Painting by Numbers: Meet Digital Artist Maotik

How do you turn boring data into stunning art? Prestige asked French digital artist MAOTIK, whose work was showcased in Hong Kong at the recent Digital Art Fair.

Digital art may still be a new concept to most, but for Mathieu Le Sourd, also known as Maotik, it’s been the essence of his artistic career for more than two decades. The French artist, known for creating immersive environments, interactive installations, digital architectural sculptures, and audio-visual performances, returned to Hong Kong last month for the Digital Art Fair, where he showed off his fascinating collaborations of art, science and technology.

Although it isn’t his first visit to Hong Kong, Maotik tells me he’s excited to be back after many years. “Hong Kong has changed a lot over the last few years,” he says. “It’s a special place, of course its history, but also in terms of language, art and culture and team culture and everything. I haven’t been to the city for a long time, so I’m happy to see there’s a lot happening.”

In recent years, his work has been presented at international festivals and institutions around the world, including Mutek, Sonar, Oi Futuro in Rio, Art Basel, Frieze London, FIAC Paris, Signal Festival in Prague and the British Film Institute in London. And now, he’s added Hong Kong’s Digital Art Fair to his long list of accomplishments.

“Having an exhibition like this is still very new to me to be honest,” he tells me. “We as digital artists have always been on the side of contemporary art and it was a bit more challenging to have an exhibition for our art form.

“Until now, it’s been like the black box for digital art and the white box for contemporary art,” he said, adding “Nowadays, the tools are easier to use, and more and more artists are using it, so I think that there’s also more interest from the public in these kinds of digital art fairs.”

And he’s certainly seen his fair share of change over the years. In a world where there are countless newbie digital artists trying to get in on the game, Maotik is one of the OGs who’s not only mastered the art, but also taught it. He studied Digital Media Production at the University of the Arts in London, holds a master’s degree in Digital Arts from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, and was a professor with a focus on interactive design, generative design, and augmented and virtual reality environments at Berlin’s CODE university.

The result? Mesmerising computer-generated algorithms that create reality-shifting environments. But, of course, it’s a lot more complicated than that. Known for his immersive dome performances, Maotik designs his own audio-visual tools, generating real-time visual content from algorithms and creating 3D worlds that transform perceptions of space.

“My art is mainly based on a generative computer system,” he explains. “It’s a system that reacts to different kinds of information. I work in the field of music analysis and live performance, but also from data that I retrieve some from the internet, like the weather cast. It’s almost like some kind of audio-visual sculpture, like shapes from data or information.”

Understandably, as a result of the live data Maotik’s art could be considered pretty unpredictable. “It’s not really the idea of time – it’s more idea of events. Events actually help shape my work,” he tells me. “I’m very much into creating images that never look the same and creating an algorithm that can create, variate, and bring the audience into a state of meditation or something hypnotic.

“In terms of sound, you can just understand the rhythm and how the music works, but data is just numbers, so you have to create something that’s interesting. I like to try to experiment with different combinations. It’s showing you real-time information and surprises you like each time you open the system. This is what I’m interested in using data for.”

It’s this unpredictability, which never looks the same, that gives the artist the usual opportunity to join his own audience. “When I started using generative tools, I was interested to make the world my system, and also be part of the audience where I get to see my work and I can’t control everything,” he says.

He describes one ever-changing work, shown at the Digital Art Fair and titled Flow, as a “visualisation of an ocean. I was interested in the flow of the tides. Every time you go to the ocean it’s a bit different, because of the time of the day, the weather, the winds. The idea was to connect two different cities in the world that are close to the sea – and then to take data from each location every two minutes.”

To achieve these digitally dazzling results, Moatik is in constant collaboration with artists from other disciplines, including music, theatre, dance, architecture and even science, investigating the relation between arts and technology. “I’m a digital artist, but I’m interested in any kind of art, from cinema and photography to fashion and dance,” he says. “I’m always trying to discover new cultures, new gastronomy, new architecture and so on.”

Another recent collaboration is with TAEX, an interdisciplinary platform for artists, curators, and collectors to discuss, create, showcase and sell crypto art. It was TAEX that presented the artist’s work at the Digital Art Fair’s Prestige zone.

“To be honest, this is a whole new world of art and maybe I was a bit reluctant against things like cryptocurrency and NFTs – I didn’t really understand it or the need for it,” Maotik admits.

“But now there are curators who can regulate the market and create exhibitions. Even if it’s NFT projections or just a simple display screen, I think it’s important to have professionals such as these who can regulate,” he says. “I was waiting for the right time, and now is a good time for me to start working with TAEX.”

Now is also a good time to experiment with NFTs, according to Maotik, who’s about to release his first drop. “I initially wasn’t sure about NFTs, so this is my first try – it’s more of a test,” he admits. “I think it’s great that there’s a chance for digital artists to be able to sell their work. Until now,
most of my work has been presented

in exhibitions, galleries and museums that are temporary. So, I never sold my art to them. I’d often do an event space, or music performance, but then I just get paid for an hour performance. So the idea of people owning my work is completely new for me.” Aficionados will soon be able to get their hands on a set of four videos, each consisting of two minutes of Maotik magic. “I became interested in four different phases of matter – gas, liquid, solid, and plasma – and tried to use an algorithm to recreate those movements and textures,” he says of his collection. “I thought it could be a nice, almost like a small exhibition of my work, to just base myself on these four elements, and to release four NFT drops.”

Although NFTs have had a rough time of it lately, Maotik isn’t disillusioned in his first attempt. “I think I have a mixed opinions on NFTs,” he says. “But I just don’t want to be this conservative person that doesn’t want to try new and different experiences in life.”