UCRACKING

Marius Watz (NO)

DUNDEE SCIENCE CENTRE CAFE

Greenmarket, DD1 4QB

Curated for this years Dundee Science Festival NEoN presents a series of prints called UCracking, by Marius Watz. This work takes as its starting point the triangle, an atomic unit of computational geometry. Triangles are powerful metaphors in life. In most computer graphics, complex structures and 3D forms are broken down into meshes of connected triangles for rendering and manipulation, because the math involved is relatively trivial. In graphics, there are also unique geometric operations that can be performed on triangles, notably subdivision, whereby a single triangle is broken down into several new triangles. UCracking uses subdivision as a graphic device, starting from a given triangle constellation in 2D or 3D and recursively subdividing individual triangles to produce a complex, crystalline composition.

To complement this exhibition we are also running a workshop to explore generative art and fractal landscapes inspired by UCracking. Join us to enjoy the aesthetics of digital images and algorithms that mimic nature. See here for more information.

About the Artist

Marius Watz (NO) is an artist working with visual abstraction through generative software processes. His work focuses on the synthesis of form as the product of parametric behaviours. He is known for hard-edged geometrical forms and vivid colours, with outputs ranging from pure software works to public projections and physical objects produced with digital fabrication technology.

Watz has exhibited at venues including the Victoria & Albert Museum (London), Todaysart (The Hague), ITAU Cultural (Sao Paulo), Museumsquartier (Vienna), and Galleri ROM (Oslo). In a curating capacity, he founded Generator.x in 2005 as a platform for a series of events related to generative art and computational design. In 2010 he co-curated the exhibition “abstrakt Abstrakt: The Systemized World” with Eno Henze at the Frankfurter Kunstverein.

In Fall 2013 Watz was an adjunct and resident researcher at NYU ITP, focusing on parametric form and digital fabrication. He is a visiting lecturer in Interaction Design at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, regularly lecturing and teaching workshops at schools and art institutions around the world. He is currently based in New York and Oslo.