ARTIST'S STATEMENT

"THE IMAGES IN MY COMPUTED PAINTINGS COLLECTION are the result of my exploration of algorithmic and computer mediated painting. Consider a painting as a set of information describing the location and color of each point comprising it. It follows that the image can be manipulated in the same way as text, audio or numerical data. Thus, simple shapes, solid colors or random noise become paintings through the application of mathematical functions. Transformation, replication and even de novo generation of part or all of an image yields complex abstract forms reminiscent of nature and, at times, society.

THE FIRST GROUP OF PAINTINGS in the collection were created through interactive serial execution of transformations. There is nothing scanned or hand drawn. The transformations included coordinate remapping, rotation, tessellation, overlays and others. Creativity and aesthetic judgment in devising transformational sequences over many iterations guide the image from mathematics or geometry to painting. Several of these images are part of image series resulting from divergent transformational sequences of a common 'ancestor' image, or are themselves steps along a transformational path.

THE SECOND GROUP OF PAINTINGS in the collection were created by coupling an algorithm for creating paintings to an evolution engine. Each begins with a black or colored square, which is then transformed with a sequence of rotation, translation, reflection and coordinate mapping operations. This process is a deconstruction and reconstitution of the standard process for making tilings and patterns.

In the standard process of making patterns and tilings a primitive object, (or set of complimentary objects), is repeated multiple times across the design. Complexity and beauty are added by judicious application of geometric transformations, such as rotation or reflection, to specific copies of the primitive object. While an infinite variety of beautiful and useful patterns can be generated using these techniques, there are many possibilities not accessible to this method. In my work on computed paintings I deconstruct this process; only one copy of the primitive object is used. The resulting process is degenerate and leads nowhere. However, addition of a symmetry breaking operation between each of the pattern generating transformations reconstitutes the process and allows each pattern to build a unique form.

The images which result from this process were viewed and ranked, and the best transformational sequences were then mated to produce new variations. After dozens of generations, sequences with over forty transformational steps had evolved. These sequences describe a process for converting a colored square (or group of squares) into a completed painting.

THE FINAL GROUP OF IMAGES in the collection were created with generative art techniques. The 'Thoughts' series are visualizations of the paths followed by charged particles moving through a complex magnetic field. The lines plotted show paths, foci of curvature and moments of inertia for these simulated particles. The 'Hierarchy' series computes and visualizes relationships among random points plotted on a plane. The order and location of these points is used to define their place in a hierarchical organization. This information about the neighborhood and role in the hierarchy is used to determine the representation of each point.

THE MODES OF PAINTING THAT I HAVE EMPLOYED in my work are impossible with traditional media, and impose a new aesthetic. The images which result from these techniques are a synthesis of color, shape and mathematics. They represent an effort to cross the lines between computation and expression, mathematics and art. The interplay of a human mind with a rule engine has lead to the creation of images neither seen nor imagined before. Broken symmetry, inexact repetition, and overlap of form with function are hallmarks of the evolutionary process in nature. Recreation of these features in my artistic process informs the aesthetic I am reaching for. Additionally, there are several balance points that interest me in the production of these pieces: the point at which broken symmetry begins to be perceived, and where symmetry breaking factors overwhelm the symmetrical effect; and the point when a transformed image takes on a new fundamental form.

LEO BLEICHER IS A VISUAL ARTIST LIVING IN SAN DIEGO. His work has been shown at SanDiegoArtist.com, Merck Research Laboratories and the International Society for Arts, Mathematics and Architecture. He holds a BA in chemistry from the University of Chicago, and has worked in the biotech industry for fifteen years."