Pascal Dombis (born 1965) is a French

digital artist Digital art, or the digital arts, is artistic work that uses digital technology as part of the creative or presentational process. It can also refer to computational art that uses and engages with digital media. Since the 1960s, various names have ...

who uses computers and algorithms to produce excessive repetition of simple processes.

Life and work

Born in Metz in 1965, Dombis earned an

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

degree from the Insa University in

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

. In 1987, he spent one year at

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy p ...

where he attended computer art classes at Boston Museum School and began to use computers and algorithms in his art. From 1994 to 2000, he participated in the fractalist exhibitions that were curated by the art critics Susan Conde and Henri-François Debailleux that used

fractal In mathematics, a fractal is a Shape, geometric shape containing detailed structure at arbitrarily small scales, usually having a fractal dimension strictly exceeding the topological dimension. Many fractals appear similar at various scale ...

theory to project a new paradigm for art. The fractalist show gathered various artist under this concept, such as like Miguel Chevalier, Carlos Ginzburg, Jean-Claude Meynard ,

Nabil Nahas Nabil Nahas (born 18 September 1949) is a Lebanese artist and painter living in New York. Biography Nabil grew up in Cairo and Beirut, before moving to the United States for college to study at Louisiana State University. He is the younger brother ...

and

Joseph Nechvatal Joseph Nechvatal (born January 15, 1951) is an American post-conceptual digital artist and art theoretician who creates computer-assisted paintings and computer animations, often using custom computer viruses. Life and work Joseph Nechva ...

. In 1993, Dombis was awarded an honorary mention from

Ars Electronica Ars Electronica Linz GmbH is an Austrian cultural, educational and scientific institute active in the field of new media art, founded in Linz in 1979. It is based at the Ars Electronica Center (AEC), which houses the Museum of the Future, in t ...

in Linz and in 2003 he received a Canon digital award. Dombis is noted for his excessive use of simple algorithmic rules. When rules are input in an excessive process, new and unpredictable forms come to the fore and generate the unlikely; which is not dissimilar with the way the

Surrealist Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

exquisite corpse Exquisite corpse (from the original French term ', ) is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule (e.g., "The ''adjective'' ''noun' ...

operated. Dombis initially worked with simplistic rules: drawing a

straight line In geometry, a straight line, usually abbreviated line, is an infinitely long object with no width, depth, or curvature, an idealization of such physical objects as a straightedge, a taut string, or a ray of light. Lines are spaces of dimens ...

for instance. But then he used

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Businesses *Digital bank, a form of financial institution *Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company *Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software ...

tools to reach the wildest proliferations possible. Visual forms appear (they are not intentionally programmed) out of the excessive enforcement of

autonomous In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy is the capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision. Autonomous organizations or institutions are independent or self-governing. Autonomy can also be defi ...

and simple rules. So Dombis does not consciously conceive a structure in advance. He lays down simple rules and lets them go through a series of interactions. Through this abuse of technological processes, Dombis tries to confront the human viewer with 'his/her' own forms of primitive

irrationality Irrationality is cognition, thinking, talking, or acting without rationality. Irrationality often has a negative connotation, as thinking and actions that are less useful or more illogical than other more rational alternatives. The concept o ...

Frank Popper Frank Popper (17 April 1918 – 12 July 2020) was a Czech-born French-British historian of art and technology and Professor Emeritus of Aesthetics and the Science of Art at the University of Paris VIII. He was decorated with the medal of the L� ...

wrote: Dombis's work has been shown in numerous exhibitions around the world and is part of several public and private collections. In 2005 Dombis started to work on

spam Spam most often refers to: * Spam (food), a consumer brand product of canned processed pork of the Hormel Foods Corporation * Spamming, unsolicited or undesired electronic messages ** Email spam, unsolicited, undesired, or illegal email messages ...

proliferations and realized several installations at

Château de Linardié A château (, ; plural: châteaux) is a manor house, or palace, or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking reg ...

