Did you know Google has an artistic flair?

If cajoled in the right way it can come up with a very different, modern interpretation that brings to mind the work of Piet Mondrian, but is driven purely by the search engines algorithms and not a wild creative streak.

This was the recent discovery of Barato, art director and environmental artist based in Portugal.

From using Google’s latest image search, he found that the popular search engine’s algorithms can generate harmonious and well-structured patterns.

Changing search terms also influenced the colour schemes it used by searching for terms loaded with specific colour relationships like “snow”, “fire”, “Real Madrid”, “Mondrian”, “fog”, “forest” and “Blue Klein”.

Rectangles appear in a Mondrian flavour – the dominant colour of each image is displayed momentarily, before showing all the pixels of the image thumbnail.

The process of loading images become a fun improvisation game in the art of painting digitally.

The project is influenced by the work of some of the De Stijl masters like Rothko and Mondrian, but in reality these “paintings” are created with a simple print screen in the precise moment when the artist feels Google has produced the perfect composition and color balance.

After using various social media networks to exhibit this digital work, Barato decided to turn these works into “street art” by showing the compositions in mupis and billboards, transforming the usual advertising platforms into minimal art displays in the streets and in art galleries.

Some of the artwork could be seen on streets of Amsterdam, London subway, Porto billboards, and on some other small villages around Portugal in different print sizes. 

I’m a big fan of De Stijl art, somewhat predictably it was Mondrian’s work that turned me onto the movement. So when this project dropped into my mailbox I knew I’d be blogging about it. I’d really love to see these move from conceptual images to the real thing. But then, I’m a sucker for minimalism.

What do you think? Would you like to see this project in person in advertising space near you?

As always, let us know in the comments or on the usual social media channels!

Steven
UKB