Artist Casey Reas interviews with Christiane Paul during a Q&A at the opening of his work "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" on 10 October 2014 in the Gates Dell Complex at The University of Texas at Austin.

 

Presented by the Department of Computer Science and Landmarks, the public art program of The University of Texas at Austin.

 

http://landmarks.utexas.edu

 

ABOUT CASEY REAS

 

Over the past 15 years, Casey Reas has emerged as one of the leading artists in the field of software art. To a considerable extent his work has both defined the practice in this field and the theoretical discourse surrounding it. His dynamic, emergent software employs programming as his paintbrush, allowing a machine to create the unexpected, intricate visuals seen in the final rendered images. His work bridges the gap between the technical world of programming and the visual world of art and design.

 

ABOUT THE WORK

 

Titling his two-part mural after Claude Shannon’s influential book The Mathematical Theory of Communication, Reas captures the visual and conceptual theory of communication unfolding in his work. Reas’ installations, created by generating thousands of images with infinite variations, play with the idea that information is circling around us at all times—in radio waves, microwaves, satellites, etc. His work captures that information and transforms it into an algorithm that produces the images.

Complementing two works by Sol LeWitt in the Gates Dell Complex, A Mathematical Theory of Communication explores the relationship between Reas’ process and LeWitt’s technique; where Reas’ images are manifestations of programs by computers, LeWitt’s are manifestations of “programs” by people.

 

ABOUT CHRISTIANE PAUL

 

Christiane Paul is associate professor at the School of Media Studies, The New School, and Adjunct Curator of New Media Arts at the Whitney Museum of American Art. She received her master’s degree and doctorate from Düsseldorf University. She has written extensively on new media arts and lectures internationally on art and technology.