Biography

Perez Reiter is a collaboration between two artists, Irmgard Reiter and Diego Perez-Espitia.

We are a creative duo that interrogates the common ground between visual and built space through computation. We re-write natural events and cultural constructs by translating them into algorithmic procedures. In this process, we take the act of drawing to an unconventional realm, exploring the aesthetic qualities of associative arrangements of thousands of lines.

Based between Colombia and Austria, and with a background in architecture, we enjoy the diversity of multidisciplinary and multicultural experimentation. From the movements of the earth below us, all the way to musical landscapes, and the coding of notation systems, our work has a strong sense of spatiality, producing very diverse sensations, from calm subtleties to extreme colourful lavishness.

The magic of classical music

In the series Re-written: Music, fragments from pieces by Beethoven have been analyzed and encoded into an algorithm. By a system of rules, We draw music. Transform the continuity of a parallel arrangement of lines into a complex topography of sensations. Based on the peak frequency and melodic range of the pieces, we create a sonic landscape through a joyful play between music, writing and computation.

The fascination with natural events caught in the moment

In the series Rewritten: Quakes, the locations of tectonic plates’ movements that took place in the Pacific coast of the Americas, have been encoded into an algorithm written by Perez Reiter.

We draw thousands of lines that depict how the weave of every day is torn apart by violent bursts of energy. Massive forces played out along those 8 tectonic plates become subtleties on canvas, their interactions transformed into thin lines on a white background as sequential change interrupts the steady, homogenous weave of the everyday. The continuous fabric of time and space is transformed by progressive intensities, coupled with violent disturbances. At some moments, it stretches, rips, compresses and folds into itself.

Some of the qualities of seismographs remain in these drawings, bringing a dose of rigour and a scientific feel to it. At the same time, strong unpredictability is achieved: meticulous, precise, sharp charts are filtered by a stochastic approach, allowing the depiction of encoded data to acquire a new dimension.