Charlie Emlen

Find Charlie at:

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https://emlen.com

The universe is a vast array of infinite variation. While much of that variation already exists, most of it does not nor ever will exist. Or rather, most of it exists only as having the potential to exist. As humans, we have the unique ability to knowingly create things that were not here before and in doing so are privy to the notion that there is an immense reservoir of things that have not yet nor ever will be seen.

I’m fascinated by systems and technology, the way things work, evolution, massively large numbers, complex algorithms, the human brain, entropy, eternity, language, sex, disease, animals, economies, and the functional aspects of just about every part of this great, big, wonderful thing we call reality. It’s true, most of my work does tend toward the technological, but that’s just the way I choose to communicate. What and how I think is largely based in science. Call it a weakness. I can’t help but see the physical world as an endless field of size, scale, complexity and granularity. The universe is at once infinitely large and infinitely small. From the farthest reaches of the cosmos to the most diminutively infinitesimal corner of sub-atomic space, a diverse complexity reigns.

influences and interests include but are not limited to...

iconography, entropy, claus oldenburg, srl, robert smithson, infiniti, zen/calculi, martin puryear, david therrien, symbolic logic, richard serra, evolution, and of course, sub-ethereal decay.

Alpha Channel

The term alpha channel refers to the mechanism used to control the opacity of pixels in a graphic image. Each pixel in an image is composed of three color components (r, g, b – red, green, blue). Each of these colors is represented by one byte of computer memory and their combined values (0-255, 0- 255, 0-255) dictate the color of the pixel. Since there are 8 bits in a byte, a colored graphic image is sometimes referred to as a 24 bit image (3 pixels x 8 bits = 24). If you need to control the transparency, or more specifically, the opacity of an image you need to add one more byte to each pixel. This additional byte is referred to as the alpha channel and it can range from 0 (no color or transparent) to 255 (all color or opaque). If you’ve ever heard the term 32 bit graphics, this is what is being referred to. The images on this sculpture use 32 bits per pixel. The visible pixels (the lines, shapes, and colors that you see) have an alpha channel value of 255. All the rest have a value of 0. Setting the background alpha bytes to 0, allows me to cleanly overlay one image on top of another.

sculpture