Tide Predictor

First built in the 19th century, tide-predicting machines were mechanical, analog computers that measured ocean oscillations. Higher frequency fluctuations, or “waves,” referred to both water and electrical signals. LoVid’s Tide Predictor extends this analogy between the flow of water and flow of electricity, while positing the translation of analog video synthesizers to digital programming languages. Tide Predictor is LoVid’s first code-driven generative artwork. Although the work is a departure from a majority of their catalog, which centers experimentation with actual analog video, a fascination with mixing electronic signals and rhythms of the natural world remains, using a series of unique JavaScript outputs to simulate randomness.  

Celebrating MoMI’s recent acquisition of Tide Predictor #173 into the permanent collection, it is presented here alongside three additional outputs. Digital computers are incapable of true randomness; in Tide Predictor, randomness is simulated—a hallmark of code-based generative art—to generate 400 outputs. Displayed together, they illustrate how the same source code can give rise to heterogeneous results, emphasizing the appearance of unpredictability.

 

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About the artists:

LoVid is a NY-based interdisciplinary artist duo working collaboratively since 2001. Throughout their interdisciplinary projects over two decades, LoVid has maintained their signature visual and sonic aesthetic of color, pattern, and texture density, with disruption and noise. LoVid’s work captures an intermixed world layered with virtual and tangible, materials and simulations, connection and isolation. LoVid’s process includes homemade analog synthesizers, hand-cranked code, and tangible materials; their videos, textile works, performances, net art, and installations have been exhibited worldwide for over two decades.

LoVid’s work has been presented internationally at venues including Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Standard Vision X Vellum LA, Wave Hill, Art Dubai, Anthology Film Archives, ISSUE Project Room, The Science Gallery Dublin, The Jewish Museum, The Kitchen, New Museum, ICA London, and more.

LoVid’s projects have received grants and awards from organizations including: The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Graham Foundation, UC Santa Barbara, Signal Culture, Cue Art Foundation, Eyebeam, Harvestworks, Wave Farm, Rhizome, Franklin Furnace, Turbulence.org, New York Foundation for the Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Center, Experimental TV Center, NY State Council of the Arts, and Greenwall Foundation.