Montreal multi-disciplinary artist Nick Prud'homme focuses on creating experimental software and artworks which strive to create an immersive and engaging experience. With a strong background in audiovisual production, his formal education in Computer Science and Computation Art enabled him to elevate his craft to create intriguing and memorable art pieces. Frequently working with VR, his recent work M-VR, a music visualizer built with Jitter and OpenGL, was chosen to be presented at the China Canada VR Technology Summit of CCIFF in 2020. Several of Prud'homme's projects, such as ORBS (2019), a VR bookmarking experience, and Voidfilling (2020), a twitter-powered generative artwork, articulate interactions of the everyday, transforming them into a novel experience. Experimenting with generative art and interactivity, his most ambitious collaboration, Equilibria (2019), earned the prize of best artwork for Sustainability and Environmental awareness at Concordia University's Design and Computation Arts year-end show of 2020. Often integrating cutting-edge technologies and programming practices, Prud'homme strives to make projects that redefine the boundaries of how we experience networks, digital media and human/machine interaction.
Biography
Statement
As a multidisciplinary artist, I strive to disrupt common experiences by harnessing the capabilities of new technologies to recontextualize, and change the nature of these experiences. Taking a familiar situation and transposing it into an unfamiliar setting is fundamental to my practice, which gives a new appreciation to these often overlooked mundane interactions.
Through generativity and interaction, I utilize algorithms, randomness, sensors and data feeds to give my pieces an attribute of aliveness. This aspect of my work encourages viewers to independently explore and interact with the piece, leading them to reflect on the nature of human/machine interaction. In Machine to hang with birds (2019), a generative music project, the algorithm producing new iterations of the melodies would surprise the viewers as the musical arrangement could either come off as amusing or contemplative. As such, I always try to create art pieces that are multifaceted, sparking a wide range of emotional reactions as the viewers interact and discover the complex personality of my piece.
For building narratives, I prefer my artworks to open a dialogue and pose open-ended questions, leaving the viewers to make their own conclusions. In Stupéfiant (2020), I address the topic of intoxicating substance through multiple lenses, presenting different emotional responses related to various substances and situations through non-linear narrative arcs. In this work, I do not position myself on the topic but rather present different aesthetic possibilities that I associate with these substances and leave the viewers to reflect on this experience. In my most recent collaboration, Voidfilling (2020), I explore the concepts of networks and social media and how these aspects come into play in our experience of human connections and social fulfillment. Although I express a more discernable statement on my perception of digital communications, I aim to express unity through our general dissatisfaction with the current state of the world, hence suggesting a more nuanced vision on our necessary reliance on online communications. More importantly, I wanted to construct generative visuals expressing tension, momentum, and climax as users passively or actively engage with the piece. Ultimately, my goal is to create art pieces where the aesthetic experience is the principal vehicle of my narrative.
Last Updated: May 2021