dichtung-digital: Paris Connection

Oops, no: not artistic realization versus programming work. The two are inextricably fused in Schmitt's work—that is part of what he is telling us. And it's one of the compelling things about his work. If you think of what it will take to make the thing more lively, you see it has to do with the way the Director piece responds to the sound, and the way it responds to sound is largely a matter of programming as opposed to the particular look of the creature itself, though of course the look of the thing, it's geometry, will be highly related to the code, as he indicates in his statement when he says:

Once this body and this physical universe are put in place, I give the body muscles, which are forces that act on the elements of the body relatively to each other. These forces are also embodied (implemented) in algorithms acting in the instant, in real time.

You can see the relation between his asFFT project and "Avec determination": both are concerned with lively movement in different ways, and this is a theme that runs through quite a bit of his careful and exciting art and research as an artist-programmer. And this is continuing, ongoing work.

He shares an interest with Durieu in the programmed art entity. Durieu's "Oeil Complex" and his Zoo creatures come to mind. And the motion of these creatures is crucial to their liveliness, the quality of their presence. Schmitt also is interested in that level of detail concerning motion, and in the detail responding through variable programming to the particular situation. It is really only through the detail of movement that the character emerges with any subtlety and power. There is often a friendly rivalry between people with similar concerns who are both high flyers. Is it the case here? Hard to say, perhaps.

Shmitt's aesthetic, as you see, is minimalistic. In this he shares more with servovalve than with Durieu. Durieu and Schmitt are probably equally able concerning programming and engineering. Schmitt worked for NexT at one point as a programmer. But Durieu is more inclined toward the graphical, Schmitt to the schematic or minimally representational. Schmitt writes with philosophical and literary intensity of the sufferer. Durieu is like Wallace Stevens. Le ciel est bleu. The sky is blue. The Emperor of Ice Cream. Durieu seems more influenced poetically by the French lettristes and visual poetry than by, oh, Schoppenhauer, say, or Lacan, or other weighty philosophers whom one images Schmitt having devoured. Durieu's work is lyrical, in a sense, powerful and joyful song, and poetry of the mind with its amazing mathematical programming structure, whereas Schmitt's is meditation of a different sort, Becketish, Duchampian, but no less informed in programming and maybe even mathematics.

Ideally, they push and inspire each other to greater heights. I would be surprised were it not safe to say that they are two of France's leading intellectual artists. I find them both amazing.

Their programming is in the service of art, of poetry, of synthesis. But also in service of the creation of entities that have their own behaviors, that are semi-autonomous in the sense that they are animisms, silent-running soul devices, machines made out of words reactive to their environments in their own ways. As works of art but also as lively semi-autonomous entities. In this sense, Durieu and Schmitt are realizing the potential of object-oriented programming in a positive way, breathing spirit into what too often is the creation of soulless, frightening weaponry.

It is important to know the difference. Programming and the mathematization of society will continue. It is important to see how the creations of object-oriented programming can be spirited with hope and generous utility for the benefit of humankind. If we understand the difference, if we understand how spirited they can be, we are more likely to be able to recognize the contrary when we see it—and not accept it and demand something with more benefit to humanity, something with more respect in it for us and for human dignity.

Durieu and Schmitt, as with the others in this loosely-knit group, are all producing art for the Web. From Paris. Work of the quality of all the members of this group is startling. But artist-intellectuals of Durieu's and Schmitt's order among them is even more outrageous and indicates that we're starting to see some of the finest art in the world on the Web. Not just in this or that isolated individual, but on a larger scale, such as we see in Paris at the moment.

It isn't hard to see that the confluence of arts, media, programming, and mathematics is a strong attractor for interesting minds and creative people. This will continue and, with it, the growth of the art of the Web not only within the art world but for a larger audience.

I look forward to seeing what other entities Schmitt is hatching. His site is gratin.org/as . One may note his generosity via following the abbreviated link: gratin.org; this leads not to Antoine's own work but to a fascinating collection of links "dedicated to the forms of art using algorithms as a first class matter. So actual and yet so classical."

You want passionate high brow French computer art? This is the place.

published on dichtung-digital 2/2003, February 2003