Jonathan Chomko, Draw by Computer, 2023
Draw by Computer, 2022
Geometric primitives drawn by hand on a computer.
Price Performance, August 16th 5:30 – 7:30 pm
Draw by Computer is a series of on-chain animated svgs, each containing five attempts at drawing a geometric primitive by hand. The series contains 10 works, each a geometric primitive of ascending complexity – dot, line, triangle, square, pentagon, etc.
On August 16th, between 17:30 and 19:30 Berlin time, a price performance will take place on the OpenSea page for Draw By Computer. Prices for the work will oscillate according to a random algorithm, echoing the movement of the works.
The works are created in a custom software designed by the artist, which records each attempt at creating the shape. The first attempt is created using an on-screen guide, which becomes the start and end of the animation. Following attempts are made starting from a blank screen, the task being to replicate the shape from memory. The artist only has one chance to place a point, after which it cannot be moved or deleted, all errors and misjudgments becoming part of the motion of the work.
about Jonathan Chomko
Jonathan Chomko (b. 1988, Canada) is an artist working with and against technology. His works examine the seam between physical and digital worlds, exploring how digital forces translate into and act upon the physical world, and how physical phenomena and expression are modulated as they enter the digital.
Exhibitions
2023
Proof of Work, OFFICE IMPART, Berlin
www.grindruberairbnb.exposed (performance), Tangente, Montreal, Quebec
2022
Colour Time, Verse Live, London, UK Shadowing, Gloucester, UK
Shadowing, Doncaster, UK
2021
www.grindruberairbnb.exposed (video), Networked Bodies, supernormal.space, Singapore Shadowing, Southwark (outside Tate Modern), London, UK
2020 Relative Clocks, We The Curious, Bristol
Relative Clocks, Cube Design Museum, Netherlands
2019
Shadowing, Theatre du Chatelet, Paris, France
Colour Calendar, Pret a Emporter, Atelier Circulaire, Montreal, Quebec www.grindruberairbnb.exposed (video), Brighton Digital Festival, Brighton, UK www.grindruberairbnb.exposed (performance), C2 Montreal, Montreal, Quebec
additional works
Proof of Work, 2021
Proof of Work
Proof of Work is a series of manually generated images where physical gesture is directly correlated with visual density. Sold as non-fungible tokens, the series is both an enactment of the experience of being an artist in NFTism, as well as a challenge to the metrics NFT markets use to determine the value of an artwork.
Red Blue Center
One tap on the laptop trackpad creates one graphic pixel. The mix of colour is determined by the absolute position of the tap, the proportion of blue on the y axis and red on the x axis. The artist attempts to fill the screen with solid colour, by consistently tapping the same point on the trackpad, but as the scale of the task increases, variation and patterns appear which attest to the manual process of production.
Red Blue Center is the focus of a solo show at OFFICE IMPART, where works were produced daily in the gallery, and displayed as prints.
Proof of Work
generated images, 2021
software, keypresses
Waterline, 2018
Waterline translates water levels into light levels, sampling a body of water across a grid.
The work attempts to represent the natural phenomena of the wave, resulting in a digital representation that is alluring but incomplete.
Waterline
Outdoor installation, 2018
Custom circuit boards, metal stands, water
Physis, 2013
Physis is an installation that embodies the movement of a digital agent in a bed of plants.
Using an overhead camera, the position and movement of visitors is tracked and provided to the digital agent.
The digital agent reacts to presence and movement of visitors by moving away from them to less populated areas of the plant bed.
This movement is made manifest by a matrix of vibration motors attached to the base of each plant, which gently vibrate each plant on the projected path of the digital agent.
Physis, 2013
Computer, camera, microcontroller, motor controllers, vibration motors, plants, watering system.
