Curator Text: Drawing machine 13.net
The idea of initiating a creative process and then leaving it creating art on it's own has been central for many artists. Somewhere around 1911- 12 Raymound Rousell described some remarkable machines in his Impressions d'Afrique. One of them was a painting machine that would replace the artist. His ideas inspired the dadaists, like f ex Marcel Duchamp and Picabia. Rousell never built a machine himself but later on Jean Tinguely would realize it.
Marius Watz may work in this tradition and also the frames we set up for the artists at the nonTVTVstation follow the same ideas. The artists initiate a process that runs on it's own creating the art.
Thanks to a residence programme given by NIFCA we have been given the possibility to have Watz working in our studio during the autumn. During the stay Watz has been investigating our format and the context we have presented him. This is an important phase of the process and in some way Watz' art is very site specific. He investigates the situation and it gives the form for the art. Early in the process Watz created a technical set-up for the piece and the set-up then directed the content.
This piece takes off from Watz earlier works Drawing Machine 1-12. A software is programmed to create images. Parts of it will be predestined while it is programmed. Other parts of the process will be random. The spectator can take part in the process by interacting via a web site, see drawingmachine.splintermind.com . This addition is not only a way for the artist to give away the creation process to an external source it also depicts the relation between the art, the context and the spectator. By changing certain options the conditions alters and the process takes a new direction. Just like how the interpretation of a piece of art changes regarding to changes in the context and regarding who the spectator is. This situation can also be applied on science, f ex the sub atomic physics, where the scientist always affects on the process s/he wants to observe.
Looking at the process the similarities to Rousells machine are obvious. The mechanical machine is here however exchanged to the more contemporary
computer.
Björn Norberg, curator of the nonTVTVstation