10 Oct 2011

Kit Webster

Our current challenge is about celebrating bringing together technology and creativity. To illustrate what inspires us when it comes to creativity, we’d like to introduce you to the wonderful world of Kit Webster.

Kit is an Australian artist who uses technology, light and sound projection to experiment with space. His work involves regularly turning the real world into an abstract, magical laboratory.

Does Kit think technology is opening up the opportunity for us to explore untested avenues of creativity? We had to ask the futuristic artist.

HUGO Create: The work you do employs a variation of creative skills. In your own words, what kind of art do you make?

Kit Webster: There's a range of names applied to my work. I'm pretty relaxed about it because my work’s spread across a few disciplines. Generally I use the title of audiovisual artist, new-media artist or light sculptor. 

HC: What inspired you to start working with projecting light?

KW: It was when I first realized that I could take an existing technology and re-appropriate its use. I'm fascinated by the way software can make video bend across different surfaces. It’s become such an obsession that I am starting to question it on a more scientific and theoretical level. I think that inter-dimensional transference such as the connection of data, matter and consciousness, is an area that will gain a lot of attention and lead to a great deal of innovation.

HC: What is exciting you in the world of creative technology right now?

KW: I have visions about highly detailed sonic and visual environments that are presented within the gallery space. Imagine some of the incredible light shows you have seen at nightclubs involving lasers, lighting and video. Take this and focus more on color and geometric patterning. It would be almost like decoding the mathematics of the space.

And I'm excited about being able to evolve my installations. When I produced the installation Enigmatica I was attempting to take notions of reality and flip them upside down to present a new experience. At that time, the gallery was a laboratory in which I had one week to experiment with space, color and sound. With the latest versions of Enigmatica, a developmental shift has been made which is more about rhythm and geometry. The work is evolving and devolving at the same time.

HC: Do you see a new era of technological cultural forms evolving to become more and more influential in the world of the arts?

KW: Without question. Technology is evolving in every field. The great thing about the arts is that technological evolution is not serving any specific purpose; it's open. We can take the latest devices and inventions and re-appropriate their use, such as projecting digital trees that sway based on wind detection, or the 3D printing of previously impossible objects. The processing power of computers gets faster and faster, unleashing the ability to drive extremely detailed high-definition environments and algorithms. Art and design will take all these innovations and push them to their limits.

HC: What is your creative ambition?

KW: To be invited to create a complex audiovisual or light sculpture for presentation in the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in London.

HC: What projects are you working on now?

KW: I’ve just finished a work that is currently being presented as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival. I've called it Unity and it's a big diamond-shaped sculpture, with each face of the diamond being a canvas for projecting mapped digital images of flags. The flags represent the different nationalities of people who live in Melbourne. For each flag, there are at least 1100 or more people from that country who have chosen to make Melbourne their home. 85 different nationalities are represented. Over the course of the event the diamond evolves to eventually become an aesthetic design piece, like a jewel. The idea is to celebrate the beauty and wealth of multiculturalism in Melbourne and the good that can come of it. Furthermore I have been collaborating on a few music videos, one with the brilliant body architect Lucy McRae. 

Part of Kit Webster's Unity