While continents shift under our feet
Analogue algorithm

WhileContinents1_

While continents shift under our feet #1+2+3 Transfer print, acrylic, quartz on wood, 100 × 100 cm, 2025

WhileContinents3_
WhileContinents3_Dertail2_sRGB
WhileContinents3_Dertail1_sRGB

While continents shift under our feet #2, Transfer print, acrylic, quartz on wood, 100 × 100 cm, 2025

WhileContinents8_9_10_

While continents shift under our feet #8+9+10, Transfer print, acrylic, quartz on wood, 20 × 35 cm, 2025

Continents_Algorithmus_1
Continents_Algorithmus_2
Continents_Algorithmus_4

While continents shift under our feet #1, Algorithmic construction, Transfer print, acrylic, quartz on wood, 100 × 100 cm, 2025

Continents_4

While continents shift under our feet #4+5, Transfer print, acrylic on wood, 50 × 50 cm, 2025

Isochrone

Isochrone #1+2, Ink, quartz on wood, 30 × 30 cm, 2025

WhileContinents2_Detail
WhileContinents2_

While continents shift under our feet #3, Transfer print, acrylic, quartz on wood, 100 × 100 cm, 2025

WhileContinents_6+7

While continents shift under our feet #6+7, Transfer print, acrylic, quartz on wood, 35 × 35 cm, 2025

While continents shift under our feet

The series While continents shift under our feet explores the process of rule-based work—both mechanical and human. The starting point is an analog algorithm: a sequence of precise instructions that define, line by line, the blueprint of an image. A computer executes these rules independently, determining the arrangement, rhythm, and structure of the images based on chance. The artistic intervention lies at the beginning in the formulation of the rules and at the end in the manual execution, but not in the actual design itself. In this way, the machine appears less as a tool and more as a partner, producing countless variations within predetermined structures—and raising questions about authorship and machine “creativity.”

The motifs—stone structures shifted and overlaid within grids—refer to the slow but relentless movement of tectonic plates. Until the 18th and 19th centuries, scientific thought was dominated by the idea that the Earth was the result of a singular act of creation. The series takes up this notion and translates it into dynamic visual compositions, transferred by hand onto wood using photo transfer and coated with layers of ground quartz. While the machine ensures cool precision in the composition, the manual execution introduces subtle irregularities, giving the works an organic quality and breaking the strict machine aesthetic.

Stefan Macheiner
Studio: Lederergasse 67, 4020 Linz, Austria
hello@stefan-macheiner.com
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