SOURCERY
Concordia University MFA Gallery
Spring 2023
Powerful undead wizards within the lore of Dungeons and Dragons are known as a lich. They are creatures who have overcome the limits of their own mortality through magical and technological means. The process of turning oneself into a lich requires the creation of a powerful artifact known as a phylactery, in which the soon to be Lich stores their distilled essence. This process often takes the majority of their natural life to achieve, as both the knowledge and financial cost to construct such a device is extensive. Upon the creation of this vessel, the lich enters a state of immortal undeath - free to pursue their research and inevitably lose whatever humanity they once had.
What the lore here is describing is a form of archive, even a form of digitization. If we consider magical spells as a set of instructions, then source code serves as a form of technological invocation. Coding languages allude to this magic, from hexspeak to “heavy wizardry”. Sourcery explores codecs, algorithms and rapid prototyping as a means of generating and converting digital images into a series of analog paintings. What effect do artificial aesthetics have on our perception over time? Should these systems remain invisible?
