Matt Pyke is one of the most innovative – and positive – motion-artists of his time. His approach can be described as both scientific and holistic, as the name of his design studio, Universal Everything, suggests. The striking variety of his artistic practices (product, print, branded art, tv idents, interactive design, shop installations, arts), has positioned Pyke as a global contributor in the diffusion and popularization of design and motion design. Forever, his generative audiovisual installation for the V&A museum, propelled him in 2009 to the forefront of relevant contemporary art.

Whether commissioned to do mass branding or experimental pieces, immersive environments or shop installations, Pyke’s creative process aims to blur the boundaries between genres and disciplines, labels and categories, arts and sciences. As such, Pyke is the poster child for the digital revolution, the hybrid resulting from coupling online communities with open source philosophies. His electronic parents are hacking and remix culture. Like many artists of his generation, Matt Pyke sows the seeds of a cultural renaissance based on sharing knowledge through his blog Everyone Forever.

or his first major solo project, Matt Pyke shares these obsessions for life’s infinite movement by encapsulating a « digital’s breathe » in each of the 8 installations of the exhibition, offering each time a perpetually changing experience.

The Matt Pyke & Friends exhibition also concentrates the artists’s shared keywords : aestheticism, romanticism, optimism, science, love and infinity. “How far can we push ultra-positive, super-optimistic feeling ?“, was the question posed during the preparation of the exhibition. Obviously, Pyke wants to explore the potential for gaiety in new technologies by creating conceptual but lush pieces which are meditative and colorful, abstract, sensual and poetic while striving to be intellectually stimulating.

Here, a 3 meters high walking monster, endlessly transforming itself. There, a monolithic block invites viewers to peek into a singular experience – witness the birth of materials at a molecular level. On the mezzanine, stands a crowd of generative living sculptures, grown from code. Facing them, a huge projection of a never-ending procession of bodies, struggling against a hurricane of sound.
    Each piece can be considered a supercomputing beauty seeking emotional sensations and feelings whose magic breaks with rational functionalism. Remixing primitivism, minimalism, pop culture and 19th century landscape painting, the exhibition Matt Pyke & Friends takes us to a romantic theatricality reaching a subtle and meaningful relationship between technologies and the viewer. 

La Gaîté Lyrique thus becomes a kind of oracle temple endlessly generating enigmatic allegories. A theatrical and magic moment, which entertains and brings warmth, thereby instantly gratifying for the visitor.
    
  

Over the last decade, Matt Pyke has engaged in constant exchange and debate, setting people on the course of creation and communication through his studio Universal Everything. Driven by the excitement of learning, His creative process is flexible and associative. Pyke always looks for the appropriate skills to nurture any given project and often ventures in unorthodox collaborations. The title of the exhibition, Matt Pyke & Friends, is an example of his deeply open-minded attitude, always encouraging contributions and shared efforts. Through his studio, Matt acts in a spirit of modern companionship, always respecting the input of his collaborators ; the master model does not apply here.

The featured guests for the exhibition are part of Pyke’s cultural family. Like Matt, they’re all from the emerging zeitgeist, and are involved in both creative commercial projects and artistic experimentations. Marcus Wendt and Vera-Maria Glahn from Field studio, specialize in digital arts and graphic design. Karsten Schmidt (aka Toxi), is a computational designer who merges code, design, art & craft skills. Paul Simpson and Norra Rahim from Realise Studio, an award winning 3D animation and VFX company, complete the exhibition

For the audio research, Matt Pyke once again calls upon his brother, musician and performer Simon Pyke, founder of the sound design & music studio Freefarm. In tandem, they seek ways to hear the inaudible and see the invisible in order to map them and create mesmerizing images and sound. Simon, who designed all of the exhibition’s sound installations, is also in charge of an immersive audio-visual piece in la Chambre Sonore. Contrasting with today’s individualistic artistic postures, this open-minded and open-source spirit could also explain why his electronic beauties are to be enjoyed collectively.