Pascal Dombis (born 1965) is a French digital artist who uses computers and algorithms to produce excessive repetition of simple processes.

Born in Metz in 1965, Dombis earned an engineering degree from the Insa University in Lyon. In 1987, he spent one year at Tufts University where he attended computer art classes at Boston Museum School and began to use computers and algorithms in his art. From 1994 to 2000, he participated in the fractalist exhibitions that were curated by the art critics Susan Conde and Henri-François Debailleux that used fractal theory to project a new paradigm for art.^[1] The fractalist show gathered various artist under this concept, such as like Miguel Chevalier, Carlos Ginzburg, Jean-Claude Meynard (in French), Nabil Nahas and Joseph Nechvatal. In 1993, Dombis was awarded an honorary mention from Ars Electronica in Linz and in 2003 he received a Canon digital award.

Dombis is noted for his excessive use of simple algorithmic rules. When rules are input in an excessive process, new and unpredictable forms come to the fore and generate the unlikely;^[2] which is not dissimilar with the way the Surrealist exquisite corpse operated. Dombis initially worked with simplistic rules: drawing a straight line for instance. But then he used digital tools to reach the wildest proliferations possible. Visual forms appear (they are not intentionally programmed) out of the excessive enforcement of autonomous and simple rules. So Dombis does not consciously conceive a structure in advance. He lays down simple rules and lets them go through a series of interactions.^[3] Through this abuse of technological processes, Dombis tries to confront the human viewer with 'his/her' own forms of primitive irrationality.^[4]

Frank Popper wrote:

• Christine Buci-Glucksmann, "Extract from Le Temps Fractal 2000
• Christine Buci-Glucksmann, "Philosophie de l'ornement : D'Orient en Occident", Galilée, 2008
• Christine Buci-Glucksmann, "Au-delà de la mélancolie", Galilée, 2006
• Christine Buci-Glucksmann, "La folie du voir", Galilée, 2002
• Henri-François Debailleux, Libération, 2008, "Dombis, algorithmes dans la peau"
• Henri-François Debailleux, Libération, 2007, "Dombis fait bonne impression"
• Joseph Nechvatal, "The Curvaceous Computational Paintings of Pascal Dombis", 2002
• Frank Popper, "From Technological to Virtual Art", MIT Press, pp. 92–95

• Pascal Dombis website
• Danielle Delouche Interview with Pascal Dombis 2005