Generative digital graphics. Giclée print with archival pigment inks Epson UltraChrome® HDR on 100% cotton paper (Hahnemühle Photo Rag).. High-performance workstation with CUDA acceleration. Print: Epson Stylus PRO 9900. Result is a continuous projection of water micro-world.
BASIC INFORMATION
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION
CONTEXT AND ORIGIN
ARTWORK CONCEPT
EXHIBITIONS
CONNECTIONS
Series
Magna Mutatio
ID
2025-MM-TST-01
Date of origin
20.11.2025
Technique
Generative digital graphics. Giclée print with archival pigment inks Epson UltraChrome® HDR on 100% cotton paper (Hahnemühle Photo Rag).
Dimensions
1100 × 1100 mm
Duration
Static object
Software
HydroWeave Engine v1.0 (custom patch in TouchDesigner). Script TOP (Python) for turbidity map calculation from Sentinel-2; GLSL vector field + GPU particle system.
Hardware
High-performance workstation with CUDA acceleration. Print: Epson Stylus PRO 9900.
Data source
ESA Sentinel-2, satellite image from July 19, 2019. Turbidity parameter in the mouth of the Tajo River, Setubal area, Se2WaQ script.
Interaction
Algorithmic and curatorial. Interaction occurs between data and vector field generator. Artist role: curatorial selection and „fixation“ of unique moment from infinite generative process.
Location of origin
Mramorový sál České spořitelny, Rytířská 29, Prague 1 (auction „Aukce, která má smysl“, Nov 20, 2025). Pre-auction exhibition: Galerie European Arts, Prague.
Type of exhibition
Auction / Gallery exhibition
Curator
David Juřička
Collection
Private collection (auctioned)
Photo
Author archive / European Arts catalog
Author of text
Kryštof Brůha
Key concepts
Hydrodynamic portrait, data fabric, vector field, indexical trace, non-human labor, tectonics of flow
Text title
Magna Mutatio / Tajo-Setubal
Date
Exhibition
20.11.2025
Aukce, která má smysl – Mramorový sál ČS, Prague
20.11.2025
Pre-auction exhibition – Galerie European Arts, Prague
Tajo-Setubal does not capture the river itself, but rather its hydrodynamic portrait at a single moment. A Sentinel-2 (ESA) satellite image from July 19, 2019—the turbidity parameter in the mouth of the Tagus River, Setúbal region—is processed through the Se2WaQ script. The algorithm converts spectral data into a vector field, in which empirical measurements dissolve into aesthetic indeterminacy. Each print represents a unique moment of this metabolism—a fleeting imprint born from the chaos of frequencies and vanishing into noise.
At the core of the work is the concentration of a single parameter: turbidity. While Flumen gen 2.0 worked with six water quality variables, Tajo-Setubal reduces the dataset to its most ephemeral component—current-borne sediments. The vector field generated by the HydroWeave Engine visualizes the tectonics of the flow: each line is a trace of other-than-human labor, and each gradient is an indexical trace of geological time. Here, data are not stored, but metabolized—much like the river itself digests its own banks.
A giclée print with archival pigments on cotton paper fixes this process into a static object. Yet even here, a trace of instability remains: random variations in the printing process disrupt the illusion of perfect reproduction. The landscape here is not a map, but a fluid dialogue between precision and entropy. The anthropocentric notion of nature as a stable archive dissolves in favor of a hydrodynamic portrait—an image as fleeting as the water it captures.
Tajo-Setubal does not render the river present, but rather its fleeting digital footprint. Just as sediments settle and are stirred up again, the algorithm recasts data in an infinite cycle of birth and decay. This fragility points to a broader illusion of permanence in the digital era: technologies, though seemingly eternal, are as ephemeral as the natural elements. What, then, is truly permanent? Only change itself.
