NOT FOR SALE
Custom software (black and white, silent)
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the Whitney Museum Collection and the artist.
Link to the work:https://artport.whitney.org/commissions/software-structures-2016/map.html
Software Structures begins from Sol LeWitt’s instruction-based wall drawings and considers how conceptual art can provide a framework for understanding software as an artistic medium. Casey Reas initially translated three of LeWitt’s sets of instructions into code, using them as the basis for a series of computational variations. From this process, he developed his own “structures”: written formulations describing how elements within a work should behave and relate to one another before any particular software implementation was determined.
The project therefore moves deliberately between image, language and code. An initial visual idea is refined into a verbal system of rules, which is then realised through software. Rather than treating code simply as a tool for producing an image, Software Structures foregrounds the underlying logic of the work and the act of interpretation required to translate instructions into executable form.
Twenty-six works emerged from three principal structures, each emphasising different possibilities within the same conceptual framework, including variation in interpretation, process and technical realisation. The project presents not only the resulting works, but also their source code and accompanying commentary, making the relationship between concept, instruction and execution visible.
Reas developed the project in collaboration with Jared Tarbell, Robert Hodgin and William Ngan. Originally created as Java applets, the works were later rebuilt by Reas in JavaScript in 2016 as browser support for Java declined, allowing the project to remain accessible in contemporary web environments.
Exhibited at EMERGENCE, Kate Vass Galerie, Zürich, Switzerland, 2026.
NOT FOR SALE
Custom software (black and white, silent)
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the Whitney Museum Collection and the artist.
Link to the work:https://artport.whitney.org/commissions/software-structures-2016/map.html
Software Structures begins from Sol LeWitt’s instruction-based wall drawings and considers how conceptual art can provide a framework for understanding software as an artistic medium. Casey Reas initially translated three of LeWitt’s sets of instructions into code, using them as the basis for a series of computational variations. From this process, he developed his own “structures”: written formulations describing how elements within a work should behave and relate to one another before any particular software implementation was determined.
The project therefore moves deliberately between image, language and code. An initial visual idea is refined into a verbal system of rules, which is then realised through software. Rather than treating code simply as a tool for producing an image, Software Structures foregrounds the underlying logic of the work and the act of interpretation required to translate instructions into executable form.
Twenty-six works emerged from three principal structures, each emphasising different possibilities within the same conceptual framework, including variation in interpretation, process and technical realisation. The project presents not only the resulting works, but also their source code and accompanying commentary, making the relationship between concept, instruction and execution visible.
Reas developed the project in collaboration with Jared Tarbell, Robert Hodgin and William Ngan. Originally created as Java applets, the works were later rebuilt by Reas in JavaScript in 2016 as browser support for Java declined, allowing the project to remain accessible in contemporary web environments.
Exhibited at EMERGENCE, Kate Vass Galerie, Zürich, Switzerland, 2026.
