Early November 2022, I asked my friend David Fritz Goeppinger, photographer and writer, to ask me some questions about my work. The goal was to help me find the right words to express my artistic approach and production.
This took the shape of an interview; and thanks to him I’ve been able to question myself and find more about my relationship with art.
Introduce yourself?
My name is Florian Zumbrunn. I was born in 1987 in Montmorency, a suburb of Paris.
When did you first encounter code? How did it happen?
If we forget about small notions of code through video games like Ultima Online, or 2-3 websites that I used to do in Dreamweaver for fun when I was 13~ years old... Quite late!
Early on, I wanted to become an illustrator. My goal was to attend art school. However, I was a fairly diligent and talented student and the institution automatically directed me towards a scientific field. Once in this curriculum, my grades quickly dropped. I particularly struggled with scientific subjects and especially mathematics. As it was the first time I was struggling at school, it was a bit of a tough time.
With my diploma in hand, the only solution left for me to join an artistic field was to join MANAA (Adjustment to Applied Art), but unfortunately for me, I quickly felt that my mindset was not what was expected for entrance exams. I guess that the scientific path made me “too square”. I failed the entrance exams for both of the schools I was targeting.
By default, I then joined a University Institute of Technology for a training program called "Multimedia and Internet Professions" (MMI), offering a wide range of courses, ranging from project management to graphics, code, and cinema.
But despite the multitude of courses, I only wanted one thing: to retake the entrance exams of an art school the following year. I spent all my time drawing!
One day, a teacher taught us Flash. It was in this course that I learned that code can be used for other purposes.
This was my first real memory of attraction to this field. I made a friend who was really into it and I always took advantage of asking him for advice and tips to enrich my first productions. Later, I attended the "Flash Festival" at the George Pompidou Center. Erik Natzke, formerly a motion designer, was one of the guests of the event. He explained that he had started coding to have more flexibility in his creations. His speech inspired me a lot. Once I got home, I started coding a square. Then I animated it... and I never stopped. I abandoned my idea of joining an art school and instead oriented myself towards "Creative Coding", and later joined Gobelins, which has a specialty in this field.
For you, what is code?
Very pragmatic answer, but: A creative tool, a means of expression. I would add that one of the strengths of code is the field of possibilities it offers: we can create an infinity of visuals from the same algorithm.
Over time, how has your relationship with the image evolved?
This is a good question.
Until I was 15 or 16, I didn't really have much of an artistic culture. At that time, anything that was not "well painted/drawn" didn't interest me. I think it was mainly the influence of my parents' "tastes" that spoke to me. For example, I quickly found that the technique behind a painting by Velasquez or a painting by Leonardo da Vinci was particularly impressive. Seeing their masterpieces, we instantly see the depth of the work and commitment of the artists, it is rather towards this type of works that my eye went. The counter-example would be Mondrian, who seemed too simple and “easy to do”.
(And we all know someone who says “Meh, I could do it too…”).
Around 17yo, I followed the teaching of Achot Achot, who guided me on the history of art and painting and introduced me to the work of artists such as Kandinsky. He encouraged me to go to museums, see exhibitions and generally open myself up to art. Every morning for 3 months, I went to his studio. I painted, drew and spent time with him while he worked, created and thought. At that age, if you are motivated and involved in your projects, you become a real sponge: every gesture, every word spoken marks us deeply. In retrospect, I realize that I went from the young man who wanted to do “beautiful drawings” to that of a young artist who was beginning to understand how to instill emotions in each of his strokes. I emerged from it grown up, but above all with my eyes wide open to the world.
Since then, I would say that I am in perpetual evolution on the subject.
My tastes and sensitivity seem to be refined day by day. Today, my first desire is to transmit emotions in my works, to inculcate “a soul” in my paintings. I think that by writing these words I realize that I would like to make people vibrate through my art; in the same way as the day when I started wanting to draw with my emotions rather than with my eyes.
When you code, do you do it with an idea in mind or is it completely improvised?
I am more on the improvisation side but I sometimes have a specific idea in mind, although it’s quite rare.
