Patrick Lichty
EX NIHILO:
A Digital Journal Made Manifest

Project Area: Improbable Objects
Selected 3-d printed artworks and other items.
Participants include: Samuel Bernier, Josh Billions, Jordan Bunker, Scott 
Carter, Theodore Darst, Mike Dorries, Micah Ganske, Bilal Ghalib, Claudia Hart, 
Taylor Hokanson, Bronwyn Holloway-Smith, Sophie Kahn, Patrick Lichty, Mike 
Moceri, Harvey Moon, Christian Oiticica, Dan Price, Rob Ray, Emily Schulert, 
Marius Watz, Jihoon Yoo

Opening reception: Thursday March 29th, 5:00 – 8:00pm
Exhibition dates: March 29th – April 28th, 2012
Gallery hours:
Weds: noon – 3.30pm
Thurs – Sat: noon – 5pm

What It Is
23 E. Madison, 
Chicago, IL, 60602
ph. 773-837-9809
http://wot-it-is.com/
[email protected]


Patrick Lichty
EX NIHILO:
A Digital Journal Made Manifest

What It Is, is pleased to announce “EX NIHILO: A Digital Journal Made Manifest” 
a solo exhibition of works by Chicago-based new media artist Patrick Lichty. Ex 
Nihilo, “out of nothing” in Latin, is an outgrowth from Patrick Lichty’s 
obsession of the porous boundaries between the physical and the virtual. This 
fascination stems from Lichty working almost entirely with digital media since 
1989, and after working in the online virtual world, Second Life, for nearly 
30-40 hours a week for the last three years. From this prolonged immersion 
Lichty felt an intense need for being in-person, and translating media works 
into physical manifestations such laser fabrication, commissioned Chinese oil 
paintings, 3D printing, and now Jacquard loom tapestry fabrication. The latter 
of these being derived from the first programmed machine looms of the 1750’s. 
Although Lichty wants to express his virtual/mediated experience in the 
physical, it is still entirely framed within technological culture, of which he 
has been accustomed to since an early age.

The images in this exhibition are considered as a journal or travelogue of 
significant moments and projects from the past ten years. These include images 
taken with a low resolution Casio Wristcam for his series 8 Bits or Less. 
Others used for the Jacquard tapestries were selected from various projects 
including My Day/Your Night, One, and Wikipedia Art and chosen as experiments 
in the translation from the virtual to the physical.

Patrick Lichty (b.1962) is a technologically-based conceptual artist, writer, 
independent curator, animator for the activist group, The Yes Men, and 
Executive Editor of Intelligent Agent Magazine. He began showing technological 
media art in 1989, and deals with works and writing that explore the social 
relations between people and media. Venues in which Lichty has been involved 
with solo and collaborative works include the Whitney & Turin Biennials, 
Maribor Triennial, Performa Performance Biennial, Ars Electronica, and the 
International Symposium on the Electronic Arts (ISEA).

He also works extensively with virtual worlds, including Second Life, and his 
work, both solo and with his performance art group, Second Front, has been 
featured in Flash Art, Eikon Milan, and ArtNews.

Improbable Objects
In our project area we will be exhibiting selected artworks and objects 
produced by artists and makers utilizing 3-d printing as their medium. Rapid 
Prototyping or 3d printing is a process whereby a three dimensional object is 
created from a digital file using a materials based printer and laid down 
similar to printing images on paper. 3d printing is about thirty years old but 
was restricted to heavy industry and prototyping communities. In the last six 
or seven years as the patents for the technologies expired a whole new class of 
open source printers such as the RepRap and Makerbot have opened this category 
of manufacturing up to artists, makers, designers and the public. The result of 
this democratization has been a massive explosion of creative activity and 
problem solving as the open source community seeks to perfect better printers, 
easier to use applications, affordable 3d scanners and ways to share 3d models 
such as websites like Thingiverse. “Improbable Objects” features a number of 
artists and makers who are currently working with 3d printing as their medium 
including objects from: Samuel Bernier, Josh Billions, Jordan Bunker, Scott 
Carter, Theodore Darst, Mike Dorries, Micah Ganske, Bilal Ghalib, Claudia Hart, 
Taylor Hokanson, Bronwyn Holloway-Smith, Sophie Kahn, Patrick Lichty, Mike 
Moceri, Harvey Moon, Christian Oiticica, Dan Price, Rob Ray, Emily Schulert, 
Marius Watz, Jihoon 
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