HANS DEHLINGER ON FIBO

Hans Dehlinger: I first learned how to code in the early 1960s, when I was enrolled as a student of Architecture at the Technische Hochschule in Stuttgart, Germany.

Before entering the TH, I worked as a certified craftsman (cabinetmaker). Due to a historical change in the educational system it became possible for me to enter the Technische Hochschule in Stuttgart by attending and passing a 3-year preparatory system. I was grateful to be given this opportunity.

Computers were already around, but a Computer Center did not yet exist. An ALGOL programming class for engineering students was offered by the Institute of Numerical Mathematics, and I enrolled in it for a semester.

This was my first experience with a computer-programming language. I applied it to a small design project by programming a combinatorial system of design parameters. Today I would call this a "morphology". It caused a huge discussion among my professors and became a lifelong unforgotten, important beginning of sorts for me. But that's a different story of its own.

At the time, me and my fellow architecture students (we were a class of 80) were immersed in this academic setting without being aware of how unique it was. In the early 1960s, the Technische Hochschule in Stuttgart was a hotspot – worldwide – for Computer Art and in other aspects as well. From today’s perspective, this is a historical fact, but we lived in it without quite realizing it.

HD: It has surprised me the most over the last couple of years that art, in addition to all the manifold formats in which we encounter it, could now also exist as an entirely digital entity.

HD: It has been interesting, surprising, and exciting to see completely new formats for generative art emerge through blockchain technology. Of course, the emergence of new art forms has happened throughout art history.

Designing an art piece for the blockchain and releasing it is undoubtedly a significant step for an artist. Given my age, I am very happy to be able to participate and create in this very contemporary art format. New ideas are already coming to mind, which may lead to further explorations in this direction.

Many programming languages I learned in the past are no longer in use. Therefore, I have learned new ones since my days with ALGOL, and it has become somewhat normal. Learning a new programming language is (and has always been) an effort, but it is also a pleasure to delve into this type of work to expand one’s toolkit. While I may be getting slower now, there is no age limit to learning a new programming language.

HD: FIBO are the first four letters of the name of the Italian mathematician FIBONACCI (born around 1170). The well-known Fibonacci sequence (0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, etc.) is a sequence of numbers where the next number is the sum of the previous two numbers. As frequently found in mathematics, a distinct law is responsible for the "order" in such a sequence. According to Kirchhoff, Order over Complexity, mathematically O/C (if it can be calculated) could provide an "aesthetic measure."

A simple formula to calculate beauty is not known, to my knowledge. But, as a working hypothesis, we can follow this concept by assuming that some kind of order, if present, may contribute to beauty in an aesthetic object. Mathematics is full of structures with "order of some kind," and if we succeed in transforming this order somehow artistically into an object, we may succeed in creating an "aesthetic event" in the sense of Max Bense. 

FIBO is an experiment in this direction. Significant parameters the program uses for creating images, such as the underlying grid and the number of lines in each "aesthetic event," follow the Fibonacci sequence.

HD: I have worked with the Fibonacci sequence for many years and on very different topics. A quick search showed works back to 2010, but older projects may be in my files.

HD: Compared to these earlier works, FIBO is exclusively digital and also includes motion for the first time. When viewing it, one can see how the program explores the endless possibilities of generating "aesthetic events" based on the underlying mathematical rules and with the help of another basic mathematical concept: randomness.

HD: The color scheme of each individual event within FIBO is a combination of a background color, which is, with the exception of black, which occurs more often, randomly selected from the full RGB color spectrum, and a color spectrum for the layers.

There are a number of different basic colors that serve as spectrum for the layers. If, let’s say, the spectrum is determined to be grayscale, then the shading of each layer will be determined randomly within that scale.

It took some experimentation to arrive at the current colors. For example, I initially included an increased likelihood for white backgrounds as well, but those events often had an "unfinished" look to them, as if a canvas had not been fully painted. So I took them out, but they can still appear (with a very small probability) as part of the RGB spectrum.

HD: The exhibition in Shanghai was a real highlight. As you know, we—me as artist and you as curator—were originally approached by MUD Gallery for a show of historic plotter drawings. A few weeks before the opening, we were offered the opportunity to use a total of 13 screens that are installed in the gallery in addition, some of them several meters high.

It was great that we could show new, exclusively electronic works on these screens in addition to the historical works in the show. I felt it definitely created a more complete overall impression.

When I think of this show, I am filled with gratitude in so many aspects—going back to when I was a student even. I’m lucky to have had teachers at the university who inspired me and suggested to me what and how to learn. I was in China multiple times to give lectures and workshops after I became a teacher myself, and some of my colleagues, friends, and students from those times came to the opening in Shanghai—some from far away.

The artworks were presented with extraordinary care at the gallery, which is located in a huge, light-filled space in a gallery quarter. I was also really lucky that I could travel at all, since I had fallen off a ladder and landed myself in the hospital only a few weeks earlier.

And last but not least, thank you, Anika—the show wouldn’t have been possible without you!

HD: It feels good, but it can also be distracting and doesn't help with focus.

HD: My plan is to stay healthy and fit to be able to continue my work and further explore the universe of generative art.