CONTEXT: The underlying idea/code within digitally produced graphics are often extremely simple. However by filtering the simple code through multiple layers of complex digital algorithms, a highly aesthetic expression can be achieved. Examples of such are the works of Casey Reas and Golan Levin - both graduates of the MIT ‘aesthetics and computation group’.

DESCRIPTION: This project takes an alternative approach by filtering a basic, digital 8x8 black and white square grid through a simple analogue system.

Each of the 64 squares is monitored by an individual analogue light sensor placed on the surface of a computer screen, which checks whether the square is black or white [on or off]. By pressing a key on a keyboard placed next to the monitor - the grid changes into a corresponding black and white representation of the chosen letter [or number]. The light sensors on the screen relay this digital information via wires to a matching grid of analogue electromagnets placed beneath an open container of ferro-magnetic fluid. [Ferro-magnetic fluid is an oil like liquid that has the ability to adjust itself in accordance to external magnetic fields – in this case producing bulging and spiky deformations in its surface. By either turning a corresponding electromagnet on or off, a real-time, complex three-dimensional shaping of the black fluid is achieved, thus creating an analogue representation of the digital user-input.

AIMS: My aim with this project is to create a piece of work set in a gallery context - allowing the viewer to examine the relationship and translation between a simple digitally generated graphic and the complexity of the analogue world. Furthermore the piece explores the translation of his/her ‘typed’ keyboard input into a physical manifestation of typographic form.