For decades my computers have evolved from the traditional unrelenting servants to symbiotic, creative partners with each other and with me, the artist. A high-resolution camera gathers digital input as commencement for creation of metaphorical iterative subjects via breeding combinations, not unlike the work of Darwin and Mendel. Photographic input is skewed to optimize the unique bias of the software rather than just taking a picture and seeing if it is useful when processing it through the computer. Together we breed different suites of single unique drawings. The software is structured in a way that facilitates each unique input image the capacity of generating its own appearance and aesthetic answer within the pathways of the parent program. This symbiotic process encourages the birth of a “wild card” that offers an unimagined departure point for building new design relationships that are subsequently customized towards a particular conceptual position. Like streams of water finding their path, the hybrid situational journeys collide and offer an unimagined counterpoint conversation with the machine’s predictability.
Biography - Gerald Hushlak
Professor Gerald Hushlak was born in Alberta where he continues his practice as a photographer, painter, and digital artist.
After completing an MFA from the Royal College of Art, London, UK, Hushlak took up the position at the University of Calgary that has acted as the platform for his cross-disciplinary work in art and computer science. Hushlak has exhibited mural-size paintings in museums, built rapid prototype sculpture defined in a 3D modeling package titled Cinema 4-D, and plotted large lenticular and Giclee printed drawings derived from his evolutionary computing software.
He uses evolutionary computing techniques (BreederArt) to “breed” digital imagery from his photographs. The cutting-edge art technology journal Leonardo featured his work as its cover story in the summer of 2007. Since the beginning of his art career, Hushlak has participated in 40+ one-person exhibitions in public museums and art galleries and numerous group exhibitions.
His most recent one-man exhibition was held at the Chentang Zhuang Art and Technology Museum in Tianjin, China in 2017.