Bordeaux artist Julien Gachadoat is presenting his exhibition lines at the Métavilla gallery -

Benoit Cary

until October 17

  • Julien Gachadoat's works are created by computer, on the basis of an algorithm that he thought up, then printed in pencil by means of a plotter.

  • These works "appeal to notions of rhythm, regularity", explains the Bordeaux artist.

  • For each of these drawings, Julien Gachadoat brings variations to create unique works.

Can algorithm be an art?

You just have to go and contemplate the works of Bordeaux artist Julien Gachadoat, who is presenting his

Lines

exhibition

 at the Métavilla gallery in Bordeaux

until October 17

, to be convinced of it.

Depth of multiplying squares, undulating rhythm of sinusoids, irregular amplitude of stripes… Digital art, or algorithmic art, has a hypnotic side.

Sometimes gives the impression of sucking you in.

All these works were created by computer, based on algorithms thought up by Julien Gachadoat.

They are then printed in pencil, using a plotter (Axidraw).

Meeting with the Bordeaux artist Julien Gachadoat who presents his exhibition Lines until October 17 at the gallery métavilla #Bordeaux #artnumerique pic.twitter.com/pVm5h0E3cg

- mibosredon (@mibosredon) October 5, 2020

"It is not an art of protest, but purely aesthetic"

“People often ask me, who is the artist or who is the artist?

»Jokes the Bordelais.

“Obviously, I consider it to be me, even though I don't use the brush or the paint, but my ability to combine.

This is where the word artist takes on its meaning, because we use its influences to produce forms that touch an audience.

It appeals to notions of rhythms, of regularity, with a subtlety in the fact of breaking them, this is what appeals to the eye.

It is not an art of protest, but purely aesthetic.

"

In his exhibition Lines, Bordeaux artist Julien Gachadoat shows his works of art created by algorithms - Benoit Cary

His subdivision algorithm can thus allow him to create a square, then to cut it in half, and to repeat this process a certain number of times, with a decision "which will be done randomly or not".

If Julien Gachadoat "thinks more about the process than the final result", and has "only a vague idea of ​​what the work will be like on arrival", it is his artistic eye that performs the selection of “successful” works.

"Each drawing is only printed in one copy"

“Each drawing is only printed in one copy,” he also insists.

I try for each of them to bring something new, variations, I mix ingredients until I like it, and often I let myself be surprised by the creativity of certain algorithms.

In the end, if I wanted to recreate these works, I wouldn't be able to, because like in Loto I generate a sequence of numbers that could only be reproduced once in ten or a hundred billion.

"

Julien Gachadoat's works of art are created using computer algorithms and printed in pencil using a plotter.

- Benoit Cary

Digital art is therefore simple and complex at the same time.

Complex, because you have to know how to program, of course, enter lines and lines of code.

Simple, because you can "reuse what you have already programmed", and "just add a single line to the computer, to tell it for example that you want to create shapes to inside a circle or add stripes ”and thus generate a new work.

“The algorithmic programming gesture becomes more and more fluid, easier, as we practice,” he summarizes.

A bit like a more traditional artistic activity ...

" Leave a trace "

Digital art began in the 1950s, when artist-engineers began using the computer to produce drawings.

If it “can be hung up on certain abstract movements such as Op Art (or optical art), it is therefore a form that really appeared with the advent of machines,” explains the Bordeaux artist.

And as Vera Molnàr [precursor of digital art] says, the computer is an outstanding performer: it is instructed in the operations it will perform very quickly, which will generate a lot of shapes, which the we could not do in painting.

"

Julien Gachadoat was "fascinated" by computers from childhood, when his father brought home the famous Thomson TO7 in the mid-1980s. But when you used them to play Pac-Man, he immediately wanted to "create games and therefore learn Basic".

Addicted to lines of code, however, he did not “click” for digital art until about five years ago, when he acquired his very first plotter.

If Julien Gachadoat's goal with these works is to “leave a trace”, he also admits to taking “a lot of pleasure” in having fun with the computer.

So much so, that he pushed the vice of generating the positioning of the fifty or so works hanging in the Métavilla gallery, also by algorithm.

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