Artist Spotlight: Dissolving Binary Constructs with Generative Artist Alida Sun
Sonnen sinn spektrum by Alida Sun
True innovation often stems from incessant exploration. At the very core of generative artist Sun’s practice is an unstoppable desire for exploring the limitless capabilities of algorithmic art. For the past nearly 1000 days, Sun has been experimenting with code and publishing a new generative artwork each day to push boundaries in the realm of generative art. Sun infuses her artworks with vibrant color palettes, amplifying motion, light, and form to make digitally native environments more experiential and immersive.
Tell us a little bit more about your creative process. Do you have a vision in advance of what you want to create or does what you create end up being completely different from any original vision you might have had for the work?
Whoa, I rarely if ever have any preconceived notion anymore of what I’ll create. That’s a lot of what makes generative art appealing for me. My approach is collaborative in that I’m coding the algorithm but I’m not forcing it — I welcome signs of its autonomy.
I do sometimes set out with a sense or energy I hope to feel or convey, but I have no idea what that’s going to look like until my artwork starts moving, iterating, and helps me find it.
Some of your earliest art involved projection mapping. What was it like to transition from projection mapping into generative art? Does starting off with that sort of medium influence the kind of generative work you create today?
It made me approach things in a spatial, atmospheric way while instilling deep awareness and respect for nature without just imitating nature. When you’re projection mapping, especially in open air venues, you have to think about everything from foot traffic to light pollution to cloud cover.
I definitely didn’t start out with access to top of the line equipment, so I did DIY crash courses in physics and the properties of light out of sheer necessity so my projections could still be visible with very modest setups.
This all strongly influences my work to this day, but there wasn’t much of a transition because all my mapping was realtime and interactive, so it was generative from the jump. It was just presented in ways that aren’t normally associated with generative art. I keep going back and forth experimenting with it in new settings and installations too.
Your artworks are characterized by very diverse ranges of color. How do you decide on what colors to incorporate? Does your color inspiration come from anywhere in particular?
It’s funny because earlier on people would ask me, “do you EVER work with color?” And I most certainly did, it’s just black and white yield the highest contrast so by extent the most visible light projections! Then again, running around Berlin and some other places where there’s stark monochromatic designs everywhere maybe had something to do with it…
Anyway I have multiple sources of inspiration — motion’s essential to my practice, and I’ve found out certain forms at certains speeds and rotations are more visible or just work better with certain palettes. That’s how I arrive at a lot of colors, so they feel less like decisions and more like discoveries. Color’s also closely linked with energy so I’ll also keep generating until the work radiates whatever I wish to experience at that time.
Oh, then there’s the motivation meets frustration from everything being centralized and filtered via these Big Data platforms that aren’t so friendly to artists or creative spirit in general. I read a while back that yellow is the least liked color on social media — not sure how that’s quantified, but from years of working and seeing work shared on these platforms it does seem yellow’s underrepresented. So from that moment on it was like, “challenge accepted.”
Do you think technology driven art mediums have the ability to make us interpret color differently? Like as opposed to seeing it in everyday life or on a painting in a museum?
For sure, I think color in digital environments is completely different than in traditional mediums. That’s why I don’t think it’s outdated or annoying whenever folks mourn the sea change - there is something that’s lost, but there’s something gained as well.
I’ve worked a lot with ink, acrylic, charcoal, whatever I could get my hands on. It impressed me how translating traditional art to the computer for documentation was fiendishly difficult, especially for some colors (I’ve found greens to be trickiest)! I’m not sure I believe it’s possible to make a truly accurate digital copy of a painting on canvas, and vice versa.
I do believe motion is key to unlocking the full spectrum of digital art color experience, and I think artists are just beginning to explore that spectrum. When color moves in digitally native environments in ways that were never possible in everyday meatspace, things can get real surprising.
You have such a vast and diverse portfolio from so much experimentation - architecture, nature, light, color, math are all elements that can be found in your work. Do you find yourself leaning towards any one of these over the others in particular? Is there something you’re drawn to when creating? If so, why?
Much appreciated! The more I explore, the more I find the boundaries between different fields to be more fluid than expected. Maybe I could be drawn more to one over another if they didn’t all seem to be switching places on me — I don’t know if that’s the times we’re living in where everything’s colliding, or if it’s rediscovering something we’ve been conditioned to forget.
I do know that generative art and algorithms can be excellent means of getting to the roots and hearts of matters beyond rigid, binary constructs. When I’m creating I’m drawn to a flow state where I can move between worlds, it feels clear and familiar.
You are nearing 1000 days of creating generative artworks. How do you feel you have evolved as an artist over the course of this process?
There’s no way I could have made almost 1,000 consecutive days if I didn’t embrace glitches and errors while letting go of preconceptions and attachment to outcomes. These evolutions have been profoundly rewarding for my art and my whole human condition.
Color, which I gotta admit I used to think of as more decorative and isolated from other elements, became integral in my practice. I’ve learned it isn’t at all separate from light, texture, concept and choreography.
What is the philosophy behind your work? Is there anything you want viewers to feel in particular?
Still figuring that out — I suspect it’s something to do with code as incantation, motion as survival, and true voyage as return.
I try to create freedom in ongoing abstraction for people to project their own visions/selves in regardless of my philosophy or intent, which I find people tend to do anyway. That’s fun and marvelous to me for the most part. Hopefully they feel some heightened sense of wonder in what’s possible.
Sonnen sinn spektrum, on view at our Color :: Field Exhibition, can be purchased on SuperRare here.
Alida Sun is an artist and intersectional futurist based in Berlin and New York. For over 900 days and counting she has created and published a new generative artwork. Sun is the first artist in history to integrate generative art, large scale installation, blockchain technology and live performance. Her current studio practice focuses on assemblage, fluid dynamics, time crystals and experimental humanities.