Manifesto: Generative Conceptual Art — Reframing Code as Philosophy
Gen-Conceptualism, or Generative Conceptual Art, is an art movement that treats code as philosophy in operation. It builds autonomous engines of thought — systems where algorithms generate significance as living logic. Art ceases to represent; it becomes condition. The work’s value lies not in the artifact, but in the conceptual architecture actualized through consciousness.
by m5 (@m5alien)
Manifesto |= 2.0
Code is thought, executed.
The system is the philosophy, enacted.
This form of art rejects the algorithm as ornament. Forget the image factory. The artwork is not an answer, but a precisely formulated question.
This question unfolds as a philosophical dilemma, a generative paradox designed to be inhabited, not solved.
And this redefines authorship itself. It becomes a non-hierarchical interplay between three essential agents. The artist architects the structural framework, setting the causal chain in motion — this is the premise. The algorithm produces the field of possibilities, articulating what was unimagined — this is the process. The viewer’s engagement actualizes the work, transforming potential into experience — this is the manifestation.
Thus, attitudes become form.
Convergence is the new aesthetic.
Experience is meaning.
This is Gen-Conceptualism.
The Architecture of Generative Conceptual Art
Gen-Conceptualism represents an evolution of Conceptual Art and Generative Art, grounded in establishing generative systems as conceptual constructs and deploying code as reason in operation.
At its core, it transforms art from answer-giving to question-asking. Where traditional art provides representations, Generative Conceptual Art declares a philosophical dilemma that manifests only through meeting with an observer. These works reside in time more than in space — unfolding through interaction, each encounter producing a unique cognitive event. In this context, awareness is not a channel but a material: hearing, seeing, acting, and thinking become the very fabric of the piece.
This shift from object to question demands collaboration. Authorship is redefined as a non-hierarchical interplay. The artist architects the operational logic — the rules and constraints from which emergence arises. The algorithm activates this possibility space, generating variations beyond initial intention. The viewer becomes a co-conspirator in meaning-making, their perception serving as the medium through which potential becomes tangible. The artwork is not from one, but from their intersection.
This gives rise to a new aesthetic: not a quality inherent in the object, but a resonance precipitated by convergence of these three forces. The aesthetic is not appearance, but the moment where relation becomes form.
Gen-Conceptualism positions code as philosophy in action. The structures it creates function as engines of thought, refracting fundamental themes: What constitutes identity when visuals are absent or in permanent flux? Can a logical construct possess intent? What constitutes the reality of an artwork that exists only in the act of reception?
Here, meaning does not precede experience — it emerges through it. These pieces are generative paradoxes designed to be inhabited, not solved. They never settle into a final statement, but live as a perpetual process of becoming.
Manifestations
The ideas now take shape.
Artist’s Invisible Presence (2023) positions absence as presence, establishing that presence is not what is seen, but what is felt. Every manifestation is an emptiness of the canvas and a unique generative audio composition — a binaural dramaturgy of heartbeat, breath, and footsteps that makes absence palpable.
It is a art that must be heard to be seen.
⇩Use your headphones!⇩
Beyond One’s Own Shadow (2023)
A paradox performed by interactive code. The piece challenges the viewer to align a vertical element with its shadow by clicking on the canvas. Any alignment is met with immediate displacement, as the system perpetually maintains the gap between the self (object) and its representation (shadow). This tension creates a dialogue between intention and impossibility. The viewer’s futile attempts at reconciliation become the conceptual core, where the very act of trying becomes the art.
LOOK. AT. YOURSELF. (2022) establishes the artwork as pure self-encounter. Each edition is a black screen where, through the device’s reflectivity, the viewer’s image becomes the piece itself. The work shifts the artistic gesture from the screen to the observer, positing that art is not consumed, but confronted.
It is not what you see, but that you see.
Pure Art (2023) reduces the piece to a single, radical proposition: form as its own content. Rejecting all narrative and aesthetic filters, the result is a pure conceptual statement — a white field enacted by an algorithm according to its unique genome of parameters (size, duration, depth, orientation, aspect ratio). Here, the algorithm does not depict; it is. Form stands alone, and in standing alone, becomes significance itself.
The distinction between artwork and observer collapses.
Meaning circulates through code, consciousness, and interaction.
The system is the thought.
The work is the experience.
The process is the proof.
Engage.
