Josef Pelz is a generative artist and creative coder based in Berlin whose work grows out of a background in mathematics and computer science.,Working mainly in TouchDesigner, he writes custom GLSL tools to explore real-time simulations of physics, fluids and emergent behavior. He has also taught TouchDesigner, GLSL and computer-oriented mathematics at several German institutions.
Pelz studied mathematics in Berlin, focusing on geometry and, in his master's degree, on mathematical visualization, and he wrote his thesis on real-time smoke simulation using Schrödinger's Smoke in TouchDesigner. He later developed T3D, a toolkit of operators for creating and manipulating 3D textures in TouchDesigner, so that tasks such as volumetric rendering and real-time fluid simulation, which previously required writing GLSL compute shaders, could be done without code.
For visuals to Dmitry Selipanov's 2020 concert at Zaryadye Hall in Moscow, made with Bileam Tschepe (Elekktronaut), Pelz built a particle system driven by gravity and other external forces. In “Life of a Neuron”, an immersive exhibit created by Artechouse with the Society for Neuroscience and shown in Washington, D.C. in 2021 and New York in 2022, he designed the 'Aging and Dying' section, applying his TouchDesigner simulation tools to a first-of-its-kind three-dimensional model of a human neuron to depict its decay. For “Life Eternal”, a 2022 exhibition by the Nobel Prize Museum at Liljevalchs in Stockholm, he created visualizations of the Nobel Prizes awarded for black holes and for CRISPR/Cas9, again in collaboration with Artechouse. That year, he also built the fabric-simulation tool used for the visuals to 'Don't Forget Me' on the Red Hot Chili Peppers' 2022 world tour, staged by The Setup.Design Studio.
Pelz's practice also includes generative video: in 2024 he presented Cross Section, a series in which millions of particles are simulated within a three-dimensional space, each following simple rules of movement and reorientation that combine into complex, organism-like patterns. The work builds on 'Physarum', an algorithm modeling slime-mould behavior developed by Jeff Jones and popularized by Sage Jenson.The series, which includes pieces such as Alignment and Specimen 1, one of seven numbered Specimen videos, was shown within the twelve-artist group exhibition “Unity in Variety” at Load Gallery in Barcelona from July to August 2024.,
His generative work has also been shown at the Digital Art Mile in Basel, and in 2022 one of his pieces was minted live on stage at NFT Show Europe in Valencia during an FxHash drop.,
