The mere fact that we are witnessing technological marvels being born from a more acute understanding of our universe and the nature within it reveals a seemingly progressive illumination of the infinite potential of all things whether we can sense it or not. Christopher Warnow of the Chop Chop Collective in collaboration with Onformative: a studio for generative design, challenges the notion that electronic data is invisible with the photographic technique of procedural light painting in “Immaterials – Data Between Visibility and Invisibility.”

The illustration of the procedural lightpainting technique.

Inspired by the rare book “Design Noir: The Secret Life Of Electronic Objects” by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby and “Fictional Radio Spaces” by Ingeborg Marie Des Thomas, “Immaterials” acknowledges the fact mentioned in “Design Noir” that “Hertzian Space is actual and physical, even though our senses detect only a tiny part of the electromagnetic spectrum.”

From maggots being used to identify corpse DNA to growing human body parts in petri dishes, we as human beings are effectively extracting information and creating things from the far reaches of our peripheral perception. By understanding electronic data flows are very much a real physical thing, how can the vast flow of digital information be forever contained in a box i.e. our monitors?

See more of consciousness expanding works in Christopher Warnow’s portfolio and Onformative’s website.