Tyler Hobbs

That messy meeting point between order and chaos is fuel for emergence – the opportunity for something new to occur that even the artist had not imagined. The speed and power of the algorithm are utilised for their new territorial reach. After all, code is already pushing everything else onto these new grounds. What other new experiences can computation reveal?

Rather than divorcing from natural and traditional forms, Hobbs chooses to use the algorithm as a tool for their analysis. Systematically speaking, what makes something feel natural instead of digital? Why do errors, flaws, and unexpected extrusions enable our acceptance and sense of wonder? In what ways does the computer tend to favour the strict and unbending, and where might its propensity for massive randomness be capitalised for deep aesthetic exploration? Lessons learned from the artistic examination of these areas can make our digital existence more comfortable, or at least more interesting.

Hobbs often traverses the digital and physical divide with these questions in mind. Generative designs may take physical form via the plotter, a simple but precise method of robotic drawing and painting. These are often accompanied by hand-drawn marks around which algorithmic structures coalesce. These different sources of structure, different sources of error, different biases and aesthetic tendencies all coexist – not to highlight their differences, but rather to illuminate the complex story of our own lives as we slowly transition deeper into the digital landscape.