Machine aesthetics as a way to think about acceptance, control, and agency.
Available for institutional commissions and private collections.
Inquire about acquiring work →"I use code and real-time systems as a lens for acceptance, control, and agency."
The early anchor was Surrender Machines — the question of whether a machine could surrender for us. What started as a pun became a serious structure for thinking about acceptance: what part of life can be controlled, and what has to be accepted?
From abstract painting systems and geometric studies, the work evolved toward light-sculptural environments: cubes, rotating fields, color architecture. The shift was from producing static pictures to staging live behavior.
After beginning blockchain-based digital work in 2022, the practice moved from platform-bound outputs toward site-native, browser-native systems built and hosted directly — outside any platform's control. Moon Walking and Bloom / Four Walls continue the same inquiry. The goal is to build perceptual situations where viewers can feel the tension between control and release, and decide how they want to participate.
Working in p5.js, WebGL, and GLSL shaders. All works run live and generate in real time.
Mark Walhimer (b. 1964) is a digital installation artist whose practice uses real-time systems and generative code to build perceptual environments.
He began in the studios of Judy Pfaff (1985) and Donald Lipski (1987). His institutional work spans three continents — a career spent designing spaces that respond to the people who inhabit them, which feeds directly into a studio practice concerned with co-creation, emergence, and shared space.
Working in p5.js, WebGL, and GLSL shaders, he builds browser-based works that run live, generate in real time, and change with every viewing. Author of Museums 101 and Designing Museum Experiences (Bloomsbury).
Works are available as limited hardware editions — custom-built systems that include the software, hardware, and installation documentation required for permanent display.
Site-specific commissions are available for institutional and architectural contexts. The artist is personally involved in every installation.
There is no gallery intermediary. Inquiries go directly to the studio and receive a response within 48 hours.
Response within 48 hours.
Mark Walhimer is also Managing Partner of Museum Planning LLC — museum planning consultants for feasibility studies, master planning, and strategic planning since 1999.
museumplanning.com →