How does JohnDavid Whalen make a painting with a machine?
JohnDavid Whalen turns a commissioner's feeling into an algorithm, lets a paint-charged machine carry it across the canvas, and makes the final mark by hand. Every new painting also carries five percent of every commission that came before it.
The four stages
01 The commission
You bring something that needs to be said: a turning point, a belief, a grief or a joy. That intention forms ninety-five percent of what the machine will carry.
02 The algorithm
JohnDavid builds your intention into an algorithm and encodes it into the machine. The algorithm also holds five percent of each prior commission, so the memory compounds with every work.
03 The execution
Charged with paint, the machine is set loose across the canvas. It knows only its instruction. What emerges is shaped by every algorithm and every commission before it.
04 The hand
JohnDavid makes the final mark by hand. The machine opens the work and the person closes it.
What the work asks
The practice asks one question: where does the machine end and the mind begin? Each painting is a test of that boundary, made in public view of the process.
Materials
The series A World Without End was painted in water-based paint on the reverse side of the canvas, at 155 by 155 centimetres.