Sergio Albiac and Digital Art

The above is not a painting. It’s a distorted digital image by Sergio Albiac and I’m in love.

I have no idea how I came across his work. I think it was, like so many other artists’ work, probably coming across a beautiful image of a woman on the Internet and clicking the link. I was shocked to find out that a brush and physical paint never touched this piece. Albiac’s work is generative art.

Generative art is art done by an autonomous system, like a computer. Programs are created and software is coded; then, magic happens. These programs create the artwork, using the algorithms coded into them. Mind blown.

According to Albiac, the work process is something like this:

Once my idea is translated into computer code, I search and select the visual results that better express my point. Sometimes, these generative images are the final work and sometimes I use the programs as an electronic sketchbook to visualize my concept before I transfer it into a painting . As I value freedom of expression, I do not feel constrained to a single medium or style and I use either traditional or new media to express my artistic vision.

Artists can also code randomness into their work. Huh? Intentional randomization? Yes. Let the mind-bending philosophical and artistic implications of that blow your brains out.

There’s something quite unbelievable about having art that was not created by a human. Making something that can, in and of itself, make something is itself art. The idea of structured algorithms and equations, with their structure and strict patterns, combining with randomness, in all its chaos, to create something beautiful and real is  breathtaking: it’s the way the universe itself works, n’est pas? More wonderful words from Albiac:

I create visual imagery to articulate my thoughts about the beauty, contradictions and emotion of the act of living. My work revolves around the interior worlds we create in our minds and the tensions that arise when confronted to our realities. The illusion of control in a world much governed by randomness and the elusive nature of emotions are also recurring ideas in my work.

The one below is a particular favorite of mine.

Took it easy on the abstract philosophy crap this week. Just wanted y’all to learn about something cool and someone cool I just found out about and explore on your own. Click here for Sergio Albiac’s Facebook page. Click here for his website.