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Pretty Meaningless Things (2022) is a collection of programmatically-generated objects that exist solely through the interaction between zeroes and ones, the flow of electrons through electrical circuitry, and technologies which allow them to become a part of our physical reality. These objects were sculpted using code alone, and their surfaces reflect only the objects themselves and the virtual environments they inhabit—environments empty of all but subtle atmospheric changes and slowly-shifting hues. Each emits audible frequencies based on the results of data flowing between the virtual and physical worlds. In the process of documenting them, electrical signals extracted from the objects and their environments were allowed to pass through a series of circuits before being converted back into streams of zeroes and ones, and stored for later analysis, retrieval, and display. The things serve no purpose, they hold no meaning—they simply exist, much like you or I exist. This exhibition provides an opportunity to meditate upon their beauty, and to take any thoughts or sensations that may emerge from this practice with you into the world outside upon your departure.

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Mark Cetilia is an interdisciplinary artist whose practices exists at the nexus of sound and image, analog and digital. Exploring the possibilities of generative systems in art, design, and sonic practice, Cetilia’s work is an exercise in carefully controlled chaos. Over the past two decades, he has worked to develop idiomatic performance systems utilizing custom hardware and software, manifesting in a rich tapestry of sound and image. Mark is a member of the electroacoustic ensemble Mem1, described by the Oxford University Press’ Grove Dictionary of American Music as “a complex cybernetic entity, comprised of two human artists plus their instruments” whose “evolving, custom-built systems are as important an aspect of the duo’s achievements as their ever-innovative sound.” He is also a member of the experimental media art group Redux, recipients of a Creative Capital grant in Emerging Fields for Callspace, a monumental sound installation that reverses the paradigm through which cellular telephony removes users from their surroundings by networking site-specific sounds to a central listening environment.

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Cetilia’s work has been screened / installed at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (London), O’ (Milan), the Ben-Ari Museum of Contemporary Art (Bat Yam), Oboro (Montréal), SoundWalk (Long Beach), and R.K. Projects (Providence). He has performed widely at venues including Café OTO (London), the Borealis Festival (Bergen), STEIM (Amsterdam), Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Roulette (NYC), Goethe-Institut (Boston), Issue Project Room (Brooklyn), Menza Pri Koritu (Ljubljana), Uganda (Jerusalem), the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, Sound of Mu (Oslo) and Electronic Church (Berlin).  His sound works have been published by MORE Records, YDLMIER, Lacryphagy, Interval Recordings, Radical Matters, Dragon’s Eye Recordings, Farmacia 901, Iynges, Anarchymoon, Quiet Design, and the Estuary Ltd. imprint, which he runs with his partner Laura Cetilia.

 

He lives and works in Providence, RI, where he teaches classes on sound, visual art, and technology at the Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University.

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