description:

Engine is a piece of software built to be a collaborative tool (between itself and a 'painter') - allowing the combination of pattern structure and process to produce 'versioned' art work . The software is written to allow for the gestural manipulation of images and live video. Engine is in perpetual beta: As it is used, the process instigates improvements that are added to the software. The screen is the medium of production, but it is limited in the way it renders the Engine's results. Every piece can only be fully realised when is transferred into the visceral world - when it is printed. Engine is structured around the processes inherent in photography, painting and programming. It allows for images to be captured, recaptured, processed, reconstructed, gesturally manipulated - all controlled through a digital interface. The moment of completion is replaced with a versioning structure and associated naming convention. The results are intended for digital printing - at any scale. Thus revealing a complexity and richness that can only be achieved in the printed surface. Currently Engine has been used in these areas of exploration:

1. Live Video Portraits

Live portraiture using the immediacy of ubiquitous cameras to create compositions.

2. Re-Rendered Landscapes

Using the artists library of still photographs to re-create them.

3. Composite Figuratives

Creating compositional relationships between existing photographs and live video to create dense montage images.

Moment

There is a moment in a painting's creation when the painter says "its done" - though the process has the potential to go on forever. There is a moment in photography when the frame is just right, the lighting perfect, and the instant captured. Knowing when to say its complete - is common across all creative practices. With respect to programming, the moment is found momentarily and then improvements made to find new moments. Versioning systems are a core of programming processes - though the same can be said to exist in the art world as artists find something they love and repeat and refine for large portions of their careers. Engine is built to disallow the typical re-editing methods available in the digital creative process - and therefore it enforces the ability to create with the knowledge that the artist must know when to stop.


For good quality jpg images of the current print set, please click here. All prints on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag, in varying sizes. 40X50 inch, 30X40 inch and 20X30 inch.