SOFT EDGES is series of prints, drawings, and videos based on a single mathematical pattern. This project began with drawings that represent Nick Lally’s faithful attempts to draw a precise mathematical pattern by hand based on a simple set of rules, analogous to a computer algorithm. Tiny imperfections reverberated across the page as the length and placement of each line affected all of its neighbors, a testament to the imprecision of the artist’s hand. The imperfections produced interesting perceptual effects; playing with them quickly became the focus of the work. Lally then wrote a computer program which mimics the hand drawn pattern by creating intentional algorithmic imperfections in the drawing of the pattern. He has since been going back and forth between the two: computer imitating hand, hand imitating computer ad infinitum.

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NICK LALLY is an artist and programmer interested in digital media, collaboration, participation, radical political theory, mathematics, education, space, and bicycles. He teaches at the California College of the Arts and The San Francisco Art Institute. He lives and works in Oakland, California.

More information about Nick Lally can be found at nicklally.com.

THE PLAINES PROJECT established in 2006, is a collectively run alternative space which seeks to provide artists, musicians and cultural organizers with a venue to exhibit, perform, and hold events that strengthen social bonds, nurture creative practices, and encourage important cultural and political conversations. It is the goal of the Plaines Project to accommodate Chicago’s creative communities by providing an open, safe, and supportive atmosphere that is constantly redefining itself in relation to those who utilize and occupy the space.
More information about The Plaines Project can be found at plainesproject.wordpress.com.

ACRE (Artists’ Cooperative Residency and Exhibitions) is a volunteer-run non-profit based in Chicago devoted to employing various systems of support foremerging artists and to creating a generative community of cultural producers. ACRE investigates and institutes models designed to help artists develop, present, and discuss their practices by providing forums for idea exchange, interdisciplinary collaboration, and experimental projects. ACRE enacts its mission primarily through an annual summer residency program in rural southwestern Wisconsin. Throughout the rest of the year, ACRE offers opportunities for exhibition to each of its residents.

More information about ACRE can be found at www.acreresidency.org.

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Tags: Nick Lally, Pilsen, The Plains Project