Squiggles-scribbles
Javascript | 2020

Installation view, ROZENSTRAAT – a rose is a rose is a rose, Amsterdam, NL
2 microcomputers, 3 video projectors, power cords, video cables. Javascript | 2020

Installation view, ROZENSTRAAT – a rose is a rose is a rose, Amsterdam, NL


In the core of the work is a computer program. Following a simple set of rules, it continuously (in real time) generates random intricate linear drawings that resemble in appearance someone's scribbles. Once in a while the program resets itself and starts the process over. However it never follows the same path every time producing a completely unique linear pattern. 

Scratching and scribbling belongs probably to the most rudimental and most natural method of human visual expression. The freedom and unpredictability of the drawing is deeply rooted in in the physiology of human body itself. The stroke curvature, slope and direction is determined to a large extent, not by the artist's intention, not by a tool of choice, but by the anatomy of the person’s wrist, palm, fingers; it depends on the pose of the drawer and the degrees of freedom of the whole body.

Similarly here the program determines an underlying geometrical skeleton, which controls certain characteristics of the future drawing. However,  it is interesting that just a few tiny deviations in the motion of such a structure, leads to a completely unforeseen result and allows the program to scribble an unlimited number of absolutely unique and complex linear knots and patterns.

Started during the COVID-19 lockdown as just a leisure project, it gradually grew into a small research, or better to say, an observation, the aim of which was to study the dynamics that causing a transformation of something geometrically definite into something chaotically indeterminate.

They write that scribbling and doodling has a positive effect on the person's memory, and that it is in general, a good thing. In case of this project however, the therapeutic effect of the passive stare at the constantly appearing scribbles has not been proven yet.