Finger Codes is the title relating to the body of artwork produced by Eleanor Gates-Stuart as part of her artist residency at the University of California Santa Cruz. Using the fingerprint as a device for human identity, Gates-Stuart merged numerous reference information meshed into multiple grids and layers as a new visual translation of complex systems and network existence.

Human fingerprints are translated into numerical symbols, coded through the artist’s drawings and used as symbolic data. Patterns that merge are also to be lost, woven and undone again, in layers adding complexity in the language of code and information architecture. The artist strives for simple representation, the artworks to appear non-technological and seemingly painterly, a result that belies the underlying infrastructure and composition of this creative endeavour.

Click here to see writing contributions by Norman Locks, Jimin Lee & Richard Wohlfeiler