Research- Michael Najjar

 Michael Najjar is an artist, photographer, adventurer and 'future astronaut' working out of Germany. Najjar was born in 1966 and has worked out of Berlin since 1988. Najjar's works show a distinct interest in the economic world around him through the study and visualization of figures/charts. Najjar typically manipulates his own photography, typically photographs of mountains, in order to make the contours of the mountains match the contours of a chart. Notably Najjar has focused on the stock market and its rises/crashes.

Najjar's work is of particular interest to me due to his usage of data and figures. Generative/algorithmic art is founded in numbers, figures and statistics and Najjar showcases one of an infinite amount of ways you can interpret and ultimately showcase/visualize these otherwise meaningless, difficult
to understand numbers.

"The series visualizes the development of the leading global stock market indices over the past 20-30 years. The virtual data mountains of the stock market charts are resublimated in the craggy materiality of the Argentinean mountainscape."  -Michael Najjar

I am interested in taking my own project down the route of data visualization, perhaps even creating an algorithm that can interpret the sound of music, voices or nature and turn that into a completely unique work of art. To turn these statistics into a natural, beautiful scene helps the viewer feel a certain familiarity and relatability to the scene as it is something non-abstract; something everybody has seen before.

I feel inspired since looking at the works of Najjar, it is easy to feel limited when working with such detailed and confusing methods of art making. Sometimes the process can feel unintuitive and unrewarding, so finding inspiration in artists such as Najjar has been paramount in this project as it shows me the sheer scope of possibilities in the utilization of data, statistics and coding.

Najjar, M. (2010). High Altitude. Available: https://www.michaelnajjar.com/artworks/high-altitude#1. Last accessed 3rd December 2020.