About Me
What Do I Make?
Interactive sculptures, installations and web-based art projects, which allow viewers to engage with the work sometimes by re-arranging it's formal aspects and sometimes by using the work as they would a design object.
I also design and build highly visual websites that try to challenge traditional methods of browsing information. Most of my clients work in the creative industries and were looking for a site that would reflect their creativity in an interesting way.
Why Do I Make These Things?
I believe in the importance of the visual arts within our culture and want to not only raise awareness of current practises but also to make things which encourage people to be more visually creative themselves. I also believe that we can explore our environment through visual art. I want to encourage people to see their environment as something that they create and are a part of. One of the easiest places to do this is on the web where anyone can post their ideas, which go on to become a part of our environment.
Why Interactive?
I'm a big believer in doing, I think by drawing, by making and by talking. I like to wave my hands about when I talk; I like to touch things when I think, so why make art that you look at? When I choose a colour I place that colour next to others to see how they relate to each other. Like wise when I create a shape I draw something, fold paper, and look at it from different angles carefully considering the natural qualities of the element and their implications on the rest of the work. I don't think you can understand this process and those inherent qualities unless you can try these possibilities out for yourself. When I make art I learn a little bit more about aesthetics, my environment and so many other things and I want to pass that experience of learning on because for me that is art.
So Is It Art or Design?
I naturally come form the perspective of art as that is my training but more and more I see my work as falling into the realm of design, which for me is a good thing. To me a piece of design has a greater impact on our lives that art, you use it, you sit on it, and you're constantly surrounded by it. So what I make are objects/websites that are designed but often one of those functions is art.
Why Do I Design Websites?
I wanted to make work that was open access, whilst putting a piece of art in an open public space might mean there are no restrictions it still means that you need to be able to travel to the location, and it also means you have to liase with so many people to put the art there in the first place. The web to me is the most open access platform you can get because all you need is some web-space. I also want people to interact with my work in their own way. Interactive art in a gallery setting can often be intimidating or daunting, it goes against our cultural conditioning, but you can surf the web form the comfort of your own home and not feel pressured by the work in any way.
After having learnt more about the web I found I really enjoyed its structure and order, a lot of my physical artwork has been very mathematical or about systems so naturally programming appealed to my sensibility. However browsing the web I often feel frustrated by how a primarily visual medium often isn't used as such and follows the structure of traditional press. For me the web is a lot of pieces of information that are linked up in an organic and web-like, not that different to the way a thought process is a chain of ideas that all connect and interconnect. So why not create sites that act like chains of thought, that take you on a journey, rather than trying to organise it into menus and chapters. So I make websites that hopefully give you a different and more organic and visual way of browsing.
Where Is It All Going?
I hope to make more exciting interactive sculptures and installations and perhaps even have some manufactured and distributed on a small scale so more people can play with them. I'm also working on a very exciting web-based art project which I hope will inspire users to interact with each other in a new way called www.sortof.net, look out for more details soon.