Núcleo
Núcleo invites the viewer to stop for 30 seconds to observe how, through repetitive cycles, a symmetrical structure with high contrast is generated. Lines and dots move like flashes of light to draw a pattern on the canvas, always starting from the center of it. Everything revolves around this core that becomes more and more illuminated as time passes and is built through mathematical functions that act as sculptors of figures.
Technical, aesthetic and conceptual development
Inspired by the works of Herbert W. Franke, especially the “Spatial Studies” and “Light Forms” series, made with oscillograms that explore the graphic possibilities of representing electrical waves. Taking into account the theory of sine waves, I used the sine and cosine to, like Franke, explore the creation of symmetrical shapes, seeking to replicate the geometric balance and scientific precision that characterize his work. My objective was to generate the visual impact observed in his works, through the use of high contrast and hypnotic patterns, elements that he used to question traditional perceptions of aesthetics and scientific knowledge.
Franke saw himself “above all, as a scientist who wanted to get to the bottom of the artistic phenomenon—understand it completely—through the experimental methods and mechanical means that I learned as a physicist” (Hart, 2022). His practice exemplifies the figure of the “artist as producer” that José Luis Brea redefines in his texts: a creator who not only produces art, but also applies a scientific methodology to explore new aesthetic frontiers, fusing rational logic with aesthetic experience. Franke, obsessed with the aestheticization of science, reflects this idea in his work. As Brea explains in “Redefinitions of artistic practices (s. 21)”, “What effectively presides over the current social circulation of objects, goods and relationships is no longer the use value that we can associate with it or even the exchange value, but, above all, its aesthetic value…” (Brea, 2008, p. 112). By applying scientific methods to art, Franke’s works highlight the primacy of aesthetics as an end in itself in the digital age.
Franke understands that computer art “radically changed the aesthetic experience…” (Hart, 2022) by shifting the focus of philosophical and historical elements in art, and, like Brea, recognizes that aesthetic value prevails over all others. And this is also what Núcleo represents, an aesthetic search through a structure defined by mathematical formulas. Working together with the computer as a support, I wanted to generate a dialogue between mathematics and art. I found the convergence between both disciplines interesting to show that in the digital age this union is more latent than ever. A support that can be thought of only as a tool that executes commands and produces information and not as what it can be, an artistic canvas.
In conclusion, the evolution of Franke’s work through different media and technologies exemplifies the redefinition of artistic practices that Brea describes. In this redefinition, the artist becomes a perpetual innovator who navigates rapid technological evolution and establishes new dialogues between science, art and aesthetics. Núcleo not only tries to insert itself into the dialogue established by Franke and Brea on the convergence of science and art, but also wants to raise a new question about the role of digital support as an autonomous aesthetic medium in our contemporaneity.
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.
HART, Whitney (2022). “Herbert W. Franke on Art After the NFT” en Right Click Save. https://www.rightclicksave.com/article/herbert-w-franke-on-art-after-the-nft