Flux
Fusing a fascination and appreciation of the past with a forward thinking and contemporary art practice, Mammadov chooses the symbology of carpet patterns, and recreates them anew with his mathematical knowledge and coding abilities. For this piece, with the assistance of the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum, Mammadov identified seven major carpet weaving schools in the country, which are distinguished by patterns, composition, color palette and techniques: Quba School, Baku or Absheron School, Shirvan School, Ganja School, Gazakh School, Karabakh School, Tabriz School. From each school of weaving, Mammadov selected 11 designs from the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum archive (77 in total) and hand processed them using graphic editing software. During the editing process, Mammadov identified seven unique rarity properties and compositions based on traditional carpet designing guidelines.
Using those 77 seed images as a base, Radugadesign studio applied their signature algorithm to formulate generative carpet forms. Radugadesign studio is a multidisciplinary team of designers, artists and programmers who skillfully use their combined skills to present highly evocative experiences. They specialise in collaboration, understanding that the power of creativity and computer intelligence combined with light and scale can have long lasting effects on the human psyche. Their immersive installations explore the deepest level of perception.
Under the effect of Radugadesign's signature interactive web based generative art system that uses WebGL algorithm, the 111 Flux Carpets artworks appear fluid and melting. Conceptually, the algorithm plays a role to symbolise the subjectivity of perception. It combines a series of inputs for which the output is different every time. Just like vision and hearing are seemingly fixed but can be interpreted as vastly different depending on individual perspective, so the algorithm receives an external signal, transforms it with the help of a code and produces a visual image or artwork that is open up for further interpretation.
Mammadov, is a pioneering new media artist who works closely on combining the cultural legacy of the past with modern technological means. With a forward thinking and contemporary art practice, Mammadov chooses the symbology of carpet patterns, and recreates them anew with his mathematical knowledge and complex coding abilities. He straddles the divide between past and future, always eluding the present by staying upon the precipice of both.