Shantell Martin will be one of the speakers at our upcoming PSFK Conference 2010, taking place on April 9th. Shantell is an illustrator & VJ who uses both modern technology and traditional mediums to create evolving experiences based around simple drawings.
Known for her live video-projected performances, Martin interacts with her audiences to create improvised light drawings which draw inspiration from music and the crowd. She has also done a number of projects using the human body as a canvas, and produced a series of line drawings depicting otherworldly landscapes populated with quasi-humans and other creatures.
PSFK talked with Shantell recently to see what she has been creating lately.
What are you working on right now?
Right now I’m working on a bunch of things. A Scotch tape dispenser in the shape of a mini-donut, which 3M has asked ten artists to customize for their 30thanniversary in Tokyo. I’ll be out there in April, VJing in some of the bigger clubs where I had residencies when I lived there, and some more intimate events in cafes and galleries. Soon I’ll be curating a series of shorts, animation, and motion graphics that I’m calling “Window Play,” screenings in different window spaces in New York in the evening. And I’m working on a way of sharing and showcasing my Koobs, a collection of drawings and visual stories I’ve been working on for five years. Up to now they’ve been very private and personal.
What has been the most interesting response or reaction to your work ?
“Thank you.” I guess you don’t really hear that a lot with artwork or performance. People usually watch it, ingest it, digest it, and then they leave it. I try to make the audience part of my work, giving them a moment that they shared with others in the same room that won’t ever exist again.
What’s currently inspiring your thinking?
Super-nerds! By this I mean people who are deeply into what they do. I’ve been meeting forward-thinking people who have an amazing grasp of programming and computers in a creative, visual way, bending technology and putting in personality.
What developing trend, idea or technology makes you most excited or hopeful for the future?
The future and technology in a way is a little scary… there’s the question of whether we’ll be disconnected as social beings, even though it looks like we’re more connected. I think as technology allows for more mobility, then we’ll all get closer to one another. I’m hoping someday soon I’ll be able to do my live work immersed within the crowd instead of sitting at a table off to the side.
Thanks Shantell!
Shantell will be speaking at the PSFK Conference 2010 – a Gathering for our Future. Come listen to likeminds as they share their ideas to make things better on stage and off. Find out more about the full line of of speakers at the PSFK Conference 2010 here.
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