when acted upon. Thus, a flow of information connects the two players: the artist and the artwork. Each reacts according to the information received from the other, which generates a creative dialogue. When rendered graphically, this dialogue grows into the final artwork.
The computer and other Western technologies are the media of choice here, since these produce huge amounts of computation and visual signs. Moreover, the computer is involved directly in the creative process. It thinks, decides, and executes side by side with the artist. Its accuracy conveys a purity and emotional detachment that point toward the spiritual.
The work is a mix of mathematical rules, fine art criteria, and technological capabilities that complement each other. During the work process, visual metaphors, or images, emerge, which can be glimpse din the interplay of graphic shapes. The meanings accumulate and from them emerge suggestions which trigger surprise, inspiration, and intuition, thus causing continuously fresh artistic decisions. The narrative here is the story of the Meta-Phorm and is, in fact, its inner maturation, an inward growth toward virtual nature. The initiating idea, written as a mathematical statement, embodies itself, grows and materializes through many phases to end as a visual artwork. Thus, what is recounted here is the story of an idea becoming matter. The whole process might be thought of as micro-genesis or Genesis writ small.
Meta-Phorms reflect the relations linking the source or idea (creator), the process (creativity), and the material manifestation (the creation). In Hindu philosophies, the creator remains in and permeates each particle of the creation. Spirituality, or the awareness of the creator’s presence, becomes a part of the artistic expression. The idea of abridge between western technology and eastern spirituality comes to mind.
2001
Artist Statement. The Ninth New York Digital Salon.
PERSONA 2
Most of my work originates in one simple idea: to create forms as the outcome of a cybernetic interaction. If a structure (system) gets an input from another one, it reacts and moves to a new state, the output. If there is a feedback between the input and the output, they adjust each other and establish a certain level of stability in their interactions, as in real life situations. My concept is to establish these interactions and interplays between geometrical shapes. Most of the images I create are visual descriptions of these interplays. However, I take great care to encapsulate my painting experience in the aesthetics of the symbols I use.
When I place two shapes into an interactive situation, I have no idea what the resulting image may look like since the building protocol has many random parameters. The final images always override any visual prediction I make during the build-up. In the end, they are so unexpected that they rupture the "monotony" of the execution and trigger an exciting state of surprise, sudden inspiration and visual creativity, close to intuition.
As most images describing a mathematical process, Persona 2 is transparent, has no gender and no front or back. The meaning of the image depends on the compositional context it will be placed in later on. In the case of Persona 2, this context is the relationship between the rectangle of the "canvas" and the silhouette. All visual activities turn inward upon themselves where the story of the work's genesis unfolds as shapes and symbols.
My work often bridges Western technology and Eastern spirituality. Persona 2 is an example of this process. The mathematics and the computer blend their purity and become a metaphor of meditation. The double profile points toward our two sides: the extrovert/centri-fugal and the introvert/centripetal. The latter keeps us in touch with our identity, our own Self.
I limited the colors to a family of powerful grays that is better suited for abstract concepts. These grays remind me of some rich black embroideries by Goya or Velasquez, which I enjoy so much whenever I walk into the museum of my visual memories.
Leonardo vol.34, nr. 5, 2001, pp. 524 Digital Salon Artists' Statements.