Leander Herzog

Leander Herzog is a Swiss artist, born in 1984, who has created art with code since 2006. His practice is informed by a background in web development and an early interest in graffiti. Herzog was among a generation of artists who began using code based tools in the mid 2000s, later focusing on languages that allow for works to run directly within a web browser. This approach privileges the execution of the artwork on a viewer's own device. His art has been exhibited at institutions including Kunsthalle Zürich and Transmediale Berlin, and acquired for the collections of HEK Basel and ZKM Centre for Art and Media Karlsruhe.

Herzog builds generative systems that produce abstract animations in real time. His primary material is the web browser, employing its structures such as the Document Object Model, or DOM, and its layout engine. In series like `Agglo` and `DOM`, he uses basic HTML elements and text characters as compositional units, animated through code. The process involves shaping random number distributions through curated sets of values to explore rhythm and repetition. The final composition is not fixed but emerges from its display context, such as the browser window’s dimensions. The `DOM` series, a collaboration with musician Milian Mori, adds a generative audio component that interacts with the visuals.

The works investigate the relationship between simple algorithmic rules and the complex visual results they generate. By using the browser's own architecture as his medium, Herzog makes the infrastructure of the web a subject of aesthetic enquiry. His art exists as a live process rather than a static object, a set of instructions performing themselves for the viewer. This creates a direct connection between the code and the audience, who experiences a unique iteration of the work unfolding in the moment of observation. The compositions are dynamic and often spatially unlimited, evolving over time.