Artist Spotlight: A Deeper Look Into SLIPSTREAM With Nancy Baker Cahill
Petit Mort by Nancy Baker Cahill
We asked Nancy Baker Cahill to share a more in-depth look into the ten video series Slipstream. Additive & subtractive in their construction, Slipstream speaks a visual language of mutation and untrustworthy translation. As misinformation continues to drive conversation about invented truths and how they can be weaponized, the artist recognized a deeper thread. The series is available for purchase on SuperRare and can be purchased here.
Your Slipstream artworks start as analog pieces and transform as you utilize digital tools in your creative process. Could you walk us through how you translate your work from the physical world to digital?
All Slipstream artworks begin as analog graphite drawings on paper. They are then torn and reconfigured into bespoke immersive sculptures (some on the walls, some hanging from above, etc). From here I document them as 3D digital objects, which is an inevitably additive and subtractive process- some digital artifacts are gained and some lost in the final output. These digital versions of the sculptures become the foundations for each Slipstream animation. I bring them into 3D software, where I light and animate them. They are further iterated in post production. Each video work presents these sculptures dramatically transformed from their analog origins, and yet preserves some essential trace (how much trace is part of what the series asks).
As you blur the boundaries between analog and digital, would you consider your series to be a collaborative work between you and technology?
Absolutely. I couldn’t create these finished works without the help of multiple softwares. I also consider my graphite pencils to be technologies, so the collaboration with technology begins very simply with mark making on paper.
Throughout your creative process for Slipstream, your pieces constantly alter themselves, paralleling how truths can be destroyed and misinformation created in cycles. Does your creation process always tend to mimic the themes of your work?
Yes- in my work I try to integrate process decisions in a way that mirrors the conceptual goals of the work whenever possible. I think it infuses the work with additional authenticity, intention and amplification- even if the entire creative process may not be obvious at first blush.
Your work is so animated and expressive, do you find that utilizing digital tools can induce human emotions more effectively than traditional art can on its own?
Thank you! I don’t know that I would compare them per se, but I will say that the immersive potential of digital technologies allows for multi-sensory engagement, which often manifests as a visceral impact on the viewer. The digital tools I use, whether in VR, AR or 3D software have enabled me to push far past what I have been able to do with more traditional media. That said, I think an immersive sculpture or drawing can have an incredibly powerful impact, particularly at scale, and given all of the considerations for embodied engagement that digital tools offer so intuitively.
Within your video series, various scenes and environments contain familiar fluid figures and biotic elements. When creating each piece, where did you draw inspiration for the specific images we see in each video?
Each of these videos is a fictitious “chapter” in a fictitious book of slipstream fiction, and so each one needed to be inflected with a different story, a different consciousness, a different impression. Collaborating with GPT-3 on the scrolling text in three of the works (Arsenic, Cyra and Lascaux) was an attempt to deepen and complicate questions of authorship, mutation and veracity. I also wrote (on my own) fake “excerpts” for each chapter, to increase their specificity and to broaden the worlds they hint at. All of the inspiration is drawn from my own personal life, from the world as I experience around me, and from storytelling generally.
Recently digital artwork is becoming more easily accessible, especially with the creation of platforms such as 4th Wall. As an artist who frequently works with XR and new digital media technology, do you think the digital art space will struggle to keep the same level of growth of accessibility as the industry continues to expand in the future?
I hope it continues to be accessible but there is huge room for improvement. Many of the softwares remain exorbitantly priced, and so there’s often a built-in barrier to entry. Ongoing access to electricity and reliable wifi is also a struggle for many so it’s a complicated answer to give. I’m thrilled so many excellent tutorials are free online – this at least is fantastic and I hope it continues.
As new innovations with Virtual/Augmented/Extended reality come to play, how do you predict this will affect your future pieces? Do you have ideas for projects you would like to explore that current technology is unable to support?
I am always interested to see what innovations occur and if they serve the conceptual goals of the work – and there are specific improvements I’d love to see in AR, for example, but I think much of what is already available is miraculous (Unreal 5). I continue to learn and the more I learn and teach myself the more possibilities open up in terms of impact and storytelling.
Nancy Baker Cahill is an award-winning new media artist who examines systemic power, selfhood, and embodied consciousness through drawing and shared immersive space. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of 4th Wall, a free Augmented Reality (AR) art platform exploring resistance and inclusive creative expression.
Make sure to come see the exhibit in person by Oct. 16th. We’re open Thurs-Sun 1-6PM on Melrose.