Arlene Stamp's Growing Patterns is one of three projects produced for the web-based curatorial initiative Artificial-life.net produced by independent curator Diana Sherlock. In it three senior Calgary artists, Vera Gartley, Arlene Stamp and Mary Shannon Will, examined systematic and procedurally-driven conceptual art practices within the realm of generative technology. Of the three projects Stamp’s Growing Patterns most clearly relates to the idea of artificial life. Here the software organism simulates growth patterns found in nature that refer to evolutionary and ecological dynamics. Written in a Java applet, Growing Patterns uses an algorithmic tiling system or cellular automaton and recursive colour to generate non-periodic patterns or code-based abstractions based on user input within the given frame. Users can auto-select seemingly random patterns involving a three-colour selection and modify the pattern’s first row to change its subsequent growth. Or one can self-select three colours and modify how the pattern grows by varying their application. A zoom tool allows users to revel in the complexity of each pattern while creating an illusion of growth through animation. A working archive allows users to trace their own pattern history during their session, but it is almost impossible to predict how modifying the variables will change the resulting pattern.
As with Stamp’s early Tilings series (1990s), the non-periodic patterns in Growing Patterns are not predictable and therefore elude complete explanation. Stamp’s seemingly endless pattern generation shatters the illusion of order, but the growth is not random. The program oscillates between order and disorder to create an experience of complexity. The pattern can only be characterized by the local interactions of simple elements within the given frame, and subsequent projections of emergent behaviour quickly dissolve into conjecture. Significantly, this too is the case with the reception of the work; the work’s meaning is locally produced and subjectively perceived by participants within their given contexts.
Stamp’s significant research into non-periodic patterns as seen in her paintings, public artworks and now designs for Studio Stampa, visualizes the epistemological cracks and fissures in any universal reductive system. Stamp is interested in the limitations involved in endless open systems; “In the case of the simple non-periodic pattern-generating programmes that I am interested in, the ability to generate a vast number of variations does not hide the evidence of how limited they ultimately are to describe the complexity of patterns we find in the world.” Metaphorically this work questions the limits of any abstract representation. As an act of agency, we are asked to reconsider and embrace the social and visual diversity that can emerge within the limits of any given structure?
Arlene Stamp has been involved in the Canadian art community for nearly 25 years, living and working in both Calgary and Toronto. She has taught both mathematics and painting and has been working with non-periodic patterns in her art practice since the mid-1980s. Her first web project Modern Mother was produced in 1998 with Shelley Ouellet and can be found at www.vanitygallery.com/stamp. Her work is represented by Trépanier Baer gallery in Calgary and is included in collections across Canada. She is currently design director and partner with Rina Greer for StudioStampa www.studiostampadesign.com and is working with computer scientists, Brian Wyvill and Tobias Isenberg, to develop programs based on algorithms to produce a range of non-periodic patterns.
Work metadata
- Year Created: 2007
- Submitted to ArtBase: Tuesday Mar 13th, 2007
- Original Url: http://www.artificial-life.net/arlene/index.html
- Permalink: http://www.artificial-life.net/arlene/index.html
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Work Credits:
- None, creator
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