NTCAM Screening —
In the Flux of Us: The Art of Algorithms

Out of Nothing

Out of Nothing unfolds like an image that has yet to settle into a fixed state. Colors surge and recede as mathematical functions and layers of noise continuously overlap, weaving a field in constant flux. Meanwhile, a machine’s gaze quietly scans the scene, continuously framing, drifting, and flickering. It briefly settles on what seems to be a recognizable outline, only to let it slip away and move toward the next trace still waiting to take form.

The wing-like symmetries, repeating textures, and rhythms that evoke living forms are enough for the machine to conclude that it has found a butterfly, despite the absence of any actual butterfly as its reference. What it captures is, in fact, only a borrowed resemblance, suspended between emergence and dissolution, momentarily drawn from the unnamed.

Yet this act of looking belongs to no single eye. It moves between the machine, the artwork, and its viewers. The work invites audiences to bring their own imagination into the encounter, where every act of participation has the potential to reshape the way this gaze perceives the world. Out of Nothing thus becomes an inquiry into how forms are seen, named, and collectively shaped. Recognition is no longer the confirmation of a pre-existing answer, but an evolving process through which new understandings gradually emerge.

Perhaps you, too, have caught the curve of a wing within the shifting colors. After all, the impulse to find patterns in noise belongs not only to machines, but also to human nature. Out of Nothing is more than an image rendered through algorithms; it is an ongoing dialogue. In the meeting of different ways of seeing, forms that have yet to be named slowly begin to emerge.

Artist

Chih Yu CHEN

Chih Yu Chen is a Taiwan-based new media and generative artist. She draws on algorithms and shifting variations to evoke the textures of everyday life, while exploring new artistic forms through cross-media experimentation. Her work unfolds across generative art, interactive design, and machine learning.

In her ongoing explorations, she employs code to simulate the shifting boundary between reality and poetic expression, exploring the possibilities that arise from the convergence of computational processes and visual representation. Beyond her work as an artist, she is actively engaged in fostering international exchange and education in generative art, with exhibitions in Taiwan, Japan, and Korea.

CYC/ Chih-Yu Chen 陳芷渝