I make art with software and machines.

Inspired by Spencer Chang this is the new way that I am describing my practice. The process of coming up with a tagline is a fun challenge. How do you fit years of works and thinking into a single sentence. Reduce the vastness of a practice into a few words. For me, I rely on the use of containers. Each serves as a vehicle for deeper meaning that can evolve over time. I use three in the above:

“art” - This spans risograph prints, pen plotter prints, pen plotter drawings, paper reliefs, generative algorithms and so on. I enjoy poking at the confines of its borders. Each year it expands into even more categories and becomes more/less legible.

“software” - In a literal sense this means computer programs. In a philosophical sense this means steps and instructions. Using Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawings as a popular example, these are repeatable steps that can be executed across medium and repeated. They can be simple and linear or parametric and random. Building blocks that are glued together or monolithic tools. This is where the art is made.

“machines” - Let’s expand the word past droids and AI agents to include looms, wind chimes, and even ourselves. If the basic definition is a mechanism for carrying out a set of steps then our worldview hopefully expands and things become interesting. Out with the basic questions of what is machine? what is human? and the Turing tests of yesterday. In with re-examining our modern systems! This is how the art is made.

7 words. 3 containers.

-Mello