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Marius Watz (b. 1973)

Marius Watz is an artist concerned with generative systems for creating visual form, still, animated or realtime. His signature is a brand of visual hedonism, marked by colourful organic shapes and a maximalist attitude. Most of his works deal with drawing machines implemented in software, live visuals for music or large-scale projections of plastic visual systems.

Watz discovered the computer at age 11 and immediately found his direction in life. At age 20 he defected from Computer Science studies to do graphics for raves, using his programming to create organic shapes in 2D and 3D. In parallel to creating his own work, Watz worked as a graphic designer for many years, probing the limits of design. In the years 2000-2002 he ran the studio Products of Play with Erik Johan Worsøe Eriksen before deciding to focus on his art practice.

In 2005 Watz started Generator.x, a platform for generative art and design which so far has resulted in a conference, a blog, a travelling exhibition and concert tour. The Generator.x conference took place at Atelier Nord in Oslo September 2005, while the Generator.x exhibition premiered at the Norwegian National Museum. The exhibition is currently touring until 2007. A concert tour of Norway with generative sound and visuals took place in April 2006, organized by the National Touring Concerts.

In 2005 Watz received an honorary mention for his project Universal Digest Machine. He had previously received a mention for Sense:less (Pendry / Mork / Stenslie / Watz) in 1996. In 2003 he premiered the public art commission Drawing Machine 1-12, a work that was shown for two years on the home page of the Norwegian Government and Ministries of State. In recent years he has created several animated works for projection on building facades such as Neon Organic, which is currently being projected on the Vattenfall headquarters in Berlin.

Watz currently lives in Berlin. His tools of choice are Java, Processing, VVVV and Flash. He continues to edit the Generator.x blog and prepare future Generator.x events, as well as teach workshops in computational design and generative art.

Marius Watz can be contacted at marius--at--unlekker--dot--net

 

Selected exhibitions & performances

2007
Lovebytes, Sheffield. Rishaug vs. Watz (concert)
Designmai, Berlin. Illuminations B, Object #1
Abstracts of Syn, Museumsquartier, Wien. Kugelstudie
Abstracts of Syn, Kunstverein Medienturm, Graz. Kugelstudie
Club Transmediale, Berlin. Illuminations B

2006
Object #1, commissioned work
Generator.x concert, Madeira DIG festival, Madeira. Phonophani vs. Watz
Norwich International Animation Festival, Norwich. Flight
Nuit Blanche, Toronto. ElectroPlastique #2
Further Processing, Kunstverein Medienturm, Graz. Kugelstudie
Ars Electronica 2006, Linz. ElectroPlastique #1
Medienturm Shows, MuseumsQuartier, Wien. Kugelstudie
Punktfestivalen, Kristiansand. Phonophani vs. Watz
Art.ficial Emotion 3.0, Itau Cultural, Sao Paulo. Neon Organic
C.Stem, Allegretti Contemporanea, Torino
AMODA Digital Showcase, Austin Museum of Digital Art. ElectroPlastique #2
Paysages Electroniques, Lille. Neon Organic
OFFF Festival. Barcelona, Spain. System C
Paysages Electroniques. Lille, France. ElectroPlastique #2, Neon Organic
Generator.x concert tour. 7 concerts all over Norway. Visuals for Phonophani
AV.06 festival. Newcastle, England. Illuminations
Club Transmediale 2006. Berlin, Germany. ElectroPlastique #2, Universal Digest Machine

2005
href=proce55ing. Mediaruimte, Brussels, Belgium. Neon Organic
Estrategias Generativos. Circulo Bellas Artes, Tenerife, Spain. Neon Organic, System C
Vattenfall headquarters facade. Berlin, Germany. Neon Organic
Abstraction Now. Museum of Moving Image, Melbourne, Australia. Selection of works
Territoires Electroniques. Fondation Vasarely, Aix-en-Provence, France. ElectroPlastique #1, live visuals
Generative-x, Onedotzero 9. ICA, London, England. GasWorks 1-3
Essays on Radio (DVD compilation). Cronica Electronica label, Porto, Portugal. Int 14/37
Today in Paradise. Röda Sten, Göteborg, Sweden. GasWorks 1-3
Electrohype / Segment. Göteborg Konstmuseum. System C
Club Transmediale. Berlin, Germany. System C, live visuals
Mitt språk. Stavanger Kulturhus, Stavanger, Norway. Universal Digest Machine

