Stephen Boyd

Bio:

I am a Toronto-based generative artist working in code since 2003. I write rule-based code that produces hard-edged geometric abstraction, realised in cyanotype and ink on paper and panel. My interest in emergence and in where randomness enters a system connects my practice to the 1960s computer art of Vera Molnár and Manfred Mohr, Sol LeWitt’s instruction-based work, and Casey Reas and the open-source community around Processing.

I have exhibited in solo and group exhibitions and presented at the Marshall McLuhan Festival and SIGGRAPH. I held an Artist-in-Residence position at Centennial College and graduated from the Canadian Film Centre’s New Media H@bitat programme.

Alongside my studio practice, I run hands-on generative art workshops and have given talks at OCAD University and the University of Toronto on algorithmic design, generative art, and data visualization.

Artist Statement:

I have been producing generative art since 2003. I write rules as code and run them. The rules are deterministic, but the results are not predictable from reading them. The only way to find out what a rule set produces is to run it and look. Randomness has a part in every piece, placed deliberately at chosen points rather than allowed to run through everything.

A single value governs every scalar decision in my work: how space is divided, how lines scale, how far each step travels, how a probability is weighted, where a threshold sits, how colours blend, and how fine the noise is. I call it the Organizing Principle Ratio. The code and the rules are as much the work as the final print.

My rule sets are drawn from natural systems that run past the limits of human perception. My work approximates those systems. It does not replicate them, nor is it intended to. I realise the pieces as cyanotype and ink on cotton rag paper, on cradled birch panels, and as giclée prints. My cyanotypes are exposed in direct sunlight and developed in water, so sun and wet chemistry act on the print after the code has finished with it.

Below are some examples of my work. Click on the image to see the full image:

Favourite artists:

Sol LeWitt, Kazuo Nakamura, Vera Molnár, Jack Bush, and Gershon Iskowitz.

I have been most inspired by:

Steve Reich inspires me for pushing a singular vision across an entire life and continuing to produce new work. Visually I am inspired by patterns in nature: the structure of plants, weather systems, the way a school of fish moves. I am drawn to the way structures repeat across different scales. I use rules, code, and randomness to build systems with multiple interacting layers. My work approximates those systems. It does not replicate them.

Purpose of art:

Art is a window, not a picture. It gives us a way to look at something we cannot otherwise take in.