Pierre Casadebaig is a biologist and computer artist based in Toulouse, France. He applies code and data-visualization methods developed for analyzing crop-environment interactions in his scientific work to an artistic practice, writing algorithms in the R programming language that turn real elevation datasets into vector drawings plotted onto paper. He has maintained this artistic practice since 2021, alongside his scientific research on plant ecology and sustainable cropping systems.
His first series, Dispyr, launched in 2022 and processes digital elevation data from the Pyrénées mountains into etching-like ink sketches. The approach has been compared to Matt Deslauriers's Meridian series. A related body of work, Loess, simplifies the same elevation data into a few calligraphic lines drawn with a brush-tipped plotter, an aesthetic that has been likened to Chinese Shan Shui landscape painting. In a 2022 release he collaborated with Anthony Siracusa, combining pen-plotted lines drawn from Alps elevation data with hand-drawn plant shapes added between the ridges.
