Grey, Vinyl, 2023
Grey-A58, Vinyl, 2023
Grey-A56, Vinyl, 2023
Grey-A57, Vinyl, 2023
Grey-Wed-Dub, Vinyl, 2023
Grey-A54, Vinyl, 2023
Grey-N04, Vinyl, 2023
Grey-B01, Vinyl, 2023
Grey-A46, Vinyl, 2023
This page presents a selection of my artworks from 2018 to today. Every plot is unique and comes with a certificate of authenticity.
Plots from 2018 to 2023 were compiled in "Pathways", a book published by Vetro editions.
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Interested in acquiring a unique plot ? Contact me.
Parisian music label Chapelle XIV commissioned Julien Gachadoat an original sleeve for Satoshi Tomiie (aka Sato) “Blue, Black and Grey” EP.
The original design was created using a custom tool based on his “Subdivision” algorithm and making use of the first track sound waveform to generate the visual patterns.
300 editions were printed using silkscreen printing technique while 8 original and unique sleeves were printed with an axidraw plotter, each one using the sound waveform of each track of the LP.
ExquisDraw is a collaboration between Iskra Velitchkova, Julien Gachadoat, Guillaume Lagarde and Marcelo Soria-Rodriguez.
The drawing was produced using algorithms and plotters between April and October 2021, following the process of «exquisite corpse» invented by the surrealists. The plot traveled between Madrid and Bordeaux, each artist performed a new drawing by only seeing a tiny portion of the previous drawing. It was not until the last drawing that the artists were able to discover their mutual composition.
The Cascade algorithm uses a set of vertically modulated sine waves whose amplitude and frequency vary when navigating from top to bottom of the drawing space.
The interstices between two sine waves are then filled with vertical stripes whose orientation and density depend on some spatial rules, but also random numbers which introduce irregularities and breakage areas, resulting in mountain-like drawings.
The algorithm makes a “walker” wander around the points of the grid. It can move in the eight possible directions with only one constraint: never return to the same place. By repeating this process by changing the starting points when the walker finds himself blocked, a list of visited sites (points) is obtained which then serves as references to construct “a Voronoï diagram”, a mathematical construction allowing space to be partitioned.
The algorithm used for these drawings is known as circle-packing. It allows to place a set of non-intersecting circles inside a closed surface. The process of composition is semi-random, as the position of the circles is manually selected, whereas their diameters are chosen according to spatial but also random rules. The circles are then filled with lines whose spacing and orientation are tied to the position of their parent circle.
The algorithm randomly deforms the points of a grid to give a set of quadrilaterals which can overlap. Each of these cells is filled with patterns (sinusoids, for example) which follow the deformation and possibly generate shape interferences.
Drawing made with Vera Molnar using DiceGL software.
The Fractions series uses fine-tuning of the shape subdivision strategy by playing on the angle of the line serving as the cutting line at each iteration. Slight random variations around this angle help generate these slightly asymmetrical shapes, sometimes appearing in fragile parametric balance.
The cells of a hexagon grid are used as support for drawing different combinations of lines.
The forms that are subdivided with lines are made from the contours of letters drawn from the Futura font.
“Over the years, Julien Gachadoat has perfected working with minimal grids of thin white lines on black paper. With “Mineral” he pushes this exploration further by extending his work with a range of artificial life simulations and distortions. The result is a series of dynamic forms that fit together as a series, but where each image is distinct through different layers of texture and form. “Mineral” uses the structure of a grid as a playground for autonomous agents to wander around according to simple, discrete movement rules. Their local interactions lead to the creation of unpredictable sparse or dense geometric areas filled with lines. The images have many references from spiderwebs to broken glass, but they aren’t based on any specific natural phenomena. The forms emerge through the code that Julien created for building his own worlds.”
— Casey Reas
See exhibition online here.
Artworks that are part of the researches made for Mineral series for +GRAPH exhibition on Feral File.
A circle of variable radius and several rectangles create the foundational structure of the “Orbe” series. Lines stemming from geometric interactions weave through each output, gradually revealing the piece’s unique rules of spatial construction.
Pathways is a concept-artwork by Julien Gachadoat and Vetro Editions. In its complete form, it is the first of its kind: the arts of algorithms coding and book-making coming together in an unparalleled, cutting-edge project.
