A conversation with Brandon Stosuy for The Creative Independent.
We talk about process and inspiration.

i miss rio

i miss tokyo

i do not miss berlin

Abstract Browsing is a project that consists of both software and physical objects.

The browser plugin is a free software that anyone can install.

When you turn it on, you can surf the web but all web content is reduced to colored rectangles. It shows you the skeleton of the web. It’s like seeing an X-ray of a building, showing the structural elements.
Web pages are built of many smaller elements, information is organized and categorized. Text, images, tables, things we use every day but are not aware of.

I’m interested how our eyes move across the screen, how websites adapt, learn from your behavior, and change over time. Optimized to grab your attention, to never get boring, to tempt you to click and click and never leave.
Websites are constantly maximizing their efficiency, separate from aesthetic concerns. Websites learn from users by trial and error.

Technology asks new questions about composition. I’m looking for unusual compositions. Anti-compositions, unhuman compositions, compositions that humans would not have created on their own.

I surf the web every day using the plugin. Whenever I find a composition that strikes me, I take a screenshot. Just like digital photography, I take way too many images, thousands and thousands. The real challenge is editing. Making tapestries out of these compositions forces me to choose. Out of all the files I have, I have to choose which ones become objects.
The physicalization (weaving) brings focus. The software is fast and fluid, textile is expensive and slow. It slows me down, it helps me to pause and reflect.

I’ve tried to spend less time on the computer
turning procrastination into productivity
finding beauty in utility
abstraction => removal of information
from natural perception to material reduction
distraction based compositions
infinite information – infinite compositions
the aesthetics of distraction
abstraction is an escape
appropriated abstraction
weaving => mechanical painting

From Wikipedia
“The Jacquard head used replaceable punched cards to control a sequence of operations. It is considered an important step in the history of computing hardware. The ability to change the pattern of the loom’s weave by simply changing cards was an important conceptual precursor to the development of computer programming and data entry.
Charles Babbage knew of Jacquard looms and planned to use cards to store programs in his Analytical engine. In the late 19th century, Herman Hollerith took the idea of using punched cards to store information a step further when he created a punched card tabulating machine which he used to input data for the 1890 U.S. Census.”

ap·pro·pri·a·tion
əˌprōprēˈāSH(ə)n/
noun
the action of taking something for one’s own use, typically without the owner’s permission.

Is appropriation a form of bullying?

Instead of making something, taking something.

The appropriated one is usually not happy.

The villain is more interesting than the hero.

What does contextualize really mean?
– to bring focus
– to isolate
– to show something that is not art to an art audience
– to present something you did not make in an empty room

Appropriation deals with intellectual hierarchy.

Creation looks naïve next to appropriation.

i really want to

i know i shouldn’t

i think i will

i’ve tried

to spend less time

on my computer

I was interviewed by Marvin Jordan for DIS magazine. We talk about the social, economic, and aesthetic conditions that characterize the landscape of internet-based art.

Very happy about this text, read it here.

imagine

loving

everything

almost nothing

hardly anything

barely something

Someone finds a trick to simplify a task. This person finishes the task faster and has more time to relax.

Once everyone starts using the same trick, there is no time to relax any more. You have to use the trick. What used to be normal is now slow.

This is a selection of texts from my Spheres book, in collaboration with Philippe Karrer.

When we stare at the ocean, we can’t see that far because of the curvature of the earth. Clouds are not that far away either. Stars can be very far away, but a lot of stars don’t even exist any more by the time their light hits our eyes. The further something is, the longer it takes before you see it.

People always emphasize it’s good to grow and innovate, but it’s also good to repeat and refine.

In the future, people will not carry around devices to access the internet. Instead, with a pocket knife, they will cut a rectangle out of thin air, right in front of them, and there the internet will be. Unfortunately, many people will leave pieces of sky on the floor which might be dangerous.

not here

not there

not anywhere

I cannot explain why, but one of my favorite activities in the world is throwing stuff away. After graduating, I started moving to different countries, so I had to. I could only take so much with me. Possessions restrict movement. I don’t need much.

