Artists – Karyn Easton

May 07

by Karyn in Artists, Collaborations, Little Wins, Unit 3 Blogs 0 comments tags: Artists, Collaborations, Little Wins, Unit 3 Blogs

Little Wins #10

Artists Join Me – One of my project goals was to gather perspectives about AI generated art from a wide variety of people across the arts industries. I have already begun to ask some of my colleagues who lecture in art and design and some of my students. I was also absolutely delighted when a number of high profile artists agreed to give me quotes and share their thoughts on AI art. More about this can be found on my ‘Balance of Power Book’ blogpost.

Apr 30

by Karyn in 3d, Artists, Unit 3 Blogs 0 comments tags: 3d, Artists, Unit 3 Blogs

James Lake – Artist Talk

Amazing What Can be Done With Cardboard – Today we were very privileged to have the amazing James Lake giving a talk on campus. A friend of mine had previously introduced me to his work, so I was really excited to meet him in person. His cardboard sculptures are absolutely stunning! We were also really privileged because we were the first people to see his newly animated film. James had worked with an animation company to animate one of his cardboard sculptures that was based on himself. Unfortunately, I don’t have a link to show this as he hasn’t gone public with it yet, but it really was superb! Below I have posted a selection of slides for reference. A Selection of Slides

Apr 23

by Karyn in Artists, Augmented Reality, Film Production, Final Major Project, My Work, Unit 3 Blogs 0 comments tags: Artists, Augmented Reality, Film Production, Final Major Project, my work, Unit 3 Blogs

Balance of Power Book

Concept, Rationale and Reasoning As part of my overall body of work, I decided to fully augment a large square art book. This book contains images of the ‘Balance of Power’ mobile along with examples of some of the surface patterns used in its creation. However, most importantly it helps to explain both the rationale and concept behind the piece itself. At the start of the project I wanted to gather many views from across the arts, about AI generated art. Over the last few years it has become increasingly evident that people involved in the arts industry have both wittingly and unwittingly been exploited by the big tech giants. This is not only true for the artists who have had their work taken often without knowledge and consent, but also for the image/data ‘taggers’ at the ‘bottom of the food chain’ who facilitated all of this. I figured that in the first instance enlisting the help of more well known artists might help encourage voices of others, thus creating a snowball effect. Therefore, in the initial stages I approached some of my favourite more famous artists and invited them to comment on their feelings regarding AI generated art. I […]

Apr 21

Film Mark 2

Exploring Alternatives – In my Film Production blog, I talked about how unhappy I was with my first film. Things haven’t got any easier. I still feel very poorly, but the perfectionist in me is not prepared to let this go. I absolutely ‘hate’ the first version of my film now! Unfortunately, I just seem to have such a severe creative block at the moment. One of the greatest challenges I faced was trying to come up with yet another script! At one point I thought ‘oh stuff it’ I’ll just stick with what I’ve done. However I just couldn’t do that. I went to bed feeling pretty ill and pretty down. They say that sometimes when you are facing a problem, your brain will help you to work things out while you are asleep. Last week in my state of feeling so down ‘my brain, my subconscious the universe, god’ or call it what you like came to the rescue overnight while asleep! This morning I remembered something that I’d long been aware of yet forgotten. This was the old concept of ‘The Eighth Day’. In some theological interpretations, the “Eighth Day” symbolises the day of resurrection or the […]

Mar 14

by Karyn in 3d, Artists, Galleries, Low Residency, Unit 3 Blogs 0 comments tags: 3d, Artists, Galleries, Low Residency, Unit 3 Blogs

Low Residency Day #7

Gallery Visits & Last Day – Sadly today was the last day of the Low Residency. I headed off to the first venue with Andy (my husband). Our first visit was the ‘Studio Voltaire’. We all arrived around 10.00am. We were greeted by two ladies who explained a little about the history of the gallery, the types of residencies available plus the kind of works/artists that were typically supported. The Rebirthing Room – Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley Below is some information and a short video except from the ‘Rebirthing Room’ installation by Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley. This installation was the first of two that we saw housed at the Studio Voltaire. Video Short of the Rebirthing Room Far From the Start – Jay Bernard The second work at the gallery was a sound installation by Jay Bernard. Please see below for more information. Jay Bernard Poster Corvi-Mora The second galley on our tour was the Covri-Mora, where we visited works by Maiko Tstutsumi. This was an incredibly calming experience. I’m not sure if Maiko had specially chosen this gallery to house her work but I felt it was the perfect space. I […]

Mar 13

by Karyn in Artists, Low Residency, Unit 3 Blogs 0 comments tags: Artists, Low Residency, Unit 3 Blogs

Low Residency Day #6

David Cross & Ruth Annett Sixa – This morning we had an excellent presentation by David Cross. The discussions we had afterwards were very thought provoking and three hours seemed to fly by in an instant. David talked about his activism and how he has been a lone voice within CSM regarding climate change. Below are a section of slides from his talk. Ruth Annett Sixa Ruth gave a presentation about how to value our work as artists. Sadly, I was quite frustrated by this afternoon’s workshop. My hearing isn’t great and Ruth had a very quiet voice. This probably would have been okay, but the acoustics and noise in the room made it impossible for me hear anything. Others were having difficulty too. However, from what I could gather, Ruth had some really interesting insights into valuing our work. I really feel that I missed out on this one 🙁 Luckily I managed to photograph a selection of slides.

