Joris Strijbos, a Rotterdam-based artist whose work focuses on the synaesthetic relation and interaction between moving image and sound, presents at NOME Gallery (Berlin) his kinetic light sculptures – Axon and Homeostase – the result of broader research into artificial life and generative composition.
Strijbos’s work originates in a series of research questions related to cybernetics, swarm intelligence, and communication networks. Through kinetic installations he develops complex immersive and synesthetic landscapes in which image, sound and light continually intertwine in an emergent choreography.
The two installations of Oscillations – Axon and Homeostase – are composed of a series of identical elements, connected in a network and exchanging information between one another through electric signals. The collective behavior of the actuators and sensors create unpredictable patterns larger than their individual parts, as though a system of living organisms with their own variable program. A moving scene emerges, where the borders between a ‘natural’ order of things and the mechanical constructions of humans are tested.
Strijbos plays with the potential of technology to mimic biological systems, so that generative processes merge the algorithmic with the physical world. Aesthetically, the moving sculptures are monochrome and minimalist, calling to mind the austere visual code of Otto Piene and Heinz Mack’s Zero Group in the 1960s. When set in motion the works could be windmills, metallic birds or beacons, whose effects create a multi-sensorial experience for the audience. In Homeostase, for example, multiple rotating objects are programmed to perform an ever-changing choreography – a play of attraction and repulsion that comes from the luminous language of the swarm.
Joris Strijbos, Oscillations, NOME Gallery, Berlin, 25.06 – 30.07. 2016
Joris Strijbos studied BA Arts and Sciences at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, with a Masters degree from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. His work has been presented at Ars Electronica (Linz), Sonic Acts (Amsterdam), TodaysArt Festival, STRP (Eindhoven), DEAF Biennale (Rotterdam), Wood Street Galleries (Pittsburg), Atonal Festival (Berlin), WRO International Media Art Biennale (Wroclaw), and the Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam). Joris Strijbos is part of Macular, a collective of artists researching the interplay of light, sound and motion. Their practice focuses on the programming and manipulation of emergent systems and properties as well as on the constant observation of natural phenomena and dynamic processes. (from the press release)
images (cover 1) Joris Strijbos – Axon, 2016. Steel, electric motors, electronics, LED lights, variable sizes. commissioned work by NOME, picture courtesy of the artist (2) Joris Strijbos – Homeostase, 2016. Steel, electric motors, electronics, halogen lights, variable sizes. commissioned work by NOME, picture courtesy of the artist
