Cyanotype Plant Sketch

“This fascinating artwork by Alan Butler completes a circle from simulation to physical artifact to simulation. As he describes, the plants we see here were captured from video games. The images were then used to create cyanotypes — an early form of photography that results in blue images — which were then animated into a new landscape to produce the final series of video vignettes. This work derives from Alan’s Virtual Botany Cyanotypes series of artworks (2016–present), an homage to the cyanotype algae studies created by Anna Atkins in the 19th Century.” —Casey REAS

“For years, I have been making photo-chemical cyanotype prints of plants, which I have sourced and extracted from video game worlds. Basically: physical, material images made by exposing digital flora through real sunlight. (There’s a handful of examples on my site.) This video is an experiment to take those cyanotype plants back into the simulated realm, and give them new life as growing, pixely-photochemical-paper entities.” —Alan Butler