[ISEA94] Artist Statement: Roman Verostko — Diamond Lake Apocalypse: Illuminated Chaotic Scripts

Artist Statement

These works are intentionally made as “precious objects” to heighten their formal relationship to illuminated sacred manuscripts. Chaotic digital scripts have been transformed with an “electronic scriptor”, a plotter, following procedures reminiscent of the medieval scriptorium. All works are executed with a multipen plotter using original instructions to generate the entire piece including the scripts, headers and illuminated “initials”. The program employs randomly cast control points in its form generating procedures. In several works the illuminated “initials” identify form generators of special visual interest.

These works invite us to savor both the  beauty and the mystery of their coded procedures – not so much for their stark logic as for the grace and poetry they yield. The procedures provide a window on unseen processes shaping mind and matter. By doing so they become icons illuminating the mysterious nature of earth and cosmos.

  • Roman Verostko, USA, FISEA 93 Program Director; Professor, Minneapolis College of Art & Design. As a Bush Fellow he researched the “changing role of artists” at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (MIT, 1970). His seminal paper “Epigenetic Painting: Software as Genotype (1988) identified biological analogues to autonomous form generating procedures. His “epigenetic art” includes a limited edition of George Boole’s “Derivation of the laws…” Awards: Golden Plotter First Prize (1994); Ars Electronica Honorary Mention (1993). Exhibitions include: “Genetische Kunst – Kunstliches Leben” (Linz 1993); “TISEA” (Sidney, 1992); “SIGGRAPH 1991, 1992” (Chicago, Dallas, Computer Museum, Boston); “Data Data” (Baltimore, 1991).