Artist in conversation: Alastair Peat

Great to meet and find our more about the digital artist, Alastair Peat!

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- How and when did you start working within the digital space?

I started experimenting with digital tools from when I was around 16 (6 if we can count MS Paint). I would mess around with Photoshop around that time but I was mostly still making work with oil paints. I began adapting my practice into a digital realm around the time of the early 2010's 3D Printing revolution, where desktop printers were made widely available to the public. The idea of manifesting a digital object from the computer really captivated me; this was when I saw what interesting forms could be created within software compared to physical sculpting; I saw it as the evolution of form and the next step in the grand art-history timeline. This led me down the rabbit hole of learning 3D software & later to more advanced things like Game Engines.

- When looking at digital art like yours I’m always trying to see if there’s a past life as a gamer. Have you ever been into video games and have they had an impact no you as an artist?

 I wouldn't class myself as a 'gamer' but I definitely grew up with video games. I grew up at an interesting point in computing as I saw an evolution from simpler to more advanced hardware. I experienced the rise of Pokemon and the journey of Halo 3; experiences and worlds that are probably imprinted in my mind for eternity somewhere. The idea of video games as an artistic medium is something I wouldn't have thought I would have accepted until getting into creating VR experiences. A video game is essentially an interactive experience whereby the user will go on some kind of journey. As an artist, isn't this the perfect medium to direct your audience into your vision? In this sense, I would say they have impacted my work. The aesthetics of video games also interests me; the synthetic digital recreation of the real world is fascinating when you break it down; images being collections of pixels on a screen, 3D models are coordinates in a euclidean grid; I find it amazing how we have tried to recreate the real world in these computing machines and in doing so we learn more about the way we observe reality.

- There’s strong symbolism to a lot of your newer work, as a viewer I feel as if there is almost double meaning beneath every image. Is it your goal to create a more rewarding and engaging experience by multiple viewings and readings of your work?

I would say I do not consciously plan how the viewer may reintroduce themselves with my work. I do, however, attempt to use concepts and themes that I find are timeless in nature. For instance, the recent 'Digital Alchemy' series that I have been doing uses symbols and archetypes that are deeply embedded in the human psyche; the idea of order & chaos is something that will always have meaning to us in comparison to work that may be about something fleeting and popular at the time.

- What are your main influences?

The influences I have are mainly subject-based as opposed to artist-based. For example, I was obsessed for years by the nature of consciousness & the idea of higher dimensional geometry. A lot of my work has nods to these themes embedded within them. A selection of 20th Century artists such as Picasso & Dali made work about the idea of a 4th spatial dimension; Picasso tried to show this by depicting all angles of a person from one viewpoint. This visual meme of showing all angles from one perspective (for instance through my 360-piece 'Psoul Chamber') is something I often show within my work. When I was a Fine Art student at the Manchester School of Art I would often have conversations with my tutor, Keith Brown, for hours about Quantum Mechanics & the nature of reality; conversations like this were forms of inspiration for me as a young artist with few mentors from the digital world. He is a prominent figure & legend in the world of digital sculpture who I recommend you check out.

- I see that you have a strong interest on NFT’s. They have been very hyped recently and many people are talking about them. What is your take as an artist, does it present an opportunity for revenue? Are they here to stay?

NFT's are very exciting indeed. With digital art in particular, it is very rare to get some form of income from people purchasing your work within the contemporary art scene. However, with the current NFT revolution that is happening, this presents a great opportunity to democratise the art space and have digital artists try and make a living from their craft. Obviously, there is an oversaturation that will naturally occur in the market with money-making opportunities but I believe they are overall a positive thing for artists. I do think there is a risk that this is a bubble (similar to the early 2000's .com bubble) which could end up with a sudden stagnation in the market. For now, we may as well ride this wave. However, whether or not the 'hype' of NFT art is a bubble or not, I do believe there is a use case for them that is here to stay. The smart contract technology that they work on is a very interesting concept in terms of reshaping the way we decentralise institutions and have an official blockchain-approved transaction history of artwork. This technology has so many use-cases for the future and it will be interesting to see what other aspects of society that smart contracts will be embedded in. They will help the world become less bureaucratic through the decentralisation of previously centralised operations.

- Miltos Mannetas famously said, “Outside of the Internet the is no glory”, with your work being purely digital and also actively participating on virtual exhibitions and NFT market places, is that how you want it to be experienced? Do you ever feel it needs to cross and land in the physical space, is there a need for that?

I have exhibited work both physically & virtually. Recently, I have had less physical gallery exhibitions due to the nature of my work. I do overwhelmingly prefer physical exhibitions still and would love to do more in the future; the people you meet and the conversations you can have in a physical exhibition is always an enjoyable and rewarding experience.

- Have you been working on anything exciting? 

Recently I have been working for a new NFT startup company; helping to create 'metaverses', these are 3D worlds where people can view their NFTs in the digital realm. Aside from this, I am currently in the process of continuing to collect data for a VR project which I did in my Masters; in which I created an experience that emulates altered states of consciousness. This was interesting as it used Google Deep Dream to create a digital hallucinatory experience. I'm hoping to gather more participant data and publish these results. Apart from that I'm just still creating new work when I can, focusing more on complex geometric animations & hoping to do more physical shows in the near future too.