Kjetil Golid

Introducing one of the artist from our current online exhibition ‘Game of Life – Emergence in Generative Art’: Kjetil Golid.

Kjetil is a generative artist from Norway who has been developing a series of artworks inspired by one-dimensional cellular automata and noise fields. 

His process results in bold works with basket weave-like patterns that resemble graphic pixelated flags or banners. These works recall computing origins in the Jacquard loom, a device that employed punch cards to simplify the intricate weaving process of 18th-century textiles. 

Kjetil Golid
Dual
25 x 35 cm , Unique Print

Kjetil Golid
Dual
Print detail

Golid explains his process: ‘It's based on this traditional variant where pixels can be alive or dead on a 2D grid. I thought, ‘What if you don't change the rules, but instead, you change the visualization?’ Instead of using black and white pixels, I use lines that can go in different directions. While a 'standard' one-dimensional cellular automata gets a pixel value from its three northern neighbors, this one is a hexagonal grid with lines in three directions. The existence of a specific line is dependent on the existence of its three 'preceding' lines. The lines split up the whole area into separate spaces, and I proceed to fill these spaces with colors. The colors are selected using a one-dimensional cellular automata, with the color of each space being based on the left and upper neighboring spaces.  It turned out quite nice. It seems so random, but it is actually based on strict rules. The only seed for this randomness is the number you give it. So whenever you give it the number 120, you get exactly the same output. But it seems so random because it turns so complex so fast. The noise part comes from another piece I made, more of a tool really, that can distort any image. ‘

Kjetil Golid
Invade 3
25 x 35 cm , Unique Print

Kjetil Golid
Invade 3
Print detail

It’s interesting how generative artists developed their skills in both traditional art and programming. Golid started school as a design student before switching direction and earning a Bachelor of Cognitive Science degree. He continued his education, earning a Master of Computer Science degree. He developed a fascination for structures and systems, like Turing machines, regular language, and deduction systems, which were the focus of his thesis. He found himself using programming to help himself understand and visualize these systems. However, it was actually at design school where he first started learning to program using the Processing programming language. 

Kjetil Golid works are available as unique NFTs on the blockchain and as prints online at KVG store.