The Art:

Claudio Castillo is a multi-dimensional multi-media artist who has combined fine art,

painting, video, photography, animation and computer programming into an art

form that takes on a life of its own. He creates kinetic and ever-evolving visions with thematic

variations where change is inevitable and happens before our very eyes.

Castillo has uniquely combined his many talents into a radically new concept–works of

art exploring time and motion that are romantic, philosophical, light and graceful. His

pieces not only evoke emotion, but also create fleeting ephemeral compositions allowing

the viewer to witness and get lost in the sometimes subtle and sometimes dramatic effects of

the passage of life and of time, with the knowledge that it will never be repeated.

By embedding software in dreamlike, poetic watercolor landscapes, unlike linear video art,

he creates “non-linear regenerative paintings.” The end result is a moving, mesmerizing,

impermanent performance.

The work is viewed on a screen or projected, but can also be printed, recorded or streamed.

 He begins with digitized versions of his watercolors, splits the image into several layers, and

then animates each one in multiple ways. This creates the possibility of countless variations of

the painting as it morphs eternally into new compositions. In essence, he creates an

environmental world that is living and changing perpetually in a random non-linear way–whilst

at the same time the internal computer clock does the opposite, keeping accurate time and predicting 

natural cycles such as the phases of the moon or tides.

His iconography resonates as abstract forms of water, flowers, rain, sun, vines, grass,

roots, sky, rocks and more. These are rendered schematically and change subtly toward

abstraction. The introduction of multiplicity, chance, and natural cycles into a single

image, and its pre-programmed control, opens the work up to a world of puzzling

juxtapositions of impermanence and ceaselessness. These generative pieces also

make use of Internet connectivity to reflect real-time data within the work’s imagery,

creating artwork that responds to incoming stimuli.

Generative art has been around as a concept since the cavemen when they stared at shadows

from their fires. In ancient Greece Heraclitus proclaimed, “you will not walk in the same river

twice”. Other Contemporary artists have dealt with the challenges of time and

movement differently, be it Calder’s kinetic mobile sculptures or Nam June Paik’s electronic

world of linear videos and television sculptures.  Even Duchamp did “Three

Stoppages” when he let gravity alter the shape and movement of three pieces of string

falling, never repeating the same result.

When computers came along John Simon created “Every Icon” where a pixel moves in

a grid creating every possible composition driven by an algorithm. In music, John Cage

created his 639 year-long piece entitled “As slow as possible”. And, Brian Eno

combined audio and video in his generative light boxes displaying moving LEDs that

never repeat.

The evolution of technology in art is exemplified by Castillo’s successful merger of fine

art and perpetual motion. Prints or linear videos from the generative process offer a

recognizable artistic experience, however the “work” itself is never done. In this way, it

challenges the whole concept of art since there is no end to the potential variations. His

work will continue to be created well after his death.