Charles Csuri: Ritual Dance

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Artist(s):


Title:


    Ritual Dance

Exhibition:


Creation Year:


    1996

Medium:


    Computer Art

Category:


Artist Statement:


    Computer art based on mathematical definitions of objects and strategies force the artist towards a deadly and plastic concept of reality. How does an artist using this process avoid the cold and sterile and achieve a semblance of spontaneity? I have found that one needs to develop a sense of the ridiculous to overcome such perfection. If you truly play in parameter space or do it wrong, the results are usually more interesting.

    Pan the Greek God of Mischief lives in my computer, which I named Stupid. My interest in using a computer’s capability to exploit new notions about creativity are very intriguing to Pan. At the same time, he takes great pleasure in tormenting me and causing mistakes so that I become confused and question my involvement with a computer. We have an interesting relationship: he deliberately corrupts my parameters and presents me with what he thinks are horri­ble pictures. Most of the time this is true, but occasionally Pan makes a mistake and I get back an amazing image. It is something I would never have predicted, and then I claim it as my own personal work. When this happens, he becomes furious, and his evil side comes out and shuts down the computer. Eventually, Pan will relent because he really enjoys playing this game with me. After all, he wins most of the time. And I have to admit that I do love Pan’s playful attitude about art and computers.

    I must constantly remind myself that as an artist my role is to build psychological bridges linking together feelings and shared human experiences. My use of frag­mentation is symbolic of chaos or of partial objects and blunted feelings. These bridges must support my effort to express my inner thoughts and feelings about the human spirit. The goal is to achieve a balance between technology and an esthetic domain to make a meaningful artistic statement.

    As I write these words of wisdom, I notice that Pan is yawning. He is very bored with the notion of art and computers. He has learned all of this before from so many artists. Apparently there are certain key phrases that simply put him to sleep. However, when I succeed in crossing one of my bridges, Pan becomes confused and forgets to be my nemesis.

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