PENAL STROKES

DARIO SRBIC, 2018 - 2020

2020 @ HEW: performance, permanent wall painting

Penal Strokes is performative drawing project, where the simple drawing gesture is developed (e.g. pressing a brush dipped in ink against the paper) and then repeated until the paper is filled. Each drawing is performed under different constraints (e.g. with the eyes closed), and while the same gesture is used, the resulting drawings are radically different from each other. The idea leans on instruction-based art works by Sol LeWitt, where he devised a set of instructions to be executed for his series Wall Drawings.In each iteration of the work, although using the same instructions, the work exhibited considerable differences through different interpretations of the rules and varying degree of the ability of the performer. Another important aspect of those drawing is the fact that they, although produced by the human, resemble strongly an algorithmic procedure, belonging to the realm of machines, rather then a traditional creative/reflective method. Here the emphasis is on traditional, since every art making, including the one done by algorithms embodies creativity and reflectivity, albeit under the new paradigm. 

Dario Srbic, born in the former Yugoslavia, lives in Berlin and London. Dario holds an MA in Photography from Central Saint Martins and is currently studying for a practice-led PhD at Royal College of Art supervised by Professor Johnny Golding. His work is situated across the fields of artificial intelligence, philosophy, performance, and digital sculpture. His practice examines the embodiment of desire and ethics into artificial intelligence and expresses it in algorithmically generated sculptures and performances. Dario’s work has been exhibited in Science Museum - London 2019, Angewandte Innovation Lab - Vienna 2019, Austrian Cultural Forum - Berlin 2019, The Victoria & Albert Museum's Digital Futures - London 2018, Assembly Point and Asylum - London 2018, MAK Museum - Vienna 2017, and Seen Fifteen Gallery - London 2016 amongst others. Dario’s work has been published in numerous publications, his MA thesis published in Journal of Philosophy of Photography, and his video work is held in Ursula Blickle Videoarchive.
www.dariosrbic.com