The Lifeshape of Edward Krasiński

The work by Norman Leto is a visualization of the life story of Edward Krasiński, one of the most prominent representatives of the Polish avant-garde of the 1960’s and 1970’s. It belongs to a series of computer generated portraits of both famous figures, as well as anonymous persons. The objects are created by means of computer software developed by the artist for creating 3D graphics, by processing the data received directly from the people being portrayed or – as in the case of deceased persons – obtained from historical sources. The information is collated based on a survey with questions about such things as addictions, siblings, number of publications about the given person, or number of hits when browsing the Internet in search of the given person’s name.

The obtained data is further transformed into a virtual sculpture – an abstract portrait which is a combination of the psychological and social profiles of the given individual. The image, which is the result of precise data analysis, is on the one hand an unclear product of a software application and, on the other, a unique image based on a combination of single pieces of information. Leto thus creates a new biographic quality, which is alternative to literary narratives and which functions in an autonomous reality. The specific character of this work of art is not revealed until it is compared to other such lifeshapes representing the biographies of other people: the more data fed into the computer, the bigger and more complex the structure of the biography. The artist felt that in the case of Edward Krasiński, the lifeshape was relatively uncomplicated due to a limited quantity of input data.

Leto conducted an analysis of the structures of the life stories in his film entitled Sailor (2010). The commentary on the different visualizations, given by a narrator who is a scientist and a programmer, reveals the metaphysical and existential potential of each of the objects. The virtual biographies, illustrating the nature of the social life led by each of the individuals, is also very telling about collective memory and the mechanisms conditioning the functioning of a person in the meanders of history.

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