in Senouillac. In collaboration with the London-based sound artist Thanos Chrysakis, he developed ''BLINK'', an interactive digital video

art installation Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often cal ...

based on the blinking experience. ''Blink'' was first displayed at the Slought Foundation in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

in 2006. Recent exhibitions include the

digital art Digital art, or the digital arts, is artistic work that uses Digital electronics, digital technology as part of the creative or presentational process. It can also refer to computational art that uses and engages with digital media. Since the 1960 ...

biennial of

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

where he realized a monumental outdoor

digital print Digital printing is a method of printing from a digital-based image directly to a variety of media. It usually refers to professional printing where small-run jobs from desktop publishing and other digital sources are printed using large-forma ...

installation of 300 square meters. His work was included in the 2008 retrospective ''Imaging by numbers: a historical view of the computer print'' at the

Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art The Block Museum of Art is a free public art museum located on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The Block Museum was established in 1980 when Chicago art collectors Mary (daughter of Albert Lasker) and Leigh B. Block ...

in Evanston, Illinois. In 2010, Dombis realized ''Text(e)~Fil(e)s'', a monumental 252 meter long floor ribbon commissioned by the

French Ministry of Culture The Ministry of Culture () is the ministry (government department), ministry of the Government of France in charge of List of museums in France, national museums and the . Its goal is to maintain the French identity through the promotion and pro ...

for the

Palais-Royal The Palais-Royal () is a former French royal palace located on Rue Saint-Honoré in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. The screened entrance court faces the Place du Palais-Royal, opposite the Louvre Palace, Louvre. Originally called the Palais-Ca ...

in Paris. Composed of thousands of written text lines borrowed from various authors who have written on the Palais Royal, this temporary installation invited visitors to a stroll while reading a single text or experiencing a

non-linear In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system (or a non-linear system) is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathe ...

reading. In 2013, Dombis participated in ''Noise'', an official collateral show of the ''55th

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

of Art'', based on

’s book ''Immersion Into Noise''. He presented ''Post-Digital Mirror'', a large lenticular piece that follows the observer’s movements and produces organic and irregular shapes and lines. At the end of year 2015, Pascal Dombis, in collaboration with Gil Percal, installed in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, Western Australia, ''Irrational Geometrics'', a monumental installation of digitally printed glass and LED lighting, bringing a European perceptive to the city landscape. In 2016, Pascal Dombis and Gil Percal created ''Ligne-Flux'', a permanent glass public artwork that covers the entire under-face of a footbridge which links 2 buildings of the École nationale supérieure d'architecture in

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

France. ''Ligne-Flux'' was commissioned by the French Ministry of Culture. Based on line-curve proliferation and random color, the artwork produces a vibrant visual effect as one walks under the bridge and offers another kind of mapping in which networks, connections and flows come into play.
Dombis & Percale in Design Boom 9-11-2016 Pascal Dombis lives and works in Paris.

Footnotes

References

hristine Buci-Glucksmann, "Extract from ''Le Temps Fractal'' 2000 *[ hristine Buci-Glucksmann, "Philosophie de l'ornement : D'Orient en Occident", Galilée, 2008 *[ hristine Buci-Glucksmann, "Au-delà de la mélancolie", Galilée, 2006 *[ hristine Buci-Glucksmann, "La folie du voir", Galilée, 2002

Henri-François Debailleux, Libération, 2008, "Dombis, algorithmes dans la peau"

Henri-François Debailleux, Libération, 2007, "Dombis fait bonne impression"

oseph Nechvatal, "The Curvaceous Computational Paintings of Pascal Dombis", 2002 *

, "From Technological to Virtual Art", MIT Press, pp. 92–95

External links

Pascal Dombis website

Danielle Delouche Interview with Pascal Dombis 2005 {{DEFAULTSORT:Dombis, Pascal French digital artists Living people Postmodern artists French new media artists French installation artists 1965 births