www.photogram.org and the creator of Imachination

Just recently I was researching info on the early investigators of the photogram when I came across this web site: www.photogram.org It covers the entire spectrum of this esoteric medium and presents the work of hundreds of artists. A real gem and a fun world to explore. One of the intellectual surprises is the "Declaration of Independence of the medial home of the photogram". Let me quote here only the very end, it's certainly best to read the manifesto in its entirety:

Finally the photogram reveals as a medium that offers a plural variety of perspectives. It contrasts the artificiality, the perspectivity and the limitation of human perception. In the pure sense of Kant the photogram appears as a critical medium.

Then yesterday, in the context of finding info about Frieder Nake's dissertation which he published under the title "Ästhetik als Informationsverarbeitung" in 1975 I come across a young German light/video/tech artist, Tim Otto Roth, and I see that not only is he is the editor of the photogram site but an award winning artist himself.


KASCADE - a cosmic particle shower live at the Internet Art Façade at the Haus der Kommunikation of Serviceplan in Munich, December 2004.
76 light elements fashionable via internet, by Tim Otto Roth

I spent a fair amount of time looking at his work, in particular at the site of his recent project imachination. What an inventive and multi-faceted name seemlessly combining image and imagination and machines into a single, novel term. The project itself is multi-dimensional as well, it reaches far across the universe and it digs deep into the social and technical realms of the history and science of imaging media. Well worth a visit and worth to keep an eye on what T.O.R. will do next. Another big surprise happened right away between reviewing the site yesterday and seeing added new material today:

The Imachination project dedicates to the interaction of the human imagination with machines. Above all it explores the pictorial results of this process. The interaction of man and machine must not only result in images, but also can create new physical structures like synthetic elements.

In continuation of this initial thought Tim Otto Roth is weaving a smart sci-fi thriller leading to the machinations in the current war in Iraq. Don't miss this piece of "brainstorm web".