121 unique covers will compose a grid of 11 x 11 books. When placed together, they will reveal the topography of a fictional map created from imaginary geometric landscapes and abstract parametric urban areas.
The map will contain several neighborhoods that will have unique features depending on their localisation allowing viewers to have a “promenade in the world of Gachadoat’s patterns”.
The physical book copies of the collector’s edition will be a jewel: Vetro will cleverly combine the state-of-the-art possibilities offered by traditional and digital printing, and apply them to the book-binding process. The result will be an edition whose covers, combined, create an installation – to our knowledge, the first time in bookmaking history. This book, with a 20x25cm format, hardcover, stitched, square spine, printed with special deep-black ink, the three external sides covered with black, glossy lacquer, will be a monolithic object – a sculpture in itself. Each of the unique copies will be signed by the artist.
The standard edition will have a softcover representing the whole grid in its complete form. Both the collector’s and standard editions will feature a curated selection of the best plotter artworks of Gachadoat’s career to date, and offer a deep dive in his creative and coding processes, inspiration references, and much more.
The Planets algorithm strictly uses the same algorithm as Cascades, but with one major difference: the amplitude of the sine waves that flow from top to bottom are modulated with a centred circle. The result gives the impression of looking at the surface of an abstract planet from some distance.
Radiance explores the combination of simple line patterns structured at different scale to produce unique connected geometric forms. Resulting shapes can vary from minimal to organic and intricate with an underlying modulation of line spacing radiating from center.
Structures builds unique architectures using a set of geometric bricks resting on a grid of hexagonal cells.
The combination and orientation of these elements can generate both abstract buildings or simple ornamental patterns by playing with the imagination of the viewer.
Each structure is assembled from a limited choice of patterns according to rules of distribution and construction where a part of randomness intervenes.
Structures has 20 possible combinations of 15 geometric patterns with 5 different palettes. Each palette was chosen based on available paper and ink colors for printing with a plotter.
The starting shape here is a set of vertical columns rather than a single rectangle. The cuts are made perpendicular to the sides of the columns, giving this rigid appearance, which can sometimes evoke the cogs of an imaginary mechanical machine or the plan of a city.
Each artwork is the result of partitioning a square into a series of smaller squares and then filling those with a dense group of curved lines. The spacing of these lines, their orientation, and their precise curvature are defined by wave functions that create rhythms within a spatial geometric melody.
The starting point is no longer a single shape but a set of points distributed according to certain random distribution rules. From these points, “a Voronoï diagram” and “a Delaunay triangulation” are calculated, producing a set of triangles made of segments connecting all these points without possible crossing. The subdivision algorithm is applied to these triangles which are then covered by lines spaced according to spatial rules.
Suburbia shows a wide variety of algorithm outputs, as a result of taking time wandering in the meanders of the potential geometric combinations. It must be noted that many of the “subdivision” artworks are the results of small code iterations and modifications, leading to some unexpected and surprising result like “Irregular” drawing.
The Towers series uses a particular configuration of the “Subdivision” algorithm. Not only are the lines covering the geometric shapes distributed in a non-linear manner, but their orientation can simply take two values depending on whether they are present inside a circle or not.
The four drawings were created for the exhibition “Tribute to Herbert W. Franke” organized by expanded.art the 1960s computer art pioneer and science fiction author. They pay homage to his rich and immense creative career.
The “Subdivision” algorithm was used to generate these images and it makes use of a sequence of pseudo-random numbers whose initialization is done using a particular number called the “seed”. For these artworks, the seed was directly generated from the titles of the novels “Das Gedankennetz (1961)” (Haze-01), “Der Orchideenkäfig (1961)” (Haze-02), “Die Glasfalle(1962)” (Haze-03) and “Die Stahlwüste (1962)” (Haze-04).
Julien Gachadoat’s “Umwelt” relies on the combination of a subdivision algorithm and a curved-line-drawing algorithm to produce a set of minimalist compositions. Each image in the series is the result of partitioning a square into a series of smaller areas and then filling those areas with a dense group of curved lines. The spacing of these lines, their orientation, and their precise curvature are defined by harmonic functions that create rhythms within a spatial geometric melody.
The algorithm used in these artworks starts from a rectangular grid whose cells are filled with lines, the density and orientation of which are modulated depending on their position relative to a epicentre, leading to those rhythmic and symmetrical compositions evoking the propagation of an abstract wave onto the drawing surface.
