Gysin-Vanetti
mail@gysin-vanetti.com, 2021
The project Gysin-Vanetti conceived for Net Encounters exploits one of the internet’s most well-known services: e-mail. In a time when digital communication continues to accelerate and find additional new forms, e-mail almost seems like an old-school mode of connection. Curious to re-evaluate electronic e-mail as a medium of exchange, the artists created an e-mail address and automatic reply service: an invitation to the audience to interact directly with them through written words.
An e-mail arriving at the address causes the server to automatically generate a geometric artwork in reply to the sender. This artwork is produced by an algorithm that translates characters from the e-mail’s initial subject into new geometric configurations. The result is deterministic: the same input produces the same output. Anyone can obtain one or numerous personalised art works for free.
At the same time, the public is given the opportunity to ask questions or send their comments to the artists in the text body of their e-mail. For the duration of the work, the artists take time every 10 days to respond to questions and comments and reply with their own observations. All participants receive a joint response where their questions and ideas appear anonymously along with the artists’ comments and responses.
Please note: the artist’s responses (work and answers) might land in your spam folder, so please check this if you’re awaiting an answer.
Andreas Gysin & Sidi Vanetti are an artist duo who explore images and patterns using the geometry of multi-use displays, combining different disciplines from fields such as visual communication, architecture and new technologies. In addition to their work as teachers and designers, they build temporary interventions or permanent installations in public spaces and museums. Their projects are characterised by the personal use of recycled hardware, which is not altered as such but used in a manner different to its original application, with the aim of creating new visual permutations. Both born in 1975, Andreas Gysin and Sidi Vanetti have been working together on research projects since 2000, after their joint thesis at the Ticino University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
Year: 2021
Type: E-mail
Artist website: https://www.gysin-vanetti.com
Net Encounters was generously supported by the Swiss cultural foundation Pro Helvetia.