DESIGNGRAPHIK PHOUR is an example of graphics seen as a reintegration with realspace, both conceptually and spatially - it is part of an evolving visual language in which natural forms give rise to and are reappropriated by the binary codes of computer software, which in turn produce radical reconfigurations of basic mathematic correlations -- shapes. They reflect, intimate and jostle with natural forms, here a canister and there a fern; here a protruding rectangle; there a natural fourth spatial dimension... But in their collectivity, in their vibrant co-presentation on the canvas, their coexistence on the screen, they begin to articulate new contexts. They break away from formal conventions by a radical kind of fusion of those forms only possible in a liquid, non-physical medium - one unhindered by the combinatorics of digital data.
February 1, 2001|Layer 2/3
DESIGNGRAPHIK PHOUR, continues the rethinking of conventional graphic and real space by displacing arbitrary photographic environments in compositions that produce imaginative and vibrant new configurations of different visual forms. It is incredibly detailed not only on an aesthetic level, but on a referential level. Its coded visual language references the interfaces with which we interact on a daily basis, from the ATM to the Teletext, from the banner advert to the photographic portal. It grapples with the continuing invasion of brand and signform in neutral or (until recently) personal space - introducing on a subliminal level the kinds of concerns outlined in Bruce Mau's "Life Style" for example:
"There is simply no greater or more obscure force than pictures compelling action, reflex, behaviour, and routine in our society today. No denser or more tacit form of communication, no shaping or organising force more comprehensive or more insidiously embedded in our lifeworld than images.
February 1, 2001|Layer 3/3
Print ads in front of urinals and video ads in elevators occupy moments once assumed free from the engineered capture of attention. Downtime, or freetime economy, is becoming an endangered species"
It is precisely these kinds of conceptual and socio-cultural concerns that lurk at the bleeding edges of these canvases, barely visible for the amusing and deft animations and tonal alterations. But there nonetheless.
February 1, 2001 | Layer 1/3
