Piece description from the artist
My series Organic Algorithm focused on material research and collaborating with physics to create imaginary cartographic spaces.
This piece was created in fractal layers, each process informing the next in the sequence. I began by dripping paint onto the paper, so the structure of the drawing is determined only by gravity at the outset. Looking at that pattern, I drew out lines with gradually smaller instruments to form the splotches into a map. Finally I shifted my view and pulled from the markmaking I developed in previous map experiments to imagine where settlements might form in this new terrain.
Emily Garfield creates intricate maps of imaginary places that explore the origins of cities and the function of maps themselves. Her work is inspired by the visual language of maps as well as the fractal similarity that cities share with biological processes such as the patterns of cells and neurons.
Taking inspiration from scientific approaches, Emily Garfield bases her art practice on collaborative discovery as much as individual research, highlighted in ongoing monthly science-art meetups as well as workshops: at Genspace in New York, and at the DeCordova Museum and the Peabody Essex Museum while in Boston, among others. She was the 2014 director of the Somerville Open Studios city-wide arts event, and now lives in New York where she helps to produce the Tribeca Art+Culture Night art festival. Emily Garfield received her BA in Visual Arts from Brown University, where she also studied the aesthetic response through cognitive science.
Time-lapse map drawing video: http://vimeo.com/50571510
7-minute presentation from 2017 on making maps from rules: https://youtu.be/x6yIast7AFo
20-minute presentation from 2020 on inspirations and science connection: https://youtu.be/dtpsDWZg3tA
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