The Combinations by Brendan Dawes
The Combinations
Bio
Brendan Dawes is a UK based artist using generative processes involving data, machine learning and algorithms, to create interactive installations, electronic objects, online experiences, data visualisations, motion graphics and imagery for screen and print.
A Lumen Prize and Aesthetica Art Prize Alumni, his work has been auctioned at Sotheby's and Christies and featured in many exhibitions across the world including three shows in New York's Museum of Modern Art, with his Cinema Redux work becoming part of MoMA’s permanent collection in 2008. He is represented in the UK and Europe by Gazelli Art House.
About the Work
I create coded generative systems using a variety of tools and software. I often use data in my work but I always say Data by itself is not enough; data needs poetry. I think the power of these techniques lies not in the individual elements but in their combinations. It's through that idea I can be surprised by what arises from such systems. I want to do things I don’t know how to do and I feel as artists we should locate ourselves on the edge of what we do know and what we don't know. The interesting stuff always happens on the outer edges.
About This Piece
I'm interested in taking existent forms – what Duchamp would call Ready Mades, and twist them into something new so it might change our perspective on the world and that which we often take for granted. So I took the original cube form and used the simple idea of recursion to create a new form. It's a homage to the power of mathematics and simplicity and the complexity which can arise from a system which has that at its heart.
Future
When you realise the Ethereum network is a giant computer it alters how you think about the Blockchain and its potential. From an artist's point of view I love that I can put my work on the Blockchain and have its moment of creation timestamped till the end of time, or as long as the chain exists. Right now I'm actively adding all those details to my website – yes I still have one because it's important to own your space on the Internet and document your work. I don't think we've yet unlocked the potential of what this technology can do.
