SUZANNE TREISTER
HTF The Gardener, 2014-2015
In HFT the Gardener, Suzanne Treister analyses the world of high frequency trading (HFT). Treister´s protagonist is an algorithmic trader in the world of high finance: Hillel Fischer Traumberg (HFT) who develops a botanical obsession: to merge his conscience with algorithmic intelligence with the help of psychoactive substances, in order to see the world from another perspective – the algorithmic perspective.
HFT The Gardener reflects Treister’s fascination with esoteric tradition, cybernetics and hallucinatory aesthetics and connects them with the forces of power and their movement in the real world. Hillel´s hallucinogenic experiences with psychoactive plants affect his performance at work and after being fired he begins an research on the chemical composition of these plants and their magical, religious, healing, shamanic and medicinal properties. He starts to draw the results of his studies influenced by the Swiss outsider artist Adolf Wölfli and inspired by the naturalistic engravings of the German physician and philosopher Ernst Haeckel who he adored in his childhood. Later he converts the names of the plants numerically following the method of gematria, extracted from the Jewish mystical exegesis and establishes a relationship between these figures and the FT index of global companies. Driven by his desire to discover the elusive pattern that connects stock prices with future values, HFT develops new patterns creating digital algorithms that yield beautiful visual botanical conversions for these multinational companies. Through her character, the artist achieves an interesting juxtaposition between the financial sector and the esoteric, based on the idea that mysticism or psychedelia could in some way resonate within the feedback circuits of the global market.
HFT/CHARTS/Psychoactive Plants/Gematria/FT Global 500 Companies Equivalents
6 drawings
Each 21 x 29,7 cm
Digital Prints, rotring pen on paper
From Galbulimima belgraveana to Phragmites australis
From Panaeolus cyanescens to Hyoscyamus niger
From Salvia divinorum to Mandragora officinarum
From Cannabis sativa to Carnegiea gigantea
From Tabernaemontana coffeoides to Datura stramonium
From Datura innoxia to Calea zacatechichi
Traumberg’s gematria charts converting the Latin names of psychoactive plants into Hebrew, deriving their numerical equivalents and listing corresponding companies according to their numerical position in the FT Global 500 Index.
HFT/Outsider artworks
Digital Print, coloured pencils and watercolour on paper
21 x 29,7 cm
Selection of 8 from a group of 92 works
Peganum harmala (Syrian Rue)
Tetrapteris methystica (Caapi-Pinima)
Maquira sclerophylla (Rape dos Indios)
Cannabis sativa (Marajuana)
Tagetes lucida (Yauhtli)
Cacalia cordifolia (Matwœ)
Latua pubiflora (Latué)
Peucedanum japonicum (Fang-K’uei)
Drawings by Hillel Fischer Traumberg made under the influence of the outsider artist Adolf Wölfli and psychoactive drugs, depicting 92 psychoactive plants, listing their traditional uses, effects, preparation, common names and molecular formulae, with each plant’s corresponding FT Global 500 companies, based on hebrew/gematria numerical equivalents of each plant’s botanical name.
HFT/Botanical Prints
Digital prints
29,7 x 42 cm,
Selection of 8 from a group of 20 works
Psychoactive plants with gematria numerical equivalents of 1-20 corresponding respectively to the top 20 companies in the FT Global Financial Index.
Rank 1: Apple – US – Technology hardware & equipment
Rank 2: Exxon Mobil – US – Oil & gas producers
Rank 3: Microsoft – US – Software & computer services
Rank 4: Google – US – Software & computer services
Rank 9: Roche – Switzerland – Pharmaceuticals & biotechnology
Rank 13: J P Morgan Chase – US – Banks
Rank 16: Petro China – China – Oil & gas producers
Rank 18: Samsung Electronics – South Korea – Leisure goods
Having compiled a gematria chart of 92 psychoactive plants, listing their botanical names alongside their global companies equivalents, Traumberg developed an algorithm that would trawl the internet collecting images of the plants which corresponded to each company. Inspired by the botanical illustrations of Ernst Haekel, which he had loved as a child, Traumberg programmed the algorithm to collate and transform these images into works with a similar style and format.
HFT / CHARTS / Psychoactive Plants / Gematria / FT Global 500 Companies Equivalents. From Galbulimima belgraveana to phragmites australia
HFT / Outsider artworks Peganum harmala (Syrian Rue)
HFT / Outsider artworks Maquira sclerophylla (Rape dos Indios)
HFT / Botanical Prints (HTF / Láminas botánicas)Rank 3: Microsoft – US – Software & computer services