Philippe Parreno
With a Rhythmic Instinction to be Able to Travel Beyond Existing Forces of Life, 2018
LED panels, mac mini, speakers, amplifiers, powder coated steel
2 parts, each: 350 x 200 x 100 cm
Edition of 3
Copyright The Artist
With a Rhythmic Instinction to be Able to Travel Beyond Existing Forces of Life (2018) is an automaton assembled from hundreds of drawings created by Parreno over the last four...
With a Rhythmic Instinction to be Able to Travel Beyond Existing Forces of Life (2018) is an automaton assembled from hundreds of drawings created by Parreno over the last four years, each depicting the same insect: a firefly or luciola (small light). Within these animations each of Parreno’s 238 drawings become an individual flickering frame of the work. The repetition in making these drawings has become an automatic process for Parreno, like a machine or automaton, and the depiction of the luciola improves through reiteration. Parreno systematically gives the drawings away as gifts, usually as a triptych or in larger numbers to mirror “The Game of Life”, a cellular automaton invented by the British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970 and explained by Stephen Hawking is this short video: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=CgOcEZinQ2I. Algorithms found within the Game of Life govern the structure of the work and reveal how complex patterns can emerge from the implementation of very simple rules.
The original idea behind the Firefly drawings came from Pier Paolo Pasolini’s manifesto, wherein he uses the disappearance of fireflies in Europe at the begging of 1960s as a metaphor for the fall of ideologies, and the rise of industry and mass consumerism. This is why all Firefly drawings are given away – they exist outside a commercial context, and Philippe gives them only as a gifts.
With a Rhythmic Instinction to be Able to Travel Beyond Existing Forces of Life is made from hundreds of these drawings, which are then organised by a computer program following a unique algorythm. The work is auto-governed and decides when it begins and when it ends. A sequence can live for a few minutes or for at most a day. When the works ends, or “dies”, a Firefly drawing freezes momentarily on the screen. Shortly thereafter, the work reboots, thus begining a new cycle of life. This proeess repeats endlessly and is governed entirely by chance.
As well as creating its own life, the work also creates its own soundtrack, transforming the intensity of light eminated from the screen into noise. Philippe consequently considers this work ‘post cinema’: it goes beyond film and an animation, becoming alive.
The original idea behind the Firefly drawings came from Pier Paolo Pasolini’s manifesto, wherein he uses the disappearance of fireflies in Europe at the begging of 1960s as a metaphor for the fall of ideologies, and the rise of industry and mass consumerism. This is why all Firefly drawings are given away – they exist outside a commercial context, and Philippe gives them only as a gifts.
With a Rhythmic Instinction to be Able to Travel Beyond Existing Forces of Life is made from hundreds of these drawings, which are then organised by a computer program following a unique algorythm. The work is auto-governed and decides when it begins and when it ends. A sequence can live for a few minutes or for at most a day. When the works ends, or “dies”, a Firefly drawing freezes momentarily on the screen. Shortly thereafter, the work reboots, thus begining a new cycle of life. This proeess repeats endlessly and is governed entirely by chance.
As well as creating its own life, the work also creates its own soundtrack, transforming the intensity of light eminated from the screen into noise. Philippe consequently considers this work ‘post cinema’: it goes beyond film and an animation, becoming alive.