about Ove Carlson - CV

DIGITAL ARTIST
ARCHIVAL PIGMENT PRINT
COMMISSIONS
A SHORT TIME AFTER having started working as a computer programmer, I began to paint. Perplexing and remarkable - neither my family nor any of my acquaintances had this kind of interest. I myself had not previously shown any interest in art either, so I too was surprised. In retrospect, I can see why I started to paint in a constructivist spirit. As I see it, information technology and mathematics are related and mathematics and art can support each other in many ways. I was influenced by mathematics, series of numbers, fractals, combinatorics and such, and I found inspiration in minimalism and conceptual art. In the early 1980s I got to know the Swedish artist Philip von Schantz, a relationship that lasted until his death in 1998. We had periodic close contact with many and long discussions about art and it was through the encouragement of Philip that I continued my artistic ambitions and had my first solo exhibition at Galleri Engelbrekt in Örebro in 1991.


Early on, I used computer based painting programs. Inspired by pictures that the early versions of Photoshop could produce, I developed my techniques of painting. In the beginning of the 2000´s I started using an Epson large format printer which made it possible for me to produce graphic prints of my digital images. Encouraged by the possibilities in the digital world I started to experiment with producing digital prints on different materials, in different contexts. This has included printing on glass, aluminum, MDF board etc. and has, among other things, resulted in glass objects and glass tables.
ArtGen
My digital experimenting is constantly ongoing and has resulted in the designing of a computer program called ArtGen that can randomly generate unique images in a constructivist spirit given certain prerequisites. I can control how ArtGen should behave. I give the prerequisites by changing input data or the program code. The images are created in layers. I can affect factors such as form and color, number of layers and transparency. Added to this is a random generator that can be utilized for different purposes. The images produced cannot be envisaged and the probability that they are reproduced is zero. The generated images are sometimes printed as "archival pigment print" but they may also be subject to further processing.
ARTOMATIC is the name of an installation where ArtGen is implemented on a small computer and mounted on the back of a monitor. In an endless process, images are created by ArtGen that are displayed for a few seconds, after which the image disappears and a new created image is displayed, and so on.