I love the idea of empty spaces. I love visualizing an empty home with big windows in an empty landscape. I imagine windows opened on either side of the house, the wind blowing from miles away entering the house and leaving quickly, hardly obstructed.

Emptiness is very elegant. It is luxurious.

The reality is that I am never in an empty house in an empty landscape. I am always in very crowded places. I live in Chinatown New York which is dense with tourists and garbage. I travel in crowded airplanes and eat while my elbows touch the passenger next to me. I sleep in hotels packed with people and their luggage. I swim at crowded beaches and walk through crowded museums and sit in crowded subways.

Emptiness seems beautiful yet I hardly ever go there. I hardly make an effort. I could take a bus to the countryside and sit in an empty field for a few hours. I could but I don’t.

I like the idea of emptiness more than the reality of it.

it’s fun
it’s new
it’s light
it’s open
it’s cheap
it’s free
it’s everything
it’s always
it’s everywhere

no history
no stress
no boss
no budget
no deadlines
no hassle

Austin Lee interviews Rafaël Rozendaal for SFAQ magazine.
New York, February 2014.

AL: Your artwork has strong ties to both painting and animation. How do you think about time in both mediums and how does it function in your work?

RR: I’m interested in movement, and I’m interested in staring. That means I want to make moving images that don’t have a beginning or ending, no specific duration. The computer makes it possible to create images that run infinitely, always a bit different but also kind of the same. Think of a fountain: it’s in motion, it’s moving, but it’s not going anywhere.

for a brief moment

my inbox

was empty

It lacks courage. It’s ugly. It’s conformist. It’s safe. It’s too easy. It’s decorative. It’s predictable. Deja vu. It’s obvious. It’s unoriginal. It lacks vision. It lacks emotion. It’s too emotional. It’s too personal. I don’t connect with it. It doesn’t surprise me. It’s dry. It’s pedantic. It’s too logical. It doesn’t make any sense. It makes too much sense. It’s repulsive. It’s nauseating. I hate it. More of the same. No innovation. It looks like vomit. It hurts my eyes. It makes me sad. It’s ignorant. It’s primitive. It’s banal. It’s too glossy. It’s too polished. It needs polishing. It lacks technique. It doesn’t do anything for me. It’s trendy. It won’t last. It’s fragile. It confuses me. It’s design. It’s theater. It’s illustration. It’s an effect. It lacks depth. It’s cold. There’s no content. There’s no concept. Too conceptual. It’s too pretty. There’s no narrative. It’s boring. It’s clumsy. It’s too much. It’s elitist. It’s populist. It’s crap. It’s not art. It’s too artistic. It’s vile. It lacks poetry. I don’t believe in it. It’s empty. It’s awful. I can’t stand it. I never want to see it again. It’s vulgar. It’s retarded. It’s a cliche. I’m disappointed. It’s racist. It’s sexist. It’s classist. It’s nerdy. It pisses me off. It’s too heady. It’s too smart. It’s not gonna go anywhere. It’s academic. It’s dead. It’s irrelevant. It’s not contemporary. It’s uninteresting. It doesn’t have any meaning. It’s too commercial. It’s tacky. It’s a scam. It’s miserable. It’s exploitative. It’s negative. It’s fake. It’s not critical. It’s not aware. It’s too ironic. It’s appalling. It’s derivative. It’s annoying. It’s atrocious. It’s naive. It’s immature. It’s childish. It’s insufferable. It’s lazy. It’s convoluted. It’s contrived. It’s bloated. It’s unnecessary. I don’t trust it. I don’t get it. Whatever.

I have always been interested in the space between painting and animation. The concentration of painting, the liveliness of the moving image. I operate in the area between those two.

Our relationship with the moving image is changing. They surround us, a bit more every day.

I imagine we will live in a world where there is no difference between a screen or any other surface. Any surface can change at will.

It is this feeling, or expectation, that drives me to create moving images.

what you have

what you want

what you need

now

later

too late