Meditation

This work is an original drawing which is "one-of-kind". Each line was drawn on a plotter following the instructions given by Roman's program, Hodos. For this special edition, marking the opening of 'Pathways' at Honeywell, Roman prepared a data file to control the parameters. Following a number of experimental runs with program refinements, he made a final setting. The plotter worked around the clock for several days yielding a remarkably rich and varied series of drawings.

The red seal imprint was hand stamped with one of several seals that were made for the artist when he taught in China. The Chinese name, Ke Rong-Meng, was given to the artist by his Chinese teacher. Many of the drawings in this series show a strong structural use of the void in relation to a cluster of drawing activity. This and other features of this series, have an oriental flavour which the artist has consciously used in designing the piece. For the artist this series has been a 'meditation'.

This kind of edition, with each drawing having a unique form, demonstrates how "software art" uses the computer as an information enriched medium. It also clearly demonstrates how "software art" works in a way analogous to "genotype". Roman's software, Hodos, is a code carrying the information necessary to generate a form. While the works realised with this code bear a strong family resemblance, each one has unique, individual qualities. This is why this kind of computer assisted work is called "epigenetic" - its processes are analogous to biological epigenesis. This should not surprise us since biological analogues commonly crop up in relation to software as in the recent spread of software "virus".

(cit.: artist's own statement accompanying the work, Jan 13, 1989, Minneapolis)