I always start with an entry point, but not necessarily a clear concept or idea of where I'm going. I like to be surprised by the little discoveries that appear during my exploration. I would even say that it is at the heart of my creative process today.
For example, a few years ago I had the desire to explore the idea of the kaleidoscope. At that time, I did a lot of VJ (Visual Jockey: the equivalent of the DJ, but for visuals that react to sound, live, during a concert or in clubs), and it is an effect that I used a lot to create simple variation in the projected visuals. I wanted to use this concept in a different context and not apply it to images or textures. For this, I created a particle engine that would move according to the principle of kaleidoscopes. In fact, I had no expectation on the visuals that would be created. But I was still surprised to find a multitude of sharp and strong geometric shapes but also blurry because of the fine particles. This encounter pleased me, I then added new elements by reinforcing the "drawing/painting" that could appear and I worked on the colors.
The result was Psykato.
Without going into name dropping, is there a bias that you prefer? Examples: photography, painting (watercolor, etc.) and why?
Do you mean outside of code?
I have a very nostalgic relationship with oil painting. If my memory is good, I must have started painting around 16-17 years old. I loved the texture, the brush stroke on the canvas, the smell of paint and its mixes with turpentine (turpentine essence) or white spirit. I practiced a lot for 3-4 years, and then stopped abruptly for almost 10 years. Last year I picked it up again and was seized by passion for this practice. Coming back to it after so much time made me take a new perspective: more abstraction, spontaneity, letting go... While in the past I was under the angle of the figurative.
In parallel, I would say watercolor. It brings me a soothing side. There is this magical moment where color is placed on paper. I also find it very interesting that it requires a lot of precision and that it forces the artist, by its nature to dry quickly, to act quickly.
To go further: by observing your works, we would like to understand why borrow the bias of the code to express your creative thrust and not a brush or a digital illustration?
Working with code necessarily involves creating an algorithm. With this, I can control many parameters of the visuals it will generate. But I can also decide to add randomness to it, everything is conditioned by what I have in mind at the moment. I will therefore have a very wide range of visuals appearing in front of me, and leave room for surprise, the unknown ... Which will inspire me and lead me to take paths I had not imagined. This opens the door to iteration, and through this, to an unlimited number of paintings.
For me, this is the strength of code and the field of generative art.
However, I do not deny painting and I would like in the near future to have more relation between painting and code. Maybe by painting some visuals that I generate, giving them a new dimension, or by mixing media: printing and painting ... The use of robots in addition to painting ... My list of ideas on the subject is quite long, I just need to find the time to get started!
To finish on the subject code / painting, I like to give an analog aspect to my generative art paintings. I imagine that this is due to my past practice of "traditional art". I had this goal a few years ago when I made installations, and I am reinforcing it more and more in my practice for several months: I would like the spectators to wonder, when they see my works: “is it really made with code? Because it looks like pencil, pastel, or paint?”
We often speak of “creative thrust”, and I, who have spent a lot of time observing and writing about your works, wonder about their origins. Where do they come from?
Generally, I know what kind of artwork I'm going to enjoy creating and the atmosphere I want to depict. However, as I mentioned earlier, I often start without a specific concept in mind because I've found that if I wait for "inspiration to come", it can take a long time (laughs).
So, when I start coding, I create inspiration (or force inspiration?). For example, the starting point for my exploration for “Foundations” or “Tout tracé” was “what if I drew circles on one layer and superimposed them on another layer containing circles, allowing the previous layer to show through a bit?". I didn't really have an idea of what this would look like or where I would go from there, but I knew that by starting, I would be inspired and not stop. I get excited refreshing my screen to discover a new visual, and I want to keep going and going.
Finally, I'm sometime feeling nostalgic, thinking about the feelings or landscapes/atmospheres of some of my travels. I want to give them life through paintings... To be continued on this topic. I feel like this could be a new creative driving force for me.
In the same category, what is your relationship to color?
