Eric Rannestad

Eric Rannestad is a Montana-based artist making work about the systems and technology that humans use to compartmentalize, measure, and model the natural world. The current work references atmosphere, biodomes, market systems, mapping, modeling, and other precarious systems of control.

What brought you here? Where are you going after?

I was motivated to join this course because I am starting a new direction in my art practice. I am making watercolor paintings about models: natural resource models, economic models, etc... their inputs, biases, and consequences. Conceptually and materially this direction was still very malleable. Cellular Automata seemed like a really interesting lens on modeling natural phenomena and I was interested in how they might serve as a jumping off point for new paintings.

After this SFPC course I am hoping to start more paintings that integrate CAs in some way.

Something you would want to have happened differently? How would you want it to have happened?

I wish outline would have worked! I was really excited about that space as a collaboration space / presentation space / workspace.

I guess I was excited to have a space of our own. Google drive worked fine but I think it would have been nice to have everyone’s notes and work in one place.

Something you would want to do again or more? What made you feel like that?

I really thought the lectures were well done. I’m not sure I would want too much more lecture time, but perhaps having a more formal space for other participants to share a presentation of some research around CAs?

What was your worst and best memory of each week?

\nWeek 1\nGood: Lecture – I didn’t know much about CAs and it was really generative to see non-western or historical examples of them. Particularly in textiles.\nBad: Outline crash

Week 2\nGood: \nBad:

Week 3\nGood: \nBad:

Week 4\nGood: I loved the microscope group activity! So beautiful\nBad: Personal realization that I hadn’t put quite as much time into a “final project” as I initially intended to.

Week 5\nGood: Feeling accomplished for working hard on homework, and seeing all the other amazing work people were doing! I actually liked the group share format, at least for the final project.\nBad:

Would you share a moment that you felt lost and one that you felt creative?

I felt a little lost when I started researching CAs on my own early in the course. I felt overwhelmed with the “game-of-life”ification of CAs. Even knowing that there is a lot more to CAs then that, it was easy to get trapped in that rabbit hole.

I felt creative when I started reading “Turtles Termites and Traffic Jams”. I really liked how this book described the beauty of self organizing systems. I also felt the most creative when I was working on CAs outside of the computer.

Do you feel you have made a new connection? With people, subject, practice, idea, etc... Have you deconstructed one?

Yes! Deconstructed Wolfram’s POV on cellular automata and opened up the beauty of decentralized systems outside of this perspective and limited historical tradition.

I think with more time I would have formed more substantive connection with the other folks in the class, but felt like I had good interactions.

Did you see any peer work or works that caught your attention?

I really loved Wiley’s rooms

Amazing textile work

I also liked some of the SPLATYcode “ecosystems”

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