Troika’s dice works originate from their interest in the practical and theoretical trying out of reality, evolutionary algorithms and the immanent becoming of things. The artists repeatedly appropriate the logic pertaining to different representational systems and scientific disciplines, making this the guiding principle of smaller objects and works on paper to larger sculptures and installations.
‘Hierophany’ transports an abstract mathematical model, the cellular automata, into concrete reality. Traditionally an abstract, intangible computational model that uses a relatively simple algorithm to produce very complex patterns, a cellular automata is said to help us understand reality and simulate the real world. Troika confronts this system with different aspects of the physical world and real life experiences. Here, the artists become the computer reenacting the simple binary computational rules by hand, line by line, emulating a process in which complexity arises from very simple interactions.
The dice are used to reference our traditional relationship with fate and chance, while the algorithms are an expression of a rapid technological and societal change, that has made them a powerful tool to both simulate and predict our everyday reality.
Beginning with ‘Hierophany’ in 2013, Troika's dice works continued with ‘Calculating the Universe’ in 2014, ‘A New Kind of Fate’ (2016) and, incorporating coloured dice, ‘Life and Death of an Algorithm’ (2016). In 2016, Troika produced ‘Ava’ - their first sculptural manifestation of their interest in emergence and computer systems.
Press:
Creative Applications, Greg J. Smith, ‘Trickle Down Aesthetics’, February 2017