ENVER HADZIJAJ & HARM VAN DEN DORPEL
Enver Hadzijaj is an art director and artist who likes to combine two or more disciplines into one activity. He redesigned the identity of Kunstverein München and is responsible for the art direction for the art venue Kindl and galleries like Weiss Berlin. He was the art director of magazines like Numero Homme and Fräulein and acts as a designer for the self-care magazine Torchlight. And watch out for Exlibris 🙂 He had a former life as an illustrator for clients like Die Zeit, NZZ and Dummy. He runs the art space Beach Office with a friend and the items label Lonelydays Qed. He showed his own work at the off-space Fragile. He also teaches, e.g. at Bauhaus Weimar, University of the Arts Bremen, and Zurich University of the Arts. And he has one or two stories to tell.
Harm van den Dorpel’s practice focuses on emergent systems and the role technology plays in their development and meaning. Engaging with diverse materials and forms, including works on paper, sculpture, computer-generated graphics, and software, van den Dorpel’s works are continuously evolving, informed by feedback loops and the design of algorithmic systems. Working within and beyond the lineage of ‘net art’, a core aspect of van den Dorpel’s practice is software development that addresses specific approaches to artificial intelligence. With immense skill and craftsmanship, he builds advanced systems that draw on intuition and subliminal processes of the mind in order to continually output unexpected and curious aesthetic forms that embody a feeling of subconscious computation.
PHANTOM CRUSH
2023
Phantom Crush is a collection of 444 generative portraits based on pastel drawings on paper by artist Enver Hadzijaj, programmed by Harm van den Dorpel.
Phantom Crush is a collaboration between Enver Hadzijaj & Harm van den Dorpel, combining hand drawing and generative technology. They merge classical illustration, blockchain, engineering, and post-humanities to expand possibilities of portrait. Enver’s characters were drawn and digitally decomposed, and with Harm’s algorithm, various details were layered randomly to create unique head shapes, eye shapes, hairstyles, mouths, and accessories. The algorithm ensures that no two are alike, creating rare variances.
