Krasi Dimtch
Biography
Krasi Dimtch is Canadian-Bulgarian multidisciplinary artist who creates visual, textual, and sound artworks that encode linguistic contents and explore the structures of Language viewed as a repository of ideas. Krasi Dimtch (Krasimira Dimtchevska) was born in Bulgaria and holds a master's degree from the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts in Poland. Her artistic approach combines the non-deterministic subjectivity of her imagination with the deterministic objectivity of a computer program that converts one art form such as text into another such as music and images. The program is based on Dimtch’s patented methods for language generation (CIPO-Patent-2704163).The artist manually creates her unique, highly personal interpretations of concrete verbal thoughts and messages, by using sounds instead of alphabet letters, a mouse instead of paintbrush and generated by a computer patterns instead of acrylic paints and words. In broader sense, her artistic use of a computer code to convert one art form such as text into another such as music or moving images questions the notion of art being presented and experienced in terms of one original medium only. Krasi Dimtch has exhibited her works in galleries in Canada, USA, South Korea, and Europe.
Biography
My artistic practice is focused on the invention and the application of unconventional techniques for representing the symbols of human Language. Analogous and digital, my art explores the dichotomy between “the immaterial” thought and its material manifestations, between meaning and appearance, and between the computer code and its realizations. I became interested in Language during a period of introspection while searching for unusual ways to disrupt the boring predictability of my thoughts and to articulate unusual answers to the fundamental questions of human existence. My linguistic explorations led to the development of patented methods ( CIPO-Patent-2704163 ) and custom software for language generation and representation. The software enables the generation of different English sentences and non-identical visual and sound patterns representing these sentences which I use as building blocks of my creations. My non-schematic approach combines joyful randomness and premeditated irony in the process of my creative correction of reality. In my digital universe, where the virtual bodies and colourful faces of my creations pop in and out of actual existence, cognition and the imaginary are my muses, the mouse is my paintbrush, visual patterns are my acrylic paints and sound patterns are my orchestra.
What first prompted you to think of becoming an artist?
I am certain that the role of art is to challenge and disrupt established ideologies, belief systems, and the illusion of certainty. There has to be art, and people making art and contrarians that constantly question the status quo. However, there were times in my past when I deeply regretted my decision to study art and not mathematics. Back then, while searching for ways to disrupt the boring predictability of my thoughts and to articulate unusual answers to the existential questions of being, I stopped making art and became interested in Language. My attempts to come with original answers to the questions plaguing me were ineffective until I started developing the idea that every possibly sayable thought could be found in a semantic net formed by sequences of synonymous words. My linguistic explorations led to the formulation of methods for language generation and the creation of software that not only can generate sentences but also can transform them into different abstract pictures and sequences of sounds. In 2013 was granted a patent for methods for language generation (CIPO-Patent-2704163). After that, I started to make art again.
What kind of an artist do you ultimately see yourself?
My goal as an artist is the exploration of the symbiotic relationship between thoughts that can be put in words and their materializations articulated in multiple media, between thought’s representations as pieces of art and their interpretations, and between the piece of art and the digital token representing it. Right now, I am interested in NFTs as a whole because in my opinion the Art Museums of the future will emerge from an improved, green-energy based blockchain technology or a similar system of recording information. I firmly believe that the next world is going to be digital. The day will come when the Earth will become completely covered by man-made objects with no place for people in need of fuel and space to live. What do you think will happen then to all Art Museums and their extensive material collections?
What are you hoping to communicate to the viewer through your work?
I personally share the view that no artwork is complete without its viewers' intellectual and emotional input. I also believe that the purpose of art is to bring into the world ideas never before formulated, visions are never before seen, thoughts never before thought. There are so many thoughts that are possibly thinkable but that still no one has ever had, yet we remain trapped in a mental reality of ideas borrowed from the creators of cultural narratives. Having been the unwilling disciple of others people teachings, it is my desire through my works included in my Thesauri Prose & Poetry collections (https://www.krasidimtch.ca/pages/thesauri-wordscapes-documentalloids-and-poetry) to show how to overcome, with the means of language, limitations imposed on the scope and the contents of our thoughts by the means of Language. More specifically, to those trying to see through the mental barriers of pre-learned patterns of thoughts, my works reveal how new ideas can be found in sequences composed of words each of which is a synonym or an antonym to the word preceding it. Take for example the sentence “Art corrects reality”. Can you believe that I found it in the sequence of synonyms: art syn. drawing syn. picture syn. model syn. standard syn. corrects syn. right syn. truth syn. reality?
