Configuration

Emergent Body Ornaments

Highly connected geometric patterns are an important motif in art and design in islamic culture. Through repetition, transformation and layering, complex visual systems can emerge from simple figures. The patterns become more than the sum of their parts. The creation of such patterns is usually achieved through careful planning with geometric rigor. In Configuration, this work is delegated to a software, which reacts dynamically and continuously to user input. This input is the momentary body posture of the visitor, from which the program instantly constructs a fluctuating symmetrical structure. Each pattern lasts just for a moment and is specific to the action of the individual person.

Although the work is inspired by the mentioned geometric patterns, it contains a certain twist: Figures of animated beings (like humans) are usually excluded from this kind of imagery. By using the visitor’s abstracted body as the basis of the pattern, the image of a human being is smuggled into the artwork.

The work was developed and produced during a residency at the town of Houmt Souk for the media art festival See Djerba 2019. It has been shown at the Museum of Traditional Heritage of Djerba.

Detail: Abstract figure of a visitor. The whole pattern is constructed from this base structure.