Artist Statement

Programming Language, Installation (2014 – 2015)

Light Pattern is a programming language that uses the meta-data from photographs that are taken with an Arduino-controlled camera for source code. In effect, this work writes code in photographs instead of in text-based code such as “GOTO 10”. Variations in the colour and exposure between photographs are interpreted by the computer as commands. When installed in the gallery setting, the Arduino-controlled camera takes a continuous stream of photographs, which builds a perpetual series of new Light Pattern programs. These programs are shown in video form, and stand at the intersection of photography and code.

• Daniel Temkin makes images, programming languages, and interactive pieces that explore systems of logic and language. He was recently awarded the 2014 Creative Capital / Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant for the esoteric. codes blog. Temkin has been published in World Picture Journal, Media-N Journal and others and presented at conferences such as Media Art Histories, GLI.TC/H, and the hacker conference NOTACON. A student of Bard College and NYU, his work has been featured in ArtNews, the New York Times and the Boston Globe, and shown at Mass MoCA, American History Museum, and galleries across North America and Europe.

Text with images (PDF) p. 34-35