firelight (from the Colorbots series)
by Owen Plotkin (2003)

Launch Project

firelight uses static color fields in a way that is similar to Ashley’s work, but pushes the block style in order to formalize a representation of firelight. Plotkin has chosen a subject that is ephemeral, changing, and hard to capture in a static image. As a result, his mathematical and systematic geometricization of such an infinitely nuanced phenomena abstracts it beyond any visual likeness. This piece is selected from Plotkin’s series, “Colorbots,” a set of works that further point to the automated and often homogenous look of computer visualizations of natural phenomena.