ROGER VILDER
My work is centered around a few physical and emotional feelings such as the growth of a shape or form, the filling of a crack, the expansion and contraction of matter, the change, mutation, metamorphosis of a shape. Coupled to those feelings are some more rational concerns such as the relationship of a unit to the whole, the similarities of motion cycles and evolution in different worlds seemingly without connections.
Most of these feelings and concerns are conveyed by my works: gears revolving all at the same time, with patterns of colour repeated on each gear surface, creating optical illusions and colour changes due to eye fatigue; square linear shapes out of steel coil, expanding and contracting in a given path; gel silicon cubes disintegrating into organic motion when vibrated; neon lines revolving and creating an electric light ballet; lines moving on a surface, constantly changing the proportions of the divided areas. All those works are made of mechanical components. They come alive only when in motion, since motion is the vehicle to express visual phenomena.
When I began to work with computers, my first reflex was to recreate on the cathode-ray tube most of the visual phenomena I had created by mechanical means. Soon I realized the amazing potential of the computer and began to expand my ideas into more graphically oriented work. As a result, I produced some short animation films.
I found myself very much at ease with a computer, mainly because I was already used to working within a defined system, with the constraints of mechanics. Yet there is a great difference between computer art and other media. The exchange, while the process of creation is happening, seems more alive because of its instantaneity. It is almost like having a conversation with someone from which something visual results. This very aspect of the computer, along with its extraordinary speed of execution, is what I appreciate most when working through this medium.
Montreal, Canada
June 1974
FOOTNOTE
This statement was prepared originally to accompany a portfolio of computer art published by GALERIE + EDITIONS GILLES GHEERBRANT, Montreal, Canada.
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