Mar 11

by Karyn in Artists, Lectures, Low Residency, Problem Solving, Unit 3 Blogs, Videos 0 comments tags: Artists, Lectures, Low Residency, Problem Solving, Unit 3 Blogs, Videos

Low Residency Day #4

Arduino Tones & Artist Talk – Today was a really busy day because my group had a very brain intensive technical making session with Karsten Goodwin. This was followed by an artist talk by Nathan Télémaqu. I thoroughly enjoyed all of it, but I was soooo tired at the end of the day. Interactive sound and light workshop (LDR trumpet) In class, we explored microcontrollers and electronics. We looked at the interplay of light sound and code in a project based learning environment. We used light to bend tones on a custom circuit and learnt how to program and in order to play our own custom instruments. Below are photos of some of the steps that were taken to make our custom circuits and program it to work with an Arduino Uno. The Workshop Environment The Breadboard Wiring Steps A Selection of Karsten’s Slides Below is a gallery of some of Karsten’s main information slides for future reference. These include his GitHub address where he will be posting the full presentation. The Fully Connected Breadboard and Arduino The Results The start of this video short shows Karsten with the kit fully wired, followed by […]

Mar 09

by Karyn in Artists, Lectures, Low Residency, Unit 3 Blogs, Workshops 0 comments tags: Artists, Lectures, Low Residency, Unit 3 Blogs, Workshops

Low Residency Day #2

What is Book? Today we had a workshop by Rosie Sherwood all about book book making. We started the session by asking the simple question ‘What is Book?’. We discussed our answers and Rosie gave us some official definitions to throw into the mix. Below are a selection of these definitions and a slides for reference. A Selection of Slides A Selection of Books Below are a selection of books from Rosie’s book art collection. Many of them were hand made and all of them were very beautiful! They gave me lots of inspiration! There’s just something inherently beautiful about handmade books. They are so tactile and it was very kind of Rosie to allow us to handle them. Trip to the Bookarts Bookshop After looking at the example books we headed off to the Bookarts Bookshop near the Old Street tube station. It was 2 stops on the Northern Line from Kings Cross. Even though it was a tiny shop it was filled to the brim with all kinds of books with many limited edition of handmade. It was an absolute gem! I could have spent all day there, but we needed to grab […]

Mar 08

by Karyn in 3d, Artists, Collaborations, Experimentation, Lectures, Low Residency, Unit 3 Blogs, Workshops 0 comments tags: 3d, Artists, Collaborations, Experimentation, Lectures, Low Residency, Unit 3 Blogs, Workshops

Low Residency Day #1

All Things Pink – We had lots of fun today! Alex Schady put on a fab pink themed workshop. If I’m totally honest I struggled to get my sculpture to ‘work’ exactly as I wanted it to, but it was still a great session! I got a little sidetracked by some of the materials I was using. I became quite absorbed by the layers of plastic that I could create. However, the project brief required the sculpture to hold a smartphone. Unfortunately my sculpture was a little flimsy and my phone very heavy, so it was a recipe for disaster. Luckily my creation just about managed to make it to the end of the day. Below is a picture of Alex Schady in the photographic studio wearing his sculpture. I really liked Alex’s creation, which was a much better and more solid design for holding a smartphone. Shots of My Creation Below are some shots of my strange pink layered sculpture. Sadly it really struggled to hold my heavy iPhone. However, I did manage to shoot some video. Textures I was really intrigued by the textures created by the plastic layers of my creation. So when […]

Feb 15

by Karyn in Artists, Exhibitions, Galleries, Unit 3 Blogs, Videos 0 comments tags: Artists, Exhibitions, Galleries, Unit 3 Blogs, Videos

Open Evening

Balance of Power – First Showing Tonight was a special night for me because it was the first showing of my prototype mobile called ‘The Balance of Power – Unity in Bits’. I felt so lucky to be showing at ‘The Gallery Paradiso’. It all came about when a friend of mine called Sue (an excellent photographer currently studying for her own MA) suggested that the call out for ‘Line and Form’ artworks would be a good fit with my mobile because of its lines of binary code. I was very interested, and luckily the following week Sue showed a video of my mobile to the curator who said he loved it! Following on from that we had a quick phone call and I delivered the piece the following Saturday. There were some beautiful artworks being shown and I felt quite honoured to be a part of it all. People really seemed to like the concept of binary code. They thought that the hidden words (Unity in Bits) built into the lines of code was quite a ‘cool’ idea. The curator knows about all of the secrets built into the mobile. However, I chose only to share some of them […]