Variable. But I am strongly attracted to "bright", "acid" colors, surely making my palettes sometimes "bold." I am also aware that they may not appeal to everyone. But I like that 2, 3 or 4 colors create a tumult in a composition. It also forces me to push myself to my limits… How can I ensure that certain palettes will still work? It is, somehow, a source of creativity.
However, some days I will appreciate more sober and relaxing palettes. While answering this question, I was going to say that it may be an indecision on my part regarding my colors. But thinking about it, I think it's just a mood swing. Sometimes I need rest, sometimes I need surprise and strength in the works I will see (and create).
For me, every artistic path has an origin, an intrinsic root in the sense that we (as artists) give it. In the case of “Tout tracé”, is there a message unknown to the public that you would like to reveal?
Not really… Before being “Tout tracé”, the series was called “Identities”. It came to me because these layers of colors and shapes superposed on each other, with an accumulation of more or less dramatic deformations, reminded me of our evolution as a human being. The person we were when we were 10 years old is a far from the person we were at 20, 30…
Our personality evolves over time through encounters and life events. A calm and smooth journey can be turned upside down by a dramatic situation. A complicated childhood can turn into a bright future… So many different scenarios can happen, forging unique beings.
Without being unknown to the public, this is the meaning that I have chosen to give to this series.
I wonder, has your recent fatherhood changed your relationship to the world and above all, your relationship to the "mark" that you leave in it?
Yes most definitely!
One of the first titles I gave to this series was “Interferences”. Another was “Evolution”. And I think for a long time I was working on this series by making a parallel on my impact as a father/a parent on my son.
But also to the impact that each person he meets in his life will have.
And I think that my moments in life have been transcribed in this series.
It is rare, but it does happen, that I “deposite” or “drop” something when I photograph. As if I yielded to others what I wanted to keep for myself until then. Always in this reflection around identity and the sedimentary aspect of existence, do you feel the desire to leave a legacy, to show, to offer a vision of existence to your audience?
Probably yes. And I like the words you choose: "deposit", "drop". It's a little bit like that, let's say that when I would say that this project is finished, it will be the moment when it will be taken over by other people, the spectators, to become, maybe, something else.
I hope my vision resonates with the viewers of my series/artworks, but if it has to be interpreted or reinterpreted, I am comfortable with the idea.
It's a pretty basic question, after all, but if I asked you to describe the perfect work, what would it be?
Basic ? Not so basic haha, in any case not so simple!
I will say: accessible, touching, and probably timeless. The timeless part is surely the one that interests me the most right now. I see many digital projects that look wonderful when they come out, but age very badly a few years later.
This field is evolving so quickly, its aesthetics too. There is, I think, a real topic around the aging of a work. So much so that I think that if in 10, 20 years, a series of generative art still speaks conceptually and aesthetically, then the artistic bet is successful.
I imagine that you are used to sharing your works with the public but what is your position on this?
It's not easy! Especially in the age of social networks: a work of several months can be judged in 3 seconds.
I am divided on the subject. I think that if we don't share our work it will never be seen. That said, sharing is also communicating and interacting, and sometimes (often?), it’s tiring.
But that's the game, visibility is important. On the other hand, I think that you have to succeed in detaching yourself from certain outside opinions so as not to get lost and allow yourself to continue to infuse your personality into your works.
In today's world, everything is digital and it tends to become even more so with the arrival of works generated by artificial intelligence and other intelligent tools to generate artistic content. Are you aware of being one of the progressive artists of the 21st century?
This year has been totally crazy in terms of technical and digital innovation. AI tools are the perfect example I find, but also everything related to Web3 (the decentralized web, using blockchain technologies) and the uses associated with digital art!
I have been gravitating around digital and generative art for 10 years. I find it all inspiring and I consider myself lucky to be part of this movement. The range of possibilities is enormous. I have sometimes been skeptical or stayed away for several reasons when seeing the appearance of new tools or technologies.
Today, I want to take advantage of what is available to us: it's time to invent, innovate, and play with all these new technologies. I think there has never been a better time for each of us to create and express ourselves.
