Artist Steven Greenwood
Currently residing in Berlin, Artist Steven Greenwood is a rare breed, employing various technologies such as motion tracking and sound networks into his pieces. Steven has exhibited in such places as the Museum of Sydney and the Museum für Gestaltung Zurich, his work focusing on such themes as virtuality, self perception and the physical.
After the H.M.S. Bounty 1997
What have you been working on lately?
I am currently working on a project called “eMotion – Mapping Museum Experience,” which will analyse the art museum from a psycho-geographical perspective, encompassing the emotional, cognitive and physical effects upon viewer reception, and how those factors influence the decision-making processes of visitors. It’s a collaboration project between both scientists and artists that will be exhibited in June, 2009 in the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland.
The project is being developed with the Institute for Design & Art Research in Basel, Switzerland. This institute supports projects that push art or design from a research standpoint. This means that the final form of the project does not necessarily need to be art or design but it does need to answer critical art/design questions in the same way as any other discipline.
The challenge for me is to create an installation in an art museum that not only has an artistic dimension but also gathers empirically valid data for the sociologists, psychologists and other science members in the project.
eMotion - Mapping Museum Experience
How did you end up in Berlin, Germany?
After my BA in Fine Arts in COFA, Sydney, I received a DAAD scholarship in 1994 to study at the ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany. This, you could say, opened my eyes to the possibilities of art making in Germany. Since then I have been in Germany with some time spent back and forth in Sydney and London.
I always liked Berlin because it’s a city that feels like anything is possible. Even when I was living back in Sydney I used to dream about living in Berlin. Likewise now I dream a lot about Sydney but mainly about its nature.
Myself, as well as the some 5000 other artists that live and work here, are attracted to the city for its central location in Europe, relatively cheap rent and cost/quality of living. For most artists here to exhibit, say, in London but live and work in Berlin is very manageable.
These are some of the reasons why I choose to live and work here.
How did you find integrating culturally into the German culture, particularly within the art scene?
I think that there is a lot of cultural cross-over between German and Australian culture. The clichés of strict German culture are–particularly in the case of Berlin–simply not valid. Likewise, Australian laid-backness isn’t all that true either, e.g. the ‘Howard’ years. So there are a lot of similarities between both cultures that I personally love and hate.
The concept of cultural integration isn’t something that I can personally relate to. Something like a trans-cultural identity feels more appropriate to me. This no doubt feeds into my art. Fortunately it
hasn’t been too much of a problem getting my work accepted and/or understood here.
Self Perception 2005
Your art installations are quite technologically advanced (motion tracking, sound networks etc). How do you go about constructing these installations?
I generally have a concept-to-realisation approach. My works usually take a long time from conceptualisation to finished work as I generally build them all myself. Many artists outsource the technical side to specialists. This can be a very effective way of working. The drawback is that if you (as the artist) don’t have direct contact with the material you lose out to the possibilities that the technology/medium can offer. Of course that means that you have a steeper learning curve but it pays off in the knowledge that you can re-use in later projects.
Do you have a typical creative process in generating new ideas and work?
I generally start out with an idea or concept and then find ways to realise it. I document all my ideas on paper and just let it sit for a while. Once I finish a project I go back to these sketches and pick out the one I think works best. Then I go about getting all the materials together and try to get it to work. Although I use a lot of technology in my work it isn’t a conscious decision to create art with technology. It simply feels natural to me. Technology and software are, generally speaking, very fluid media like plasticine that I feel very comfortable with. Of course the changing nature of this media can be sometimes very challenging to
exhibit but that’s one of the thrills for me in showing my work.
Pissoir 2000 by Allan Giddy & Steven Greenwood
Do you have a favourite artist, or artists?
I grew up on a diet of conceptual art and so was naturally taken by the eruption of conceptual creativity at the beginning of the 20th century. Erik Satie, Marcel Duchamp, Jean Tinguely, Michelangelo
Antonioni and Yves Klein are a few of my all-time favourites.
Where do you find inspiration?
Life’s unplanned series of events.
What can we expect to see from you in the future?
My work will continue to concentrate on themes surrounding memory, virtuality and the physical, perception and self perception. Parallel to the Emotion project I am developing a series of net art objects.
Links:
www.telesthetic.org
www.mapping-museum-experience.com