Can you explain the process of creating your work?
My art is the result of a symbiosis between my imagination and custom software designed especially for the purpose of my creative process. The software is based on patented methods for language generation. It generates different English sentences and transforms them into abstract visual motifs and/or sequences of sounds. My textual art comprises lexical equations such as "after + life = freedom" and thesauri sayings and poems that document the one-of-a-kind transformations of sequences of English synonyms into a phrase, a saying, a verse, or a poem. For example, "Death results in omniety" is a saying found in the sequence of synonyms: death syn. event syn. result syn. (result in + completeness) syn. omniety". My digital sound art consists of MP3 files representing textual artworks as musical abstractions. My working process starts with the creation of an alphabet of musical motifs. Next, the selected textual artwork is digitally converted by the software into a sequence of musical motifs and the resulting audio record is saved. My visual art includes still and moving images. The first step of my creative process is the assembling of a "text". The narrative is usually a stream-of-consciousness-like combination of selected sentences generated by the software, a semantic equation or a thesauri poem. Next, the text is converted by the software into different visual motifs with which I "paint" my artworks. To represent some of the sentences, I also use an alphabet designed by me based on photographs taken by me. My final and subjective rendition of what was initially a set of printed words, I create manually in Photoshop, by using a computer mouse instead of a paintbrush and generated by the software motifs instead of acrylic paints. My digital technique includes elements that are highly subjective and my artworks are created in a way possible for the first time in the 21st century.
What is your favourite part of the creative process?
I delight in every step of the process of my creative correction of reality. Painting on the computer screen with a mouse, using generated by the software motifs instead of acrylic paints always brings me peace of mind and a sense of being a part of the whole universe. Often, trying unusual movements during the process of animating my still images gives me the most satisfaction. Sometimes what brings me the most joy is the digital transformation of written words into music by using a newly created “alphabet” of musical motifs. Other times, it is the search for thesauri poem embedded in a constructed by me sequence of synonyms that I favour the most. I am still amazed by the fact that I found the rhymes “targets titter in their coffins, setbacks pose as aims” in the sequence of synonyms: target syn. chase syn. cry syn. titter in + chase syn. goal syn. focus syn. coffin syn. grave syn. death syn. setback + grave syn. pose as + goal syn. aim.
Can you give us an insight into current projects and inspiration, or what we can look forward to from you in the near future?
Currently, I am working on a series of short animated audio videos composed of spoken words, musical motifs, and moving images each representing a different verse, line, or rhyme of one of my textual art creations includes in my collection of thesauri poems “Death-free universes-points of entries” (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_bPDfsPGF6Aa3JyMzk2ZkFLelE/view)
Website https://www.krasidimtch.ca/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/krassidimtch/
Be without equal, avoid unavoidable expectations, don’t lose hope. composition of 9 digital prints on aluminium each print representing a different word from the title of the artwork, 60”x 60” (152.4 cm. x 152.4 cm.)
Forget the unforgettable, undream your future, live life now composition of 9 digital prints on aluminium each print representing a different word from the title of the artwork, 60”x 60” (152.4 cm. x 152.4 cm)
Imagine a faceless memory, hear its soundless song chasing ghostly shadows on the blood red sky Composition of 16 digital prints on aluminium each print representing a different word from the title of the artwork, 80”x 80” (203 cm. x 203 cm)
Open your eyes, breathe in, exhale, don’t give up Composition of 9 digital prints on aluminium each print representing a different word from the title of the artwork, 60”x 60” (152.4 cm. x 152.4 cm)
See the unseen, nurture unconceivable ideas, embrace your immortality Composition of 9 digital prints on aluminium each print representing a different word from the title of the artwork, 60”x 60” (152.4 cm. x 152.4 cm)
Tell untold stories, imagine unimaginable things, experience the unbelievable. composition of 9 digital prints on aluminium (20” x 20”, 50.8 cm x 50.8 cm) each print representing a different word from the title of the artwork, 60”x 60” (152.4 cm. x 152.4 cm.)
