To Exhaust a Possibility Space — are.na channel (2018–)

Harm van den Dorpel's channel To Exhaust a Possibility Space on are.na, read through the are.na API on 1 November 2026. Created 11 June 2018; 15 blocks.

Description. "Initially I called this channel 'permutations', but I think that wasn't completely accurate, because permutation is more about re-ordering a sequence or drawing from it."

The title recalls Georges Perec's Tentative d'épuisement d'un lieu parisien (An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris, 1975).

Contents, in the order added

11 June 2018

• Nathalie Du Pasquier, a drawing.
• Bernd and Hilla Becher, Water Towers, 1988 (MoMA).
• Autobreeder (2016), from van den Dorpel's Death Imitates Language.
• Exactitudes, the photographic typologies of Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek.
• Peter Halley, captioned by van den Dorpel: "Peter Halley's whole oeuvre is basically a permutation of a single visual algorithm."
• Hybrid Vigor (2017), van den Dorpel.
• Karl Blossfeldt, plant photographs.
• Markov's Window (2004), animated GIF.
• Two screenshots, one from ZKM.
• Jorinde Voigt, Grieder Contemporary.

13–16 December 2020. Charlotte Posenenske, Ohne Titel (Rasterbild), 1957, and Ohne Titel (Spritzbild), 1965; a screenshot.

10 December 2023. "Drawing made first year art school 2002?"

6 March 2026. An image captioned "autism".

The wiki reads the channel on Does a Work Still Need to Be New? and The Grid.