Artists have been working with code since the 1960s, and within that time frame, code has evolved from languages written by engineers to run on room-sized computers to artist-created coding languages running inside a web browser. In 2021, artists are writing code in many languages and environments; each programming language is like a different material to work with. Social Codes is an exhibition of software art, also called generative art. The work comprises code written by artists to create visual experiences. Some works in the exhibition relate to the visual histories of drawing, painting, animation, and video, but all of it is native digital art, in that each artwork is a performance of code choreographed by the artist. Casey Reas

Feral File  Social Codes

Saskia Freeke has created new coded visuals every day since January 2015, posting these &ldquo;dailies&rdquo; online as a kind of public sketchbook. Her &ldquo;enchanting luxuriance&rdquo; software brings some of the ideas explored through this daily practice together into a refined world of abstracted interfaces. As the viewer watches, containers of geometric grids float slowly upward, each one obstructing others from view. As the individual elements vie for our attention, each grid conforms to its container while pulsing with vibrant color gradations.

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LIA was a pioneer in creating internet art in the 1990s, and since then, she has continued to experiment and explore into the present. Her latest work, &ldquo;dada data,&rdquo; is aligned with her early works in its focus on minimal, generative animation. With a red dot as a focal point, a network of lines undulate and coil left and right in a way that nods to Marcel Duchamp&rsquo;s hypnotic &ldquo;Rotoreliefs.&rdquo; Although the linear forms that comprise &ldquo;dada data&quot; are minimal, the motion is complex and entirely engrossing.

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Raven Kwok&rsquo;s work is always inventive and meticulous, and &ldquo;IDE94,&rdquo; his piece in Social Codes, is no different. &ldquo;IDE94&rdquo; is a generative visual artwork based on a two&#45;dimensional tree map structure. Its random yet organic visual texture and motion pattern are created by controlling nodes on every recursion level of the tree structure, and by assigning a position for each node, Kwok dynamically changes the density and pattern of the consecutive line segments within the finite space. &ldquo;IDE94&rdquo; is a semi&#45;automatic artwork; it constantly changes its own geometry, but at any moment the viewer can pull and stretch it apart, only to watch it return to its starting point, step by step.