CELEBRATING/NULLIFYING THE INDIVIDUAL
Jason Salavon: Figure 1 (Every Playboy Centerfold, 1988-1997), 1998, cibachrome, 122 x 56 cm, edition of 5; courtesy the artist and Peter Miller Gallery, Chicago
Jason Salavon's algorithms generate or manipulate large amounts of images to create portrais of the improbable.
When does the perception of an individual element dissolve into the perception a larger whole? When does that whole become just another component in an even greater form?
Every particle or organism, anything defined as a discrete element, also serves as a part of a larger entity. The question of identity is revealed to be a matter of perspective: I am at once an individual human, a collection of differentiated cells, an incredible mass of atoms, an incomprehensible gathering of subatomic particles. I am also a part of a family, a community, a class, a race, a gender, a species, a phylum. I am all these things simultaneously and the distinctions are only a matter of point of view.
The relationships between the whole and the part, the individual and the group, are a principal concept in my work. From this starting point each piece veers off on its own internally directed vector. Formally distinct, the works share in common the manipulation of large populations of discrete elements. This entails the dirty work of parsing and reconfiguring extensive datasets in a variety of forms. I accomplish this by designing and authoring custom software processes tailored to the demands of a particular piece.
For Figure 1 (Every Playboy Centerfold, 1988-1997) (1998) I digitized all 120 Playboy centerfolds from 1988 to 1997. These discrete images were then superimposed and color-averaged. The result was printed as a large Cibachrome. Because the models are generally posed in similar but not identical positions, the compositing process yields a single shroud-like and impressionistic feminine figure. As all individual characteristics and overt sexuality are subsumed, abstracted generalization becomes central. The centerfold is removed from its original intent through the weight of its own addition.
From compositing populations the focus moves to subdividing the individual. In Flayed Figure, Male, 3158.75 Square Inches (1998) I digitally photographed the entire surface area of my body. Every hair and pock, every mole and pore were recorded in detail during a number of somewhat arduous photo shoots. This database of digital skin and hair was then divided into well over 12,000 individual one-half inch squares. These squares were rearranged as a two-dimensional image with the distribution gradating from darkest at the top to lightest at the bottom. This division and reconstruction was accomplished by software I wrote specifically for the piece. Finally, my reconfigured pelt was printed to scale as a digital photograph. The result is a contradictory self-portrait in which every intimate detail of my body is revealed and yet the clinical detachment of the generic pervades.
In the suite of HeroTown1 (1998), my interest in generic population spaces aims toward the absurd. Through much effort I designed and implemented a software process that generates a near infinite variety of superhero-type figurines. This is a purely virtual process and the characters exist only in a variety of digital forms. Each digital figure has a unique body, costume, pose, facemask, and hairstyle. The particulars of these characteristics are dictated by an attempt to match the conventions of the genre. That is, the superhero generator should produce only believable superhero action figures. Large populations of the generated figures are arranged in panoramic group scenes and output as Iris prints. Other works in the suite focus on the taxonomy and distribution of the fictional population.
Technically, the difficulty in managing large numbers of items necessitates the invention of new tools to assist in the creation of these systems and structures. That does not imply that the tools do all the work. Quite the opposite, as the designer of the forms and designer of the tools, I am completely responsible for the compositions.
While the trajectory of each of these works encompasses classes of objects (populations) and instances of those classes (individuals), it also intersects other areas such as pop culture and aesthetic appeal. The intent of this synthesis is to simultaneously celebrate individual uniqueness while nullifying the individual. This ambivalent stance accurately reflects my own perception of end-of-millennium complexity.
Jason Salavon's background combines studio art with computer science. He is represented by Peter Miller Gallery, Chicago.
