Lattice by Loren Bednar
Lattice
Bio
Fusing mathematics with a distinct sensitivity to color and shape, Loren Bednar creates abstract artworks imbued with emotive undercurrents. Focusing on the interaction of colourful patterns and motion, Bednar prioritizes experimentation and technical performance throughout his practice of locating art within algorithms. Based in the United States, Bednar has been producing generative artwork since 2006 and is a curated artist on the Art Blocks platform. He has exhibited in: The Digital Roots, LUME Studios, New York City; Refraction Festival, ZeroSpace, New York City; Immutable, Vellum, Los Angeles; The Berlin Collection, Bright Moments, Berlin; Unblock Gaudi: Digital Art via Blockchain, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt; Art Blocks x Samsung, Samsung 873, New York City; and Pressed Pause, a solo show by Unit London.
About the Work
I prefer to create motion pieces, specifically emergent works that lean into op art. My motion art workflow is iterative – I don’t really have a goal in mind for what the final result(s) will be. I have a vague concept of where I’m headed, but I tend to get distracted and let anomalies guide me. I will make small changes that cause some strange results. As they emerge, I lean into those elements and see how far I can push them before they become noise.
I closely associate my motion art with music. To me, there is a direct relationship between colors and rhythm, and I have chosen to create using 5 colour palettes as a reference to music's chordal structures. This approach combined with how I build motion art gives the pieces a sense of rhythm and motion that reminds me of composing and performing music.
Each color within the palette is displayed according to its position in a constantly shifting pattern over time. I describe the process as "paint by number by time". My goal is to create interesting temporal relationships of colour. The currently-displayed frame relies on the previous and the following to give visual context. I feel like the work is successful when I have a visceral reaction, similar to how I feel when I'm listening to a favorite piece of music.
About This Piece
Lattice" is a short loop motion work depicting elements of CryptoCube #126 that felt meaningful to me as I played with the work, explored its variety and just had fun! There are great contrasts above versus below the cube and I wanted to share them.
Not all views receive a bright glow - some are flatter and darker. Some have a pattern-based feel to me, while some is more textural. I created a palette of 14 colors that expressed the range of how I viewed the Cube. I jumbled them up since, to me, the Cube's colours were being shown many ways in a given view and I didn't want them to be linear.
In approaching the motion, I wanted it to be a consistent loop with an asymmetrical structure since, again, that's how I view this Cube. It's not a perfect Cube, it's a collection of similarly-sized Cubes with erratic positioning.
"Lattice" is a series of equally-sized squares with symmetrical and asymmetrical patterns emerging through motion. It embodies the color, movement, and curiosity of CryptoCube #126.
Future
I didn't even realize there was a crypto art world going on parallel to me! Around January 2021, I was just looking at some generative art subreddits and resources, generally curious of the state of things and saw people making jokes about digital art selling as an NFT. I started to dig around and found Art Blocks. That basically catalyzed everything for me. I immediately applied, set up an OpenSea collection and went to work. NFTs provided a way for me to share my work in a live-running (runs within a web browser) way and participate in a completely new market with equally-minded artists and experimenters.
Looking forward, I hope to see more collaborative approaches between artists of different mediums and finding new ways to integrate with web3. I think we have started seeing some of this as L2s make transactions free or cheap. Having more live participation between communities would be really exciting. There are so many smart people building the infrastructure, I can't wait to see where things go.
