Casey Reas begins his talk by stating
that it has always been an artist’s job to maintain order. Artists
are the ones who have created order and organization and provided
people with an image that allows others to visuals abstract ideas.
Reas then introduces the concept of bringing chaos into oder and how
this has helped him develop his unique pieces. Although the
algorithms he uses to make his images can be considered “artificial”,
the physical drawings are very much organic. Reas then goes into the
concept of “noise” or “jitter” and how this allows his work
to be less uniform and more random. Without the presence of noise the
lines would go in one direction and all become unified. So noise is
really efficient in allowing the lines to not tend to go towards one
another. He shows many examples of how this applies to his art.

My favorite piece that he showed was
the large, wall-sized work he called a tissue(?) drawing. Since it is
in Chicago, I would love to go see it in person. I thought it was
interesting that he also collaborated with his wife and applied this
drawing into a wearable form of art, clothing. I also really liked
the random black and white square program he showed. And when
symmetry was applied it reminded me of how people can find shapes in
ink blot tests, even though it is all random. Overall, Reas showed a
large variety of visually appealing new media art that made me think
further about the relationship between order and chaos.