Circulos Blandos y Semillas is a generative art series that begins with a visual exercise: drawings annotated in a notebook. At the core of this series lies a mathematics that comes to life in figures impossible to fully predict.
This project leads me to explore the origin of ideas — how we ruminate on them, why some flourish while others remain unfinished. Always evolving, the series reflects a constant search and transformation within a dialogue between the human and the technological. It confronts us through screens, amid the disposability of the ephemeral, yet also seeks — within that same space — a moment of calm.
My work consists of defining the rules; the machines interpret the procedures I create to materialize what is found. This enables multiple outcomes in a process that includes a robot built from recycled materials, anchoring the drawing to physical reality, and screens that reveal the forms of movement.
I use free and open-source software and hardware in every stage of creation.
Throughout the process, I discovered the pleasure of studying spirals and their mathematical developments, which — as an ancestral element — inspire in me the idea of growth. I incorporate random events, like an invisible wind, that shape the forms to produce infinite variations on the same theme. No two will ever be exactly alike: ideas are like potential seeds. A drawing will never repeat itself — unless we preserve the “seed” that generates it.
Where do ideas come from? Are they truly ours, or do they carry an implanted mold?
Digital Work
Algorithm development in HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS, using free and open-source software and hardware.
The digital pieces can be displayed on HD screens or mobile devices — they are adaptive — and allow images to be saved directly from the software.
It is also possible to generate a digital “seed” that allows the work to be reproduced.
Physical Works
Robotic drawings made with Rotring pens on 15 × 15 cm foam boards, executed by a robot built from recycled materials.
Federico Abrile. Visual artist, engineer, and educator. He works with technology, CNC plotters, augmented reality, and multimedia. He has participated in collective exhibitions such as Periódica, Evolutiva, and El Recorrido de las Artes. In 2023, he presented the first solo exhibition of generative art in San Luis.
He currently lives and works in San Luis, Argentina.
Statement
Mi proceso comienza con disparadores que surgen en situaciones que me atraviesan: lecturas, actividades con amigues o experiencias de la vida cotidiana.
Esas ideas son volcadas en cuadernos de bitácora, donde suelo dejar espacios vacíos para volver a visitar. Intento generar sistemas o procedimientos que me permitan decodificar lo hallado y recrearlo, en un ida y vuelta entre el código y la materialidad de la obra. La tecnología, como producto de la humanidad, puede ayudar a crear nuevos problemas o a resolverlos, y suelo usarla de diferentes maneras dentro de mis procesos. Los resultados pueden manifestarse en varios formatos: visibles en una pantalla o materializados en cocreaciones con máquinas que, a veces, parecen cobrar vida propia. Intento entender el caos del mundo. En la repetición y la variación busco algún orden, una explicación que a veces solo logro intuir, tratando de comprender las distintas capas que conforman la realidad.