2022-12-09
For the longest time, my art practice has been in the field of computational arts. Now, I'm still in the beginning of my journey as a "serious" artist, but my interests have been heavily in the realm of TouchDesigner and Blender3D, alongside video. Visual, GFX heavy stuff.
However, recently I’ve fallen in love with the idea of using low-power computers. Stemming from my own feelings of getting too caught up in the virtual world, especially social media. I really feel like using computers that struggle running modern websites and most modern applications can really drive us towards a more mindful attitude towards technology.
My daily driver is a 2015 Macbook Pro, the baseline model with a dual core i5 and 8GBs of RAM, so not necessarily the most powerless machine, but the age is certainly starting to show. However, in trying to reduce the electronic waste I produce, I really don’t feel like upgrading my machine. Instead, I’d rather change my habits to accomodate the machine I use.
I've noticed this has helped me in realigning my focus in the things I do. In the past, I was very focused on the aesthetics of my work (and I still am), but the fact that running something TouchDesigner on my machine is an exercise in pain has forced me to re-evaluate my focus and approach. In other words, I've found it to be helpful in thinking really about what I want to say with my art, which in turn has helped with the feelings of hollowness and futility I have regarding my works.
Another way I've noticed low-power computing affecting me is that my self-image as a person interested in computers is starting to change. While I'm still interested in them on some levels, I see myself shifting my focus towards the analog realm, with painting and photography, both things I like and which I want to do more of. The fact that I have a laptop that limits my work in the digital realm really pushes me towards analog mediums, which I really like.
That being said, my interest in technology is probably not going away any time soon, and in fact I'd really like to intersect these mediums with technology, once I've found ways of creating digital art with minimal resources. I've been dabbling in NES programming with 6502 ASM, and feel like doing an art piece for the NES. We'll see what becomes of it... I'm also interested in working more with electronics and microcontrollers in general, which seems like a realm that doesn't need much in terms of your machine. This seems to be a turning point in general, and the start of something exciting.
Until next time,
-utu