10-SECOND EXPERIMENTS

Over the years, in my “day-job” as a graphic designer, I’ve made a point of exploring new technologies/softwares/applications—anything to enhance my work’s creativity and make it more fresh. One software that I return to again and again is “Scriptographer”—a plug-in used in tandem with Adobe Illustrator. It was created by Swiss designer and artist Jürg Lemli (he distributes it for free over the Internet) and with it, any designer can create fractal-like combinations and re-configurations of basic lines and shapes via its re-scriptable codes. It seemed to me that “Scriptographer” was endlessly adaptable.

One day in 2009, I asked myself if I might not make works of fine art with Scriptographer, rather than just designs or ‘craft.’ I decided to restrict my initial encounter/contact/touch with the software to just 10 seconds. (Its tools, by the way, have names like “growth,” “wave,” “scribbler,” and “weave” which seem quite appropriate to my other work.) So, I used them for no more than 10 seconds; later, I’d duplicate, scale, or rotate the imagery.

I’ve always been fascinated by economy and the pared-down gesture, and have long been exploring ways to do as little as possible—in order to say as much as possible—in my work. Overall, my work tends to walk a very fine line between the worlds of graphic design and fine art. Nowhere does that line get “thinner” than in 10-Second Experiments. But that suits my purposes quite well. What I’ve learned with this project is that a 10-second encounter can yield worlds of possibilities. It’s looking that can’t be rushed.