Emily's Scribbles

2005

Archival ink‑jet print on canvas
30"×40'"

Description

Inspired by watching his granddaughter scribble with crayons, Charles Csuri’s Emily’s Scribbles transforms a moment of childhood spontaneity into a rigorously structured generative system. Rather than reproducing a child’s marks, Csuri—working in collaboration with Steve May—translated simple shapes into mathematical forms arranged within a defined virtual space, allowing for endless variations generated from the same underlying elements.

The work exemplifies Csuri’s late-career explorations of generative form. While the composition appears intuitive and playful, every aspect of the image is governed by parameters set in advance. Color, in particular, is determined algorithmically. Csuri defined the color space, material qualities of the forms, and the behavior of light as objects move in relation to one another.

Because the results could only be seen once the program was run, surprise remained central to the process. The final image appears as a three-dimensional composition rendered on a two-dimensional surface, with shifting lines and colors creating an illusion of depth.

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