Deconstructing Beauty
Authenticity is the purest expression of one’s soul
We are trying desperately to remember a way of relating to one another, searching for beauty, meaning and community while we transit through grief of what’s been “lost”. I believe creating art - in any of its forms - is the purest expression of one’s soul, and the best medicine to heal our grieving soul. Although we live in a moment in time where we are being influenced every single second of the day by a thousand images on social media and television, and imitation has become a form of normalized behaviour, it is so refreshing when you encounter something really unique and cool that isn’t trying to emulate something that looks a certain way.
In a time where everyones seems to be lost, trying to find its way, Espen Kluge finds happiness in being a multidimensional tasker: a visual artist, a composer and a creative coder “looking for the same thing fundamentally, beauty, whatever that means” to him.
It was by accident that while writing a software for a method for visual guidance in music improvisation, he started to play with drawing stuff on the screen generatively and “the ball started rolling from there” creating a series of portraits displaying all range of human conditions in the most surprising way, giving authenticity a new meaning with his generative art.
How was it transitioning from music to art? Did that feel like a leap creatively?
I’m active in both areas, but have projects where I focus on one at the time. The leap is not so big, if you think about it from a creative perspective. Regardless of category, I’m looking for the same thing fundamentally, beauty, whatever that means to me.
They don't have this for humans. —Photo Courtesy: Espen Kluge
When you decided to learn coding did you have in mind that you wanted to make art? Or is it something that happened along the way?
I started coding because I had developed an idea for a method for visual guidance in music improvisation, I wanted to build some software to demonstrate it. Naively I thought becoming good enough to write finished software would take weeks, it actually took years
for me. It was by accident that while writing my software I started playing around with drawing stuff on the screen generatively. The ball started rolling from there.
What was your first approach to art? Do you remember where you were, what was it?
I was a kid, and think at first it manifested in destroying stuff like cassette players and other electronic stuff, and putting it back together in new shapes which had no other function than to play some part in my imagination. I also was involved in music in those primary school days, but I don’t feel that was artistic practice. I didn’t feel I had any real artistic sense in visual art or music creation before in my late teens. But when it started I became obsessed.
Take us through the process of creating these images.
I have a javascript that I have built over some years as a hobby project. I feed it a new portrait that I have sourced online. The script loops through every pixel in the image a couple of times, and stores some pixels based on some conditions defined in the setup of the script (like the value of a pixels color, or the amount of pixels it has counted since another condition was met). Then it draws lines between the pixels that meet those conditions.
I create many variations on one image and generate a .svg of the variation that I like the best. It’s quick to generate a portrait, but it takes time and effort to really nail one down that has something special about it.
Why didn’t you use pictures of your family and friends or yourself?
My algorithm changes the original image so much that It would be hard to capture someone specific. Which is one of the reasons why I love generative art. It’s really cool to not try to create something that looks a certain way.
What is your process philosophy?
Create something that I think is unique and beautiful, if what I create does not have these qualities, it should be hated and deleted.
Makes great choices while angry. —Photo Courtesy: Espen Kluge
What’s the importance of creating an authentic visual identity?
Authenticity and uniqueness is everything, and the ultimate goal of art making. And creating art is letting your true self speak its mind, so being anything but authentic in your art-making practice is censoring your own soul.
How does your environment shape your work?
I have a really cozy music studio where I spend a lot of time when working on music. But my visual art practice is so lightweight in terms of hardware. I could knock out pieces on almost any computer with a browser. But the internet environment shapes my visual work a great deal. When creating something new I’m always dependent on programming language documentation and the likes.
Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung believed that we are all born with a set of shared ideas, a “collective unconscious.” that is filled with archetypes and visual symbols that resonate universally within humans regardless of their individual experience, geography or era. The artistic genius then is one who can pluck these universal symbols from the collective unconscious and manifest them as physical and tangible works of art. A way to access it is to tap into dreams.
What have you been dreaming lately? And do your dreams influence your work?
I have been dreaming lately, but the dreams are too abstract to remember. They do leave me with an emotion or sensation though. But if it influences anything at all during the day I’m not enough of a Shaman to know.
Meditation. —Photo Courtesy: Espen Kluge
What were the fictions that you experienced, read, saw, as a kid that unmoored you, where you were like: “Whatever that artist has going on in their brain, I want that in my brain?”
Roald Dahl I think really got to me as a kid. But the unmooring didn’t come until I started reading Cormac Mcarthy as an adult. After reading Blood Meridian, it took me months to top contemplating the absolute bloody war that my soul went through reading that masterpiece, and how much of a genius Cormac Mcarthy is. It’s not that I ever think “I want that which he/she has”, but when seing or hearing someones genius, I often see that these people are geniuses because they are able to express themselves truly freely, without trend or shortcuts, and that’s so fucking hard to do (or maybe if you are a true genius it isn’t). Another thing that I see from the artists I like the most is that what they are creating, feels like it always has existed, and they simply translate these creations into something that we get to experience.
Your art makes me think of an exhibition I saw a few years ago of Tomas Saraceno, but he played with the idea of the environment instead of the individuality. Who are some of your strongest influences?
Musically I would say Arvo Part has added a great deal of beauty to my life. Visually I have always loved the portrait work of Christian Rex Van Minnen.
During the Romantic period of the arts, we placed the artist’s emotions as the most authentic source of aesthetic experience, and I think now with the pandemic and the crisis this is going to come back again, everyone wants to express their own version of this story. Have you been working on something to let out all frustrations and emotions during these past months?
Interesting thought, I hope you are right! I have been creating art throughout this asshole of a year, two things, a solo album and a new portrait series. Both of these projects are coming out of their volatile stages and into something that can be presented. Early next year I hope.
What does the future hold?
More reasons to be happy about the world, I hope we let ourselves see them.
Upbeat Lazy Jerry. —Photo Courtesy: Espen Kluge