Positive Parity

Stylized and pixelated leaf forms dance in fields of blue, yellow, and green in Joan Truckenbrod’s Positive Parity. The title refers to Truckenbrod’s representational system in which she translates her observations of the natural world into a mathematical system that produces a digitized image. For this work, Truckenbrod digitized and then rematerialized her experience of watching falling leaves. The artist notes that she was “inspired by the undulation of light and shadow” which she then represented through an algorithm. Her digital image, inkjet printed on a cotton fabric captures and rematerializes a fleeting ecological moment. A professor emeritus of the School of the Art Institute, Truckenbrod taught in the Department of Art and Technology Studies for over twenty-five years. Truckenbrod’s early experimentation and engagement with digital media places Positive Parity in conversation with other contemporary works in the Art Institute’s collection, including Sonia Sheridan’s photographic images that examine the implication of information age technology for the arts and Lia Cook’s Facing Touch, which represents the human neurological response to visually tactile experiences.