Georg Mühleck’s ‘Cultivated Algorithms’ reflects on the rapid changes brought about by science and digitalization, focusing in particular on the tension between biology and mathematics, nature and technology, evolution and potential destruction. At its heart is an artistic exploration of algorithms and artificially generated, biologically synthetic forms that serve as metaphors for scientific processes. At the same time, the artist expresses skepticism about current AI in art and creativity. Works such as ‘Cellular Cultures (T)’ connect Georg Mühleck’s earlier works on the brain and memory. The starting point is algorithmically controlled cell formations that develop over many generations and eventually solidify into strange-looking artificial structures. These forms do not imitate real nature but suggest unknown beings.
Georg Mühleck has been working with cellular automata since 1992, using them as a conceptual model for biological and mental processes. At the same time, he reflects on subjective phenomena such as memory and perception as something that is influenced by physical and chemical factors, symbolically illustrated by the example of tea. The artist collects, sorts, and arranges tea leaves like symbols or neurons in a network. Inspired by findings in brain research, he understands his artwork as a map of a thought process that aims to make mental activity and imagination visible. In terms of content, he also deals with the question of how life or movement can be brought into an essentially static, two-dimensional image of cellular automata. Compared to historical artistic illusions such as Renaissance perspective or the perceptual illusions of Op Art, illusory movement does not arise in the image itself, but rather through the way our eyes and brain process visual information. For some of his works, the artist uses forms from microscopic cell cultures that appear to move when viewed, but in fact it is the eyes of the viewer that are moving.
A cellular automaton is a computer model consisting of a regular grid of identical cells. Each cell has a specific state and changes this state according to defined rules depending on its neighboring cells. Although the rules are simple, their interaction can give rise to complex structures and processes. The concept was developed in the late 1950s by mathematicians Stanislaw Ulam and John von Neumann. Von Neumann was particularly interested in creating a system that could reproduce itself, i.e., mimic the basic properties of life. Today, cellular automata are used in many sciences, e.g., biology, physics, computer science, and astrophysics.
Further information can be found at Georg Mühleck.
Press release for the book presentation.
Authorenship: Georg Mühleck, Monique Brunet-Weinmann, Sylvia Niebrügge, Boris Nieslony, Barbara Rauch, Dolores Steinmann, Bernhard Stumpfhaus