Raster

Janek Simon combines in his works elements of post-colonial theory, computer science, and anarchism, with do-it-yourself practices. Meta Folklore is a series of figures printed in 3D technology based on a neural network created by the artist. The continually expanding database—a set of photographs of the most varied figurative ethnic sculptures from various eras and cultures—is processed based on principles of machine learning and generates new patterns mutated in various ways.

Synthetic Folklore

Simon fed geometric textiles motifs from all over the world into a computer and “trained” the neural network on this database. The algorithm “learned” to produce new patterns and ornaments, no longer crafted by man but by an artificial intelligence.

Polyethnic

A series of sculptures merging ethnic motifs from India, Africa, South America, Europe, and Poland.

A, A, M, ?, K and A

A series of poems coded within abstract artistic compositions was written by Simon as a response to emotions spurred by the collapse of subsequent intimate relationships.

Man with the Head of Dog

A series of 3D-printed sculptures of the dog-headed people.

Untitled

A relief based on the ornamental tapestries, stitches together a personal narrative of the artist’s emotional and artistic life.

Reversed Theft 1

The artist bought one can of Coca-Cola by going with it from one shop to another and paying for the very same coke over and over again.

Sculpture from the Museum of Man in Paris Made Based on Oskar Hansen’s and Lech Kunka’s Drawings

A series of sculptures alluding to the so-called primitive forms in art, created by the artist using a do-it-yourself 3D printer.

Homemade Electronic Watch

An electronic watch constructed according to instructions found by artists on the Internet. An experiment in learning and the availability of information.

A Survey of Lottery Systems

Untitled

Bzik tropikalny

A mechanical and multimedia spectacle about Polish coloniality. The artist reflects on this topic through the lens of Witkacy’s work of the same title.

Cracow’s bread

The bread loaves with insect legs. Janek Simon wonders about the limits of homemade robotics — produced at home, as well as related to home works.

Time-space compression of the Atlantic region

Two objects, which are a visualization of trade relations and their development in the Atlantic region, as well as the times needed to cross the ocean.

Polish Year in Madagascar

Janek Simon organized an unofficial Polish cultural season in the Antananarivo. Made a reflection on the role of cultural diplomacy in the contemporary world and never-realized Polish colonial plans in Madagascar.