Mark Stock Studio

My subjects are usually abstract, fluid-like forms, born from lengthy computational fluid dynamics simulations. The surfaces represent boundaries between fluids in a virtual space, and those fluids are constrained to obey certain rules of physics. In The Trouble With Algorithmic Art, the subject is the result of a simulation of the collision of three spherical blobs. The surfaces are rendered as thin, colored, sheets of glass in front of a virtual lightbox. The image is then presented as a transparency, illuminated by a real lightbox.

The Trouble With Algorithmic Art describes a frustration that I sometimes feel with my chosen form of artistic expression. Because I use computational algorithms to define the detail and structure of my subjects, the resulting forms should only bear resemblance to natural shapes insofar as those natural shapes originate from the same fluid forces. For example, when I view my simulation results, I might expect to see a cloud, but not a book. But the pattern-matching capability of the human mind conveniently ignores such physical limitations---especially in the rigid medium of a still image---and mine regularly conjures an embarrassingly puerile form.