Nathan Selikoff

Statement

I love to experiment in the fuzzy overlap between art, mathematics, and programming. The computer is my canvas, and this is algorithmic artwork—a partnership mediated not by the brush or pencil but by the shared language of software. Seeking to extract and visualize the beauty that I glimpse beneath the surface of equations and systems, I create custom interactive programs and use them to explore algorithms, and ultimately to generate artwork. In the world of chaotic dynamical systems, minute changes in initial conditions produce radically different results. The interface of my software gives me hooks into the algorithms and allows me to exert a measure of control. Art and mathematics, the right brain and the left, are inextricably linked in this work. My art depends on mathematics, yet simultaneously illuminates and unravels its beauty. I am the explorer who uncovers something extraordinary, bringing into view that which was always there to be discovered.

Artworks

Æxploration (Aesthetic Exploration) is a real-time, interactive video projection. This custom software visualizes a variety of two and three dimensional strange attractors, allowing the viewer to control the coefficients, color, and translation of the attractor. Until recently, my goal has been to generate high quality still images of strange attractors, and my interactive software has been geared towards that purpose alone - an artist's tool that is a byproduct of the process, viewable only by myself. But recently, in the course of a single day, I made some changes to my code that completely revolutionized what I was seeing on the screen while using my software, and I am excited to share the results. The image above is a screen capture. Video is available at http://nathanselikoff.com/251/strange-attractors/aesthetic-exploration