Looking Outwards – 05: 3D Art

One two dimensional digital representation that I greatly admire is Stepan Ryabchenko’s “Power Pump,” (2011) a piece of artwork from the Computer Virus Series. I am intriguied by the thoughtfulness put into the work both in its actual physicality as well as its intention and general concept. Essentially Ryabchenko compiled data on major catastrophic viruses that have occurred since the inception of the computer, and gave them an identity be revisualizing them as actual, biological viruses. In the words of art critic Natalia Matsenko, this work renders the virtual nature of the virus which effectively overcomes the “limit between the figurative and the abstract.” It appears as the artist utilized generative modelling as well as parametric modelling in his design, with the shape of the image ebbing and flowing in deliberate ripples. I particularly like this specific piece out of his series because “Power Pump”, while still looking foreboding, further takes on an aesthetic quality that is reflective of the artist’s crossroads of sensibilities as a visual artist, architect, and programmer. The realistic rendering and materiality adds another level of dimension that seems to appear even more than just 3-D in a 2-D representation.