Imagine cutting a cube out of an onion. The three-dimensional inner structure of the onion leaves a two-dimensional imprint on the surface of the cube. In the Interference Cube, a prototypical spatial unit realised for the Swiss Art Awards, the artists similarly outlined a virtual, spatial force field on the inner walls of a ceramic cube.
Using a computer, the architects placed this cube into a virtual algorithmic force field that rippled outwards in space. The surfaces loaded with spatial information radically altered the interior space of the seven-tonne cube. The wall surfaces became receptors that - like computer tomography - displayed something that is normally invisible. A dialogue was created between the continuous, procedural space of the force field and the Cartesian geometry of the cube.
This work explores new strategies for making patterns from algorithms. Superceding conventional pictorial paradigms based on two-dimensional textures, this work marked Gramazio Kohler’s first sensual encounter with the phenomena they now describe as “digital materiality”.