Intervals is a series of algorithmic compositions exploring proportion in both color and form. The title of the project comes from the concept of a color interval: a series of distinct steps between two parent colors, with each step being an even transition in color. In this project, compositions are divided into a number of horizontal or vertical bars with three different color intervals spanning the field. The intervals themselves are intertwined with neighboring colors playing against each other across the composition.
The artwork of Intervals takes two forms, digital and physical. The digital artwork displays each color as a smooth, mathematically precise blend. The files for the physical version of the artwork reside within the digital artwork, containing the complete logic and instruction set for its production. The digital artwork can also toggle to reveal a simulation of its plotted companion.
In the physical version, every color is built from a palette of eight colored inks plus black. The algorithm determines how much of each pen color is in the mixture and layers hatched lines at proportioned densities to achieve that color on paper. These layers are plotted one color at a time until the final artwork is complete.
Intervals builds on my recent explorations using fine art materials on a plotter. The digital output is an ideal expression of each color, and the drawing is a mechanical translation. While the result is more precise than I could achieve drawing by hand, the mechanical drawing is still never exact. This imprecision becomes the mechanical hand in the work, and I have come to embrace it as an important part of the physical expression.