Digital Alchemies

Open call / moving images / video installation / still images
experimental digital cinema / experimental photography

Collective exhibition in a Parisian gallery, march/may 2023.

This  curatorial proposal wishes to explore the artistic production of visual  forms from algorithms and conscious work with interfaces, in an  introspective framework that seeks to identify the specificities of each  creative process.

Important:  This is a particular open call, because beyond the artistic quality of  each project, a special look will be given to the introspective  discourse of each artist, and to the link of the works with an academic  research project in progress.

image credits : Alexis Allemand, from the series Colorfield (2018)

DIGITAL ALCHEMIES

Images  produced by algorithms, images produced by interfaces, images that come  from a capture but are sublimated by computer processing, still images,  animated images, images recomposed from other images that circulate in  the iconosphere. What is the place of the artist in these high-tech  creative processes?

How  do the artists proceed when they negotiate his artworks with the  computer? What strategies can we recognize at the level of the creative  processes, allowing the emergence of new images from a machine  considered by some as completely determined, incapable of producing  something that was not already present at the level of the code?

What  about failure practices, détours, glitches, in the production of  contemporary images? Can we recognize today active forms of "cool  glitch", beyond the modalities proposed by Rosa Menkman [1] in 2012? Are  there new creative strategies capable of producing new visual forms  through the misuse or hijacking of new technological paradigms, such as  AI and big data? What forms does artistic hacking take today, and what  new creative potentials are associated with it?

But  more especially: beyond the detorunements, the glitchs, and the  practices that work with the computer "out of program", that create from  occhestrated errors, can we unravel strategies of creation able to  produce digital artworks without diverting the "normal" behavior of the  computer. And if yes, how?

What  is the relevance nowadays of the notions theorized by the cybernetics  at its beginnings, in a conceptual framework that wanted to explain at  the same time the machines and the living, when it comes to describe  creative processes and the mechanisms working at the artworks' level?  When confronted with the digital images of yesterday and today, can we  see in act processes of "autopoiesis" [2], emergence or homeostasis [3],  or should we rather think these notions unrelated to artistic creation?  Are there "gestures of humanities" [4] taking place in the creation of  images with computers, and if yes, what is their nature?

How  artists consider their means of creation: algorithms, interfaces, are  they simple tools? Are they environments, or "mediums" accountable of  performativity? Are they "technical objects" that show a certain  autonomy, an agentivity?

How  do artists perceive the degree of uncertainty that resides in their  computational means of creation? Is there any unforeseen in the visual  results provided by a computer program? How do artists bring this  unpredictability into play for creative purposes?

[1] The glitch in its capacities to problematize a process, a personal exploration or a narrative element. See, Rosa Menkman, A vernacular of file formats, an edit guide for compression design, 2012.

[2] Maturana Romesín, Humberto, and Francisco J. Varela. 1973. De máquinas y seres vivos: autopoiesis, la organización de lo vivo. 6aed. Buenos Aires: Editorial Universitaria : Lumen.

[3] Hayles, N. Katherine. 1999. How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago Press.

[4] Citton, Yves. 2012. Gestes d’humanités: anthropologie sauvage de nos expériences esthétiques. Le temps des idées. Paris: Armand Colin.

OPEN CALL RULES

-  This open call is addressed to artists wishing to take an  introspective look at their own creative process in relation to  computational tools, and who wish to share certain aspects of it.

-  Selected works will be part of the exhibition "Alchimies Numériques"  which will take place in a Parisian gallery, from March to May 2023.

- This open call is free and open to all artists, regardless of age, nationality or location.

- Only works in digital format (video file, image file) will be accepted.

- Unfortunately, this curatorial proposal will not be able to remunerate the selected artists.

- Artists retain the rights to their work.

-  By participating in this open call, the artists acknowledge that they  own 100% of the copyright of the images used in their work.

-  By participating in this open call, selected artists authorize this  curatorial project to exhibit their work for the duration of the  exhibition, and to extract visual elements for communication purposes.

- The deadline for this open call is March 1, 2023.