August 4- 24, 2008
DIGITAL ART PROJECT RESIDENCY
Application Deadline: April 4, 2008
JOHN F. SIMON, digital artist
 John F. Simon, Jr. is best known for his software and screen based artworks. Initially influenced by the work of 'systems' artists such as Paul Klee and Sol LeWitt, Simon uses the unique properties of digital media to activate Modernist principles of form, composition, and color. The screens are constantly in motion - digital paintings whose compositions never repeat. His style is dynamic and he employs diverse mediums such as: software, laser engraved plastic, pen plotter drawings, hand painted gouache drawings, and inlaid plastic laminate. Having written his own software for the past 20 years, Simon is fluent in his use of the computer, manipulating his tool’s potential in imaginative and innovative ways. His newest work plays the regularity of computer control against the randomness of physical materials.
Shown at the Whitney Biennial (2000), Simon’s software panel works have been collected by the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum, The museum of Modern Art, The Brooklyn Museum, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others. In October 2005 the Whitney Museum of American Art and Printed Matter published Simon’s artist’s book and software CD, "Mobility Agents”.
He holds an MFA degree from the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and a Masters degree in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Washington University in St. Louis. He lives in New York City with his wife and son.
* For more information on John F. Simon please visit www.numeral.com
RESIDENCY STATEMENT
This residency is an opportunity for us to map creative systems and to understand this practice in the larger context of art making.
Exploration of systems applies naturally to Software Art but is not limited to the digital.
There are biological, social, and planetary systems to name a few. Traffic patterns, river flows, crowd dynamics, and plant branching structures are systems that we encounter in our everyday experience. Sets of rules developed for art making can be found historically in Conceptual Art and Bauhaus teachings but they extend as far back as primitive tiling and patterning.
For the purpose of this residency, art making systems are a way of discussing possibilities and the creative process. For residents with an interest in software art, discussions will explore writing software as a form of creative writing. Unlike traditional software development that begins with an end result defined, a creative writing approach explores possibilities through iterative experiments that result in unexpected or surprising discoveries.
The three weeks will focus on two areas: the conceptual possibilities of systems, and the intuitive creative process. We will ask questions such as: Where does your motivation come from? What is the source of your ideas? How do you move from an idea to a completed work? How does your system translate into code? What visuals can be evolved from your code improvisations?
A resident will benefit from having some small projects or a work in progress during the process. Day to day, a resident can expect a lot of discussion and practice, some of this on the beach, critiques, demonstrations and project work.
I prefer applicants with an interest in doing creative work with software in any format - flash, java, openGL, etc. or learning more about this, but it is not required. The residency should not be viewed as exclusive to artists working in software or digital media.
APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS
- Documentation representative of your work in the format that best conveys what you are thinking about it. Online presentations when possible are preferred.
These include:
- Up to 10 images - website, slides, or a CD/DVD
- Video documentation or excerpt not to exceed 10 minutes – online video, DVD, VHS
- Software – online code projects or examples
- A short list (3 – 5) of artists, written works, or areas of study that are of interest or are especially influential.
- A brief description of areas of study, potential projects, or topics of discussion that you want to pursue during your residency at ACA.
- A resume.
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