Greg Cole World Flag Studies January 09 2014
Greg Cole, World Flag Studies
On exhibit: January 4 - February 15, 2014
Artist reception: Saturday, January 4, 4-7 PM
New Smyrna Beach, FL –– Atlantic Center for the Arts alt_space gallery presents World Flag Studies, a solo exhibition featuring a collection of vibrantly colored flags by digital media artist, Greg Cole. Drawing from the techniques and methodologies of science, graphic design, and computation, World Flag Studies invites viewers to consider the cultural, global, and aesthetic significance of flags in contemporary history. The exhibition will be on view from January 4, 2014 through February 15, 2014, with an opening reception on Saturday, January 4, 4 - 7 PM. The opening reception and exhibition are free and open to the public.
World Flag Studies is part of an ongoing project seeking to explore the creative potential of applying technologies in support of an artistic practice. Cole’s artistic practice is process based. Cole authored computer programs to extract visual data from 206 national flags in order to analyze recurring texts, colors, patterns, and shapes that are used to represent nationhood. Each flag in this collection was subject to a programmatic or manual workflow that involved the aggregation, classification, and redistribution of data across existing software platforms such as Processing, Illustrator, and Excel. Additional automation tools were created to randomly arrange and recompose elements to form new representational flags.
World Flag Studies is best described as data art, whereby the principles of art and design take precedence over the relational context of the analytic data. The recombinant method allows the artist to explore emergent meaning and to create new visual arrangements without the necessity of preserving the analytic data. Viewers will find the recombinant style can generate intriguing visual results. In 286 Stars of the World, for example, the artist used the programmatic processing of data as a generative engine for creativity. As a starting point, a field of 286 stars of various styles, scale, and color were programmatically extracted from individual flags and then manually reconstructed to create a new representational flag. The reconfigured constellation asks viewers to contemplate how a singular graphic element can convey cultural and universal meaning.
Greg Cole graduated from the University of Florida in 2011 with BFA in Digital Media. His other projects explore ideas of globalization, immigration, identity, mapping, and online databases by using technologies such as programming, Google Earth, Google Maps, experimental video games, embedded electronics, and modified hardware. Cole currently works at Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, FL, where he collaborates with artists of every discipline from around the World.
To see additional work by Greg Cole, visit www.grecole.info.
Atlantic Center for the Arts alt_space gallery is a non-commercial exhibition space dedicated to artists working in a variety of artistic genres that can include: conceptual art, site specific installation, new media, digital media, video, sculpture, or any other experimental practice. This space seeks to provide emerging and established visual artists with an alternative space to show their work, as well as to provide a platform to engage the community in a dialogue about art process, methodology, concepts, and materials. The alt_space gallery is located at ACA’s Downtown facility (123 Douglas Street). For additional information about the alt_space gallery call Meghan Martin at 386.423.1753 x 16. Gallery Hours: Tuesday through Friday 10 – 5 pm, Saturday 11 – 3 pm.