C.E.B. Reas ( ° 1972 ), lives and works in Los Angeles, California

his ongoing Process series explores the dialectical relationship between naturally evolved systems and those that are engineered and synthetic. The imagery evokes transformation, and visualizes systems in motion and at rest.

The Protean Image plays with the mutable nature of software. As an artist creating images with code, Reas makes hundreds of aesthetic decisions while translating his ideas into precise commands for a computer to execute. The Protean Image opens his process to visitors; C.E.B. Reas wants to collaborate with them in making new software. He hopes this work will go beyond his personal choices and it will open new ideas to the audience and to himself.

Visitors change the software by filling out programming cards. These cards are inserted into The Protean Image Machine. The Machine reads the cards and makes alterations to the software as it's projected onto the wall. The emphasis of this action is on the relationship between the visitors choices and the resulting changes to the software.

For the past five years, Reas principle interest in software has been in exploring the phenomena of emergence. Emergence refers to the generation of structures that are not directly defined or controlled. Instead of overtly determining the entire structure, Reas writes simple programs that define interactions between elements. Structure emerges from the discreet movements of each element as it modifies itself in relation to its environment. The structures generated through these processes cannot be anticipated and develop through continual iterations involving alterations to the programs and exploring changes through interacting with the software. The works Tissue (2002) and MicroImage (2003) are among the results of this exploration.