On 9 May, Friday, at 8:00 p.m., the Foto-Medium-Art Gallery in Krakow will host an exhibition entitled I am code. The exposition by Codemanipulator is made up of various objects: coded paintings, interactive installations, multimedia visualizations and photographs, the concepts of which were created over the past two decades. They can be described as an interdisciplinary production covering the fields of art, architecture, urban planning, and the Internet. What is of the essence here is the artist’s scientific approach to the issues of digitalization and codes (binary and semantic), and the study of the influence of the virtual world with regard to creativity and sociological aspects.
The exhibition is a reflection on the development of art in the context of new technologies and presentation of the artist’s contribution to the Desktop Revolution, which occurred in the late 1980s. The observance of this movement and recognition of its potential for the future contributed to his formulation of radical concepts, even before there was potential for their implementation. When such concepts appeared he immediately implemented them. He was the first to use technologies which emanated from the development of the World Wide Web, such as HTML, as a medium for artistic expression.

The artist uses existing or specifically programmed code, which he intentionally manipulates or intentionally but accidentally manipulates. In this way he creates new meanings, contexts, and interpretations. The works have a text form, i.e. the code, and a visual variable.

The concepts are implemented in cyberspace, in the course of an unprecedented CodeManipulation process; in the real and virtual world they may take the form of CodePainting, CodePoetry, CodeMovies, CodeSculpture, CodeArchitecture, …CodeEverything. An important element of Codemanipulator’s work is the multitude of analysis of the same code, done using different program-interpreters, such as web browsers, 3D programs, import and export mechanisms, and data transformation.

Interdisciplinary and intermedia studies, supported by the knowledge of semantics, are conducted to reveal the perceptive and interpretative boundaries of man, and interpretations made by a machine, as well as their paradoxical multiplicity. The volume of work often goes beyond the “aesthetics of the new media.” Codemanipulator’s works refer to the icons of the history of art (HTML-Malevich, 1996), contain sociological reflection (Me-Myself-And-I, 1996, The Decalogue, 2007), and sometimes aspire to ludic interaction between the viewer and an object (Codemanipulator’s Toybox, 2007; Take a Cookie, 2007).

CODEMANIPULATOR® (born in 1971) lives and works in 01001011 01110010 01100001 01101011 01101111 01110111 01101001 01100101 (4b 72 61 6b 6f 77 69 65). In 1997 he graduated from the Department of Architecture. He is the winner of the Award of the City of Krakow in the Field of Science and Technology, and the Award of the Society of Polish Town Planners (Warsaw, 1998) for the project 010111010 City in the City (in cooperation with Beata Wielgos). His works have been exhibited at the following exhibitions: Utopia and Vision, Museum of Polish Sculpture, Orońsko 1999, Zachęta National Gallery of Art 2000, 010111010 – the Reality of Virtuality, brot.undspiele Galerie, Berlin 2006, Allusions or: Histo/Reconstruction, TAGallery, Cyberspace 2007; You Own Me Now Until You Forget About Me, Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana 2008.

The exhibition will be open to public until 20th June 2008.

Please visit our website at
http://foto-medium-art.com/press/codemanipulator-i-am-code/download/