14537/9431
Permanent public commission in Bristol, Broadmead.
(2017)

The two patterns are derived from a custom-built computer programme, using changing, arbitrary data points to generate unlimited unique patterns; two of these computer-generated patterns have been applied onto the fins that line the building’s staircase façade. The work was produced with a programmer to develop the software in response to several aspects of Bristol’s industrial and intellectual history.

Paul Dirac (1902-1984) was a theoretical physicist who was born, raised and educated at the University of Bristol, and who went on to win a Nobel Prize. Dirac established a general theory of quantum mechanics, and is considered the founder of the field of quantum electrodynamics, a field that resulted in the later development of almost every form of our current electronic devices. Bristol, much later in the 1980s, became host to technology companies such as IBM, Toshiba and HP, as part of the so-called ‘Silicon Gorge’.

The pattern-generating software reflects the early stages of data modeling, in the method of necessary, but random, parameters are set in order to enable the comprehension and visualization of data. The results are intricate, unpredictable images, that are also mirrors of our time. ‘14537/9431’ forms part of a body of Fowler’s work that reflects on technology and the contemporary landscape as having become inherently combined. It refers to the changing terms of our sense of space created by digital culture, where landscape is embedded with, and shaped by technology, and virtual tools create a parallel mental and physical interpretation of our world.

Art Consultant and Project Development: Ginkgo Projects
Architect: AWW
Client: Watkin Jones
Photography by Jamie Woodley