States of Matter

This Alchemical laboratory creates small tryouts that experiment with the behaviour of matter, looking beyond what is really there to explore material structures and emerging artistic phenomena.

In physics, a [ state of matter ] is one of the distinct forms that matter takes on. Four states of matter are observable in everyday life: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. Contemporary information technology tends to forget about it‘s own physicality. The digital procedure is grounded on the elimination of noise in order to be stable and predictable. But simulations of complex systems like fluids, crystal growth and other became a scientific and artistic practice in the last decades. Artists nowadays seem to appreciate noise and unpredictability for its aesthetics.

„States of Matter“ (2017) is the result of a first semester foundation course of the Digital Media program at the University of the Arts in Bremen. In four experiments four students examine the aesthetic qualities of material processes and their complex interactions with new and old media. They zoom in the fractal patterns of crystals, animate strange fluids through sounds, observe the air currents in soap bubble and use a physical objects to cipher messages.