The title of this exhibition, Release early, release often, delegate everything you can, be open to the point of promiscuity, references a credo of computer programmers in the open source movement. The phrase describes a software development philosophy that encourages frequent release in order to keep a rapid, close feedback loop operating between the system user and developer. Blurring distinctions between the software's users and its creators, this strategy allows for transparency and heightened physical and conceptual accessibility, two concepts the artist values in his approach to artistic practice.

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The title of this exhibition, Release early, release often, delegate everything you can, be open to the point of promiscuity, references a credo of computer programmers in the open source movement. The phrase describes a software development philosophy that encourages frequent release in order to keep a rapid, close feedback loop operating between the system user and developer. Blurring distinctions between the software's users and its creators, this strategy allows for transparency and heightened physical and conceptual accessibility, two concepts the artist values in his approach to artistic practice.
<a href="https://dissociations.com/wiki/summaries/release-early-release-often-2013">More information...</a>

Release Early, Release Often

Harm van den Dorpel

Assemblage (shell)

Assemblage (canvas)

Markov was a Russian mathematician (1856 - 1922) who is best known for his work on chance. He described the so called “Markov Chain”: a simple method to calculate the probability of something new happening, by looking only at the current situation, and ignoring events in the past. This is sometimes characterized as “memorylessness”.

The composition starts off as a single square, filling the whole screen. This square can split into multiple segments, it might change its colour, or it might rotate 45°. Each of these changes in appearance have a particular chance of happening, purely based on their current state.

A square can subdivide into sub-squares, which in turn can split into other segments, and so forth. This could potentially happen infinite times. The property of nested subdivision is called “recursivity”, and is commonly found in software development, architecture and linguistics.

By defining only a few simple probabilistic rules the artist created a system that can achieve a very complex composition. Whereas Mondriaan might have made many studies and versions to reach one single best possible composition, this work instead embraces perpetual change.


Markov was a Russian mathematician (1856 - 1922) who is best known for his work on chance. He described the so called “Markov Chain”: a simple method to calculate the probability of something new happening, by looking only at the current situation, and ignoring events in the past. This is sometimes characterized as “memorylessness”.
The composition starts off as a single square, filling the whole screen. This square can split into multiple segments, it might change its colour, or it might rotate 45°. Each of these changes in appearance have a particular chance of happening, purely based on their current state.
A square can subdivide into sub-squares, which in turn can split into other segments, and so forth. This could potentially happen infinite times. The property of nested subdivision is called “recursivity”, and is commonly found in software development, architecture and linguistics.
By defining only a few simple probabilistic rules the artist created a system that can achieve a very complex composition. Whereas Mondriaan might have made many studies and versions to reach one single best possible composition, this work instead embraces perpetual change.

Markov's Window

Still images, sometimes one-of-one, sometimes in edition

This fullscreen software autosurfs the massive genealogy of the 'Death Imitates Language' project, containing the first 12.000 specimen, bred by a genetic algorithm, and selected by micro-feedback of the artist.

Release Early, Release Often

Assemblage (shell)

Assemblage (canvas)

Hands