No es el color

“It’s Not the Color” is a generative artwork that visually reflects my fascination with geometry and minimalism. Through the implementation of simple shapes and a reduced color palette, the piece seeks to highlight the purity of the lines and structures, avoiding chromatic distractions to focus attention on proportions, symmetries and spatial relationships.

Technical, aesthetic and conceptual development

Abstract art was taken as a reference, focusing especially on the works of Lillian Schwartz, in particular, the experimental video “Pixillation”, analyzing in detail some specific frames of the work. On a conceptual level, the piece developed intuitively and fluidly as the work progressed, maintaining a formal approach at all times. However, the choice of Lillian Schwartz as a reference arose due to research into her personal history, since, in the beginning, she was not an artist, but rather an assistant in a laboratory at a military hospital, where she was dedicated to biological research. This choice reflects my firm disagreement with the old and perhaps not so old idea of ​​placing the artist in an autonomous sphere separate from the “mundane world.”

It was the combination of her scientific knowledge with her artistic interests that eventually led to her groundbreaking work in the field of computational art. This fusion of science and art, which characterizes much of his work, is especially attractive to me, since it breaks with the idea of ​​limiting art to traditional spaces such as galleries or theaters.

In “Brief (and disordered) antiglossary – or dictionary of topics – on electronic art” by José Luis Brea, terms used to describe artistic practices or the supports in which they are carried out are developed. Personally, I find it difficult to find a term that is appropriate not only for my piece, but also for the work of Schwartz that I used as a reference. Maybe “computational art”, as I mentioned above? I consider it to be the broadest and most general term proposed in the text. But it could also be “electronic art” or “digital art.” It is on this point that I agree with Brea, who argues that many works of “electronic” art fall into what he called “technological fetishism”, focusing more on the fascination with the technology itself than on the content or message of the work, which is reflected in the proliferation of terms.

For this reason I am going to limit myself to only describing the support used. On a technical level, the piece was developed in the p5.js code editor based on a gray scale made up of primitive figures. At the same time, on an aesthetic level, it aims to represent geometric and minimalist art, stripping away any element that is excess and/or generates too much visual noise.

Literature

BREA, José Luis. (2002). “Breve (y desordenado) antiglosario –o diccionario de tópicos- sobre el arte electrónico” en La era postmedia. Acción comunicativa, prácticas (post)artísticas y dispositivos neomediales. Salamanca: CASA Editorial, pp. 4-8.

BREA, José Luis. (2008). “Redefinición de las prácticas artísticas (s. 21)” en El tercer umbral. Estatuto de las prácticas artísticas en la era del capitalismo cultural. Murcia: CENDEAC, pp. 106-113.