Kinetic display series ยท 2026
A series of kinetic displays comprising 14x4 digits, housed in a black-dyed Oak frame, each one unique with its own animations and personality. These kinetic sculptures aim to bridge the gap between hard data and natural movement. Transforming from rigid mathematical sequences and counting into soft, wave-like patterns. It is an exploration of how the most basic building blocks of technology can be used to mimic the unpredictable, fluid flow of the natural world.
Series
Edition 1 of 4
"Lines" is an audiovisual sculpture in the Box of Digits series by Owen McAteer. A kinetic display that contains line-like entities that wander their small world. They are born and driven by the background radio static noise of our world, creating their size, speed and direction. Never ending and unpredictable.
Edition 2 of 4
"Waves," the opposite sibling to Lines. Waves is named as such from its core being, that is Sinewaves. All it knows are sinewaves, from the literal wave it produces to its passing of time, which cycles through. Long slow periods to quick bursts of energy, it is never still and never repeats.
Edition 3 of 4
In this piece the artist gives control of the artwork to the universe. A Geiger counter detects the unpredictable background radiation of beta & gamma particles, each detected particle emits a burst of energy across the display. The direction size, speed and direction of each burst comes from the random timing of this background radiation.
The counter in the top-left tracks the number of detections since turned on.
Edition 4 of 4
Form from organic accumulation. Point-by-point cluster growth, slowly crawling across the display like living crystal structures. Emergent lattice in unpredictable directions until the display reaches saturation. The artwork transforms randomness into a rhythmic cycle of creation, expansion, and collapse.
The artist
b. 1986 Ireland
Owen McAteer is an Irish new media artist, based in Madrid. He creates living artworks using code and mathematical systems that manifest as kinetic displays and interactive installations of colour & light.
His art practice explores the human connection with the hidden world around us and our desire to understand it, and in doing so, uncover the beauty within the unpredictable.
His work has been exhibited internationally at galleries, museums & public spaces including; Christie's, Phillips, HOFA, ArtBlocks, Pisa, CCCC.