Interview with Andreas Muxel

October 12, 2009 12:53 pm

Andreas Muxel presents Connect at Share Prize 2009.

– What role does digital art play in representing complexity and chaos?
If we have a look at generative code art works, I see the computer as a very powerful tool to produce complex visual results. For example by using iteration loops in the code, you can produce a million dots or lines per second. The computer as a calculating machine comes from a tradition of rational solving methods. It exactly does what it is told to do. In fact it’s digital principle of having two basic conditions – on and off – makes it impossible to produce randomness or chaos. You can simulate these principles very well, but in the end it’s still a simulation. To produce chaos by a digital programme, there needs to be an interface with the analogue world to implement unpredictable variables in the process.

– Market Forces. How do you interact with market forces in your everyday life? Would you say that the hardware and software architectures of our digital reality are market forces that stifle artists or do they open up new expressive potential?
I like the idea of using open source software and hardware. At the beginning of my project I used the open source programming language Processing to simulate dynamic systems. Later when I started to build the actual sculpture I switched to Arduino, an open source physical computing platform. Besides the fact that these tools are free, I think that above all their communities are very strong. People share their knowledge with others and therefore a solution for almost every task can be found or at least discussed in their forums. Compared to commercial tools, where you have to accept the provided functionality, here you can be part of the further development process.

– What idea first inspired you and what did you learn from that project?
In the past I mainly used computers to produce motion patterns defining quite simple rules in the code. In the end the result was always something virtual on the computer screen. For Connect I started to experiment with physical material to create motion. I built analogue systems where elements start to interact with each other because of physical connections between them. When a connection broke, a new one was built randomly. This was the actual starting point for the later sculpture. So I learned that unpredictable behaviour can always be an inspiration for further steps.

– Starting from simple elements and a few rules Connect presents us with complex behaviour. What can you tell us about the connection between simplicity, recursiveness and complexity?
The program logic of each module in Connect is quite simple. There is just a basic measurement and control algorithm on each chip. The modules start to react to each other because of the physical connections built. If a bar is connected to a sphere it behaves like a double pendulum with chaotic motion and the always rebuilt physical structure of the sculpture becomes its own analogue program for non-linear behaviour. When watching the system you never know when and where the next connection will be built. I think this is a very important aspect of the work. You have certain expectations when watching it, but in the end the system acts in its own time and manner.