Stir Cheat Sheet: 5 Eastside Culture Crawl artists using technology and digital tools to catch
Among the highlights of the 2022 festival of visual arts, design, and craft are works by tech-savvy creatives
A Blue Star/Steven Smethurst, Steward (Rainbow Thrasher).
Eastside Arts Society presents Eastside Culture Crawl Visual Arts, Design & Craft Festival at various venues from November 17 to 20 (November 17 and 18: 5 to 10 pm; November 19 and 20: 11am to 6 pm)
NOW IN ITS 26th year, Vancouver’s Eastside Culture Crawl has grown into one of the city’s most ambitious arts events—with more than 500 artists taking part this year—and also one of its most expansive, with everything from glass to sculpture to furniture. As the fest has evolved, so has visual art itself, and the 2022 edition features several artists who turn to technology to create. Here’s a glance at a handful who are opening their studios this year.
A Blue Star
The human behind A Blue Star is Steven Smethurst, a self-described Vancouver-based “Maker, Hacker, Coder, Artist, and all around great guy!”. Flocking AI is his series experiments in which he uses Artificial intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML) to generate a “Field guide of imaginary birds”. The complex process—which involves things like image seed text, keyword input files, algorithms, and text-ada model—is completely over our heads, but you can read about it in detail here. All we know is that we love the little creatures Smethurst has devised.
Here's how the artist describes Steward (Rainbow Thrasher) (pictured at top): “Medium size, pudgy songbird with rainbow feathers, and a small triangle beak. The rainbow breast feathers look like a scarf or a small jacket. Eyes can be either red or green. The bird’s diet consists mostly of insects, but it will also eat fruits, berries, and nuts. They make a clicking sound with their beaks as they sing. The males are more colorful, and the females are a little bit smaller. These birds are very social and can often be found in small flocks.”
Olga Campbell, Marrakesh
Olga Campbell
A visual artist and writer who studied at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Olga Campbell works in mixed-media painting, clay sculpture, digital photo collage, and photography. She creates art “because the process allows her to connect with something greater than herself resulting in a feeling of dipping into magic”, according to her artist statement.
Garrett Andrew Chong, Liminal Illusions: Unfolding.
Garrett Andrew Chong
Since graduating from Emily Carr University of Art + Design in the mid 1980s, Chong has won awards for his multimedia artworks, which draw from spiritual influences such as sacred teachings, Samantha meditation, and hatha yoga. Light is a through line in his work, from his early black-and-white film-based infrared photographs to ambient illumination of HDR technology.
Christian Dahlberg, Sun.
Christian Dahlberg
Christian Dahlberg will be sharing works from BUILDT, a series of digital reworkings of iconic Vancouver architecture, among others at this year’s Crawl.
Kate MacDonald, Raven in the Grave.
Kate MacDonald
Kate MacDonald’s paintings, digital collages, and video art have been shown across North America and Europe; some of her digital collages are available as NFTs on OpenSea. She shares a studio and collaborates with artist Les Sears as K8L35.
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