A Professor of Interactive Media at UC Santa Barbara, George Legrady blurs the boundary between academic and studio practice by fusing technology with visual art. His Algorithmic Visualizations exhibit, at LA's Telic Arts Exchange through February 16, is a selection of three recent works that involve digital images generated using mathematical formulae. Legrady's virtuosity shines strongest in his site-specific activity. 'Making Visible the Invisible' was commissioned for the Rem Koolhaas-designed Seattle Central Library. The work translates Dewey decimal-based circulation stats on the non-fiction book collection into plasma screen displays of patterned color. That impulse to reflect the architecture's modular characteristics (the entire collection forms a continuous spiral) also emerges in 'Kinetic Flow,' a work designed 'to engage the kinetic experience of the downward movement on both escalator and staircase, one smooth, the other sequential,' in the Vermont/Santa Monica MetroRail Station. Smart, engaging and visually compelling, this one's not to be missed. - Peggy MacKinnon
