angelic algorithms

a journey towards villedieu
digital paintings series angelic algorithms, 2016 – 2020

the series of the angelic algorithms reflect on the conceptual origins of the variety of dimensions the human being might grab onto. what happens if the human brain leaves its 3d-shaped thinking behind and sinks into higher dimensions? do we come from 3d? how could the places and spaces, that connect the dimensions, look like?

alexandre de villa dei

villedieu is a town in the normandy region, france, in which the scholar alexandre de villa dei was born in the 15th century. he was, amongst a few others, one of the first ones to mark the latinized version – algoritmi – of the persian scientist‘s name al-khwarizmi (8th century) who had drafted many studies about algebra and the hindu-arabic numeral systems.

In his book carmen de algorismo alexandre de villa dei explained how to calculate with the new hindu-arabic numeral system. In order for the information to be easily learnt by heart, he composed the writings as a poem.

villedieu

after having fevered around about the history of algorithms, i traveled to the village villedieu. after spending some time there, i had to find out that no one seemed to know anything about this scholar anymore.

digital <-> analogue

the series originates as a digital creation. the more digital paintings occurred with the years, the more inspiring they have become to go back to the analogue paintbrush. i have been painting oils ever since with more passion than ever before.