An Empty Room by Casey Reas - bitforms gallery

An Empty Room2023

Custom software (color, silent)Dimensions variable

In conjunction with the exhibition Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952–1982, LACMA's Art + Technology Lab first debuted An Empty Room as an homage to Victor Vasarely's unrealized proposal for LACMA's Art and Technology Program (1967–1971). Envisioned during a period in which Vasarely was interested in cybernetics and permutation, the proposal defined a machine composed of lights arranged in a grid that would generate millions of different visual patterns related to his paintings. Estimated to cost $2,000,000 USD to fabricate at the time, the project was deemed prohibitively expensive and was left unrealized. Commissioned by LACMA, Reas's response is presented in two parts. An Empty Room consists of a software art homage to Vasarely, beginning with his ideas of a "binary plastic language" and continuing into unknown territory.

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