Luke Shannon: Bridging Digital and Physical Art

Luke Shannon makes generative art, where hyper-specific and syntactical code delineates an infinite space, and the chaos of chance fills it. The viewer provides this chance.

He so eloquently says, “shaping such a space is the most complete way to describe the things I feel and see because it seeks multiplicity and universality rather than individual manifestation".

Before his journey into computer art, Luke made physical art using traditional tools such as paint, gouache, and watercolor. Interested in bridging the gap between the two, Luke moves his figurative and emotional work into his algorithmic creations.

We had the pleasure of interviewing Luke, who is pushing the boundaries of generative art by exploring the possibilities of physical materials such as glass, metal, wood, and ceramics, and combining them with code.

Could you discuss your process and how your work differs from simple generative-based art, as it is predominantly code-based and non-repeating?

To me, generative art is all about exploring and creating systems. Code is a great tool for exploring these systems at a high level, with large scale randomness.

But I also see fabrication machines like the plotter as a system, and investigating the textures that are inherent to those kinds of physical works is really fascinating to me. Generative making is a way to combine and investigate these systems together, while also using code to replace some of my creative biases with randomness. The biases of creation are a different set than the biases of curation.

Plotter Series

nllp/qlln, Generative Algorithms and Acrylic Paint

Can you expand on your process and the tools you use?

The way I’ve put it in the past is that my process is about processes. Programming is a wonderful tool for designing processes, especially ones that can live on their own and grow over time. Code is a natural way to work with machines, and because so many of these machines are systems unto themselves I’ve found it unnervingly compelling to use code and generative art to explore different mediums as their own system.

By coding I remove some of my own creative biases, and instead allow the biases of the system to come to the foreground. I’ve learned so much about the natural tendencies of embroidery thread, for example, by seeing how it interacts with the system of the embroidery machine. I’ve learned so much about clay, by seeing how it responds to its environment without my hand interfering in a second-order feedback loop.

Every medium that I’ve applied this lens to – ink, paint, embroidery, clay, wood, acrylic, metal, fabric – and every machine that I’ve used to try and do that in a rigorous way, has directed me to different ways of understanding systems and different biases that underlie so much in an increasingly fabricated world.

Embroidery, 2022

Untitled Clay Structure, 2022

Your physical pieces differ greatly from your algorithmic work, which do you prefer?

It’s funny actually, recently, as I have been coding more, I’ve also been reverting more and more to finger-painting. It’s an emotional relief to be able to act so gesturally sometimes.

But since I started making generative art, other forms started to lose some of their appeal. For me, generative art is the most complete way to describe the things I feel and see, because it describes phenomena from an infinite number of perspectives, and seeks multiplicity and generality rather than individual manifestation. You have to really understand the inner workings of something to describe it algorithmically.

Untitled, Finger-painting, 2022

In what ways do you combine computer art with traditional art?

I’m glad you asked this follow up, because the real answer is, of course, that the best way for me to work is combining the two, and move my figurative and emotional work into my algorithmic work.

I’ve been fascinated with figuration since the start, with The Opera, and it's still is core to my practice. I think it stems from an attempt to explain the confusing ways that self and personhood manifest in us, in systems, in the world. And what exactly are the limits of those systems – where do I end and you begin?

There are lots of things that are not people, but are also not less than people. Generative making is a way to show that these algorithms and ideas are not limited to the digital space, but are expressions that surround all of us.

How did you discover Art Blocks and more broadly, the Ethereum blockchain?

I got my first eth in 2017, but I discovered NFTs in a much more unusual way, through my parents. One of the ways I think my dad expresses love is by sending articles, and he sent me two articles about NFTs and I thought maybe I should check it out. When I did, I went down the rabbit hole and eventually found my way to Art Blocks. This was January 2021, so Art Blocks was still small enough that I was able to message Erick (Snowfro) directly, and have a long and wonderful conversation about generative art and how Art Blocks was going to change the world. I still think back to that conversation and how serendipitous and exciting it all was.

Erick Calderon, Chromie Squiggle #0, 2021

Can you speak a bit about The Opera, your collection from the early days of Art Blocks?

The goal with The Opera was to give quiet voice to some of our more existential moments. There is ambivalence in the figures; are they singing? screaming? holding their mouth open in constant surprise? It’s a lot of looking and searching, a weird sense of uncertainty, but more importantly, a constant undercurrent of joy and experience.

The Opera #28, 2021

The Opera #33, 2021

What about Orchids, your collection released with Bright Moments?

Generative art is, in many ways, a performance art, or at least has a very close proximity to it. The live minting experience of Bright Moments spotlighted that in a wonderful way. I had the opportunity to see the work being created at the same time and through the eyes of the person minting it. The beautiful thing about generative art is that, in some sense, it exists because of the viewing-act of the collector.

A performance without an audience is a rehearsal, and an algorithm without a collector is just code. I’m very grateful for that experience of seeing the work come into existence, already uniquely connected to both myself and the viewer.

Orchids #0, 2022

Orchids #156, 2022

Can you explain the origins of Orchids and how it ultimately released through Bright Moments?

In early 2022 I spent a lot of time thinking about generative art as performance art, and briefly ran a generative art popup on Sundays where I would create generative art live, either by coding, by plotter, by embroidery machine, or by laser cutter, and then give away that art free to people who watched. That was a satisfying experience, which led me to so many more ideas about the way generative art muddles traditional creator-curator-collector relationships. So when Bright Moments reached out to me about being an artist in residence and ‘performing’ in live minting events, it was an easy and immediate yes!

Generative Art Pop-up, Princeton, 2022

For Orchids themselves, the emotion I was trying to express was actually a way of thinking that generative art has taught me. An important part of working with systems, probably the most important part, is trying to understand how different elements depend on each other. When I focused on this idea of interdependence, or 'interbeing' as Nhất Hạnh calls it, I started to see it everywhere, and everything became full and alive.

Searching for the 'autonomous agent' in generative art is, in a lot of ways, a search for a ‘self’ in the system, and finding selfhood in the world was a very powerful experience for me at that time.

Orchids #16, 2022

What physical forms are you currently exploring, or wish to explore in the future?

I’m working with some really surprising new materials and practices, which is very rewarding so far. Ceramics, glassblowing, printmaking, metalworking, patternmaking are a few of those. I’m planning to do a lot with fashion and household art, like vases and tables and that sort of thing.

I think that generative making is going to be really big. It is important, really important, to live with art and make the things that we see and interact with everyday beautiful, joyful and personal.

My definition of art is anything that is listened to. Just listening makes art. And everything, every person, every object, every system – no matter how everyday – deserves to be listened to.

For inquiries, please contact hello@artxcode.io.