2004
Electrohype Biennial. Malmö Konsthall. System C
Digital Move 2. Sony Center, Berlin, Germany. GasWork 2
Sonar. Barcelona, Spain. Abstracts 1-3
Atmosferas. Lisbon, Portugal. GasWorks 1-3
VossaJazz. Voss, Norway. Live visuals
Manyfacture. Living Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland. Squeaky happy slogan machine (Watz / Wolfe)
Virtual frame. Kunsthalle, Wien, Austria. DREIx2x3x2D

2003
nonTVTVstation. Stockholm, Sweden. Drawing Machine 13.NET
Principles of Indeterminism. Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria. Live visuals
Abstraction Now. Kuenstlerhaus, Wien, Austria. Abstracts 1-3
odin.dep.no (Government web site). Oslo, Norway. Drawing machine 1-12
Various locations. Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, France. Wibutee vs. Watz (live visuals)

Older
2001. Stealing Eyeballs. Künstlerhaus, Wien, Austria. Visual Hedonism Now
2001. Untitled002: Infinity (DVD). Los Angeles, USA. Infinite Things
2001. www.kunst.no. Oslo, Norway. BoxGridWorld.java
1997. Istanbul Biennale. Istanbul, Turkey. Sense:less (Mork/Pendry/Stenslie/Watz)
1997. e~on. Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo Norway. Licktoad Jubenia (Pendry / Watz)
1996. Electra. Henie-Onstad Art Center, Oslo, Norway. Sense:less (Mork/Pendry/Stenslie/Watz)
1996. DEAF 96. Rotterdam, Netherlands. Sense:less (Mork/Pendry/Stenslie/Watz)
1996. Electra. Henie-Onstad Art Center, Oslo, Norway. Exhibition coordinator


Curatorial practice

2006. Further Processing, Kunstverein Medienturm, Graz
2006. Generator.x concert tour. 7 concerts in Norway.
2005-2007. Generator.x exhibition. Travelling exhibition, Norway.
2005. Generator.x conference. Atelier Nord. Oslo, Norway.
1998. Soul Design (curated by Kali Nikitas). Galleri Grafill. Oslo, Norway.
1996. Electra. Henie-Onstad Art Center. Sandvika, Norway.


Selected lectures & workshops

2005. href=proce55ing. Mediaruimte, Brussels, Belgium. Lecture
2005. Hybrid Practices. Bergen Art Academy, Bergen, Norway. Lecture
2005. Generator.x. Atelier Nord, Oslo, Norway. Conference director
2005. Oslo School of Architecture. Oslo, Norway. Processing workshop
2005. Vers un alter design. Centre Pompidou, Paris, France. Lecture
2004. Bergen Art Academy. Bergen, Norway. Processing workshop
2004. Dorkbot Belgium. Brussels, Belgium. Lecture
2004. Oslo School of Architecture. Oslo, Norway. Processing workshop
2004. Atmosferas. Lisbon, Portugal. Processing workshop
2004. Hyperwerk. Basel, Switzerland. Processing workshop
2004. Aalborg University Copenhagen. Copenhagen, Denmark. Processing workshop
2003. Universität der Künste. Berlin, Germany. Course, “Principles of Computational Design”
2001. Stealing Eyeballs. Künstlerhaus, Wien, Austria. Lecture
2000. Norsk Form. Oslo, Norway. Lecture
2000. Blurring Boundaries. Netherlands Design Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Lecture
1998. Cranbrook Academy of Art. Detroit, USA. Lecture
1998. California Institute of the Arts. Los Angeles, USA. Lecture
 

Copyright 2006, Marius Watz