MG+MSUM

EXHIBITION | Dominik Mahnič: Brushograph 2.0
14 February – 2 April 2023
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Dominik Mahnič: Brushograph 2.0
New Media Lab, Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova +MSUM

Opening: 14 February 2023, 7 p.m.
Exhibition duration: 14. 2. – 2. 4. 2023

 

Archive of part of the webcast that was live during the exhibition

 

Brushograph 2.0 in working

Spanning a wide variety of fields in terms of both subject and media (urban interventions, painting, mechatronics, video, and interactive installations), Dominik Mahnič’s work is based on the premise that the constant technical development of tools is a predominant characteristic of new media. In his development of tools, Mahnič uses open-source software and hardware solutions – both conventional and unconventional digital tools, as he calls machine learning-based software. 

Mahnič’s brushograph, a machine for the materialization of immaterial visual images originally conceived in 2016, is an example of the continuous development and changing of a digital platform. Over the years, the machine has seen many permutations, and in the following weeks visitors to the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova will be able to catch Mahnič working on Brushograph 2.0, currently being developed in collaboration with the programmer Peter Veselinović. Another brushograph with a working surface of just over four square meters will be realized in the ground-floor project space of the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova.

This latest version of the machine is radically different from the first thanks to the implementation of new hardware and software solutions (such as the use of computer vision and a CMYK+ palette that has been developed especially for Mahnič by Vid Vidmar, that allows a digital picture to be divided into an arbitrary number of arbitrary color nuances), which enables him to collaborate closely and intensely with programmers.

In the New Media Lab, Mahnič will be presenting his research center between 12 noon and 4 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Wednesdays – bringing together the use of digital (software and hardware) solutions for the materialization of immaterial visual images. The exhibition gives us a unique insight into a new media research studio and the unique tools and procedures produced in it. 

Dominik Mahnič (1981) graduated in painting and earned a master’s degree in video. He furthered his education at the Wanganui School of Design in New Zealand. In recent years he has been intensely involved in exploring the automation of painterly processes.

Exhibition curator is Igor Španjol.