Artist-programmer

January 2001 – modified december 2001

I am a programmer. I’ve been programming computers since I was 16, and programming is a necessity for me. The most natural way for me to work on an idea or to explore a concept is to write a program. Most of my artworks contain a program, which places my artistic work in the field of algorithmic art.

I am often considered as a “technology artist”, which I dont think is right. Even though I use computers for my work, and even though most of my artwork contain a computer, my artistic research does not talk about technology, but about the nature of reality and of the human being.

As an engineer and especially as a programmer, I have an intimate knowledge of what is technically feasable. The consequence of this is that neither at the level of the concept, neither during the realization, nor at the level of the final objet, there exists a dialectic with the “technically feasable”. It is part of the context, of the given, of the matrix and not of the piece. In this, my work stand apart from most of the so-called “technological art” productions. And in this it can put off the usual actors of this field. But my work does not put off those who do not expect something “digital”, but who take it for what it is. “What you see is what you see” said Frank Stella. I say “What you feel is what you feel”.