Objects constructed in Bryce. Image finished in Photoshop by using different layers and filters.

Born in Homburg-Saar, Germany. Diploma in architecture and product design. Professional photographer for various Austrian newspapers and magazines. In 1997 I started playing around with Photoshop and 3D programs.

As the winner of your category in the 2003 International Art Contest, being selected by such a diverse group of artists from all around the world, how do you feel?

If last year it was a real surprise, this year it was almost a shock ! :-)

Please describe your current works and any plans for forthcoming exhibits.

The last few months I was occupied by learning some new tools (software) as for example Terragen. Terragen for me is a wonderful program to create fictive landscapes, beginning with a white sheet, so to say beginning with nothing. This is a very thrilling procedure and when I have got the result I am going on to create further fictive scenarios by putting different sculptures into this landscape. The sculptures are photographs I took on cemeteries for example and when they have got their final position within my landscape it is as if they have become alive. I just made a first series called "Digital Romanticism" which can be seen on my website.

Another program I started to work with is ZBrush, a great 3D modelling tool, which isn't based on pixels anymore but on pixels. This means that each dot one draws on the sheet is transformed in 3 dimensions immediately. If you draw a line and you rotate it you will see a 3D tube. The results are not yet published on my site but they will be within the next months, I just want to go further with this program first.

In April 2004 i will participate in a exhibition about "Phantastik - Views into other worlds". The leading topic are the views in different, parallel, alternative, utopian and hybrid worlds. There will be shown pictures of my series "Cities" as a screen show.

If any, in what ways have you seen changes in attitudes towards "art"?

A good part of the artists I know who used classical artistic media now use computers. To be more precise, artists start to use computers as soon as they learn how to use them no matter how old they are. Some start with graphical software when they are 60 or 70 and what may look strange, is that younger artists seem to be far more reluctant than older ones.

Of course some of the artists I speak about come back later to more classical techniques, or just invent new mixed techniques, but I have never seen the case of an artist who would completely come back to where he was before he started using a computer.

On the side of the Public, the evolution is much slower. Some people who used to look for the "value" on the side of "good craftsmanship" or on the side of a certain quality of artistic sweat tend to get lost, because they no longer see where "the work" now is.

As regards people who still cherish a certain romantic understanding of Art, they tend to unconditionally reject Digital Art. Also a number of people who are too deeply accustomed to the "traditional social packaging" of Art - gallery and art critics system - and among them, above all the people who are addict with the idea of the Unique Work of Art (Original required !) tend to look towards Digital Art with a solid amount of contempt. For such people, we are virtual... as artists :-)

But I should probably add too that Digital Art on the Internet allows reaching new categories of audience, who never visit galleries and very rarely go to museums. I still remember the enthusiastic reactions to my work, coming from kids that normally spend their time playing games on the network in Internet Cafes and who suddenly jumped towards their keyboards to find out where they could get the software I use.

Do you think that the fine artist will survive as technology replaces our skills?

Computers make the traditional technical aspects of Art appear for what they are, that is, not really fundamental any longer, since a machine, a well engineered piece of software can deal with them to a large extent. Would someone like Dali turn back to attempts of painting like the "old masters" today ? I doubt it. Dali who always showed his concern about new media and techniques, would more probably eagerly focus on intensive experiments based on new possibilities. Some friends told me that Matta had started playing with computers just before he died.

Another point is related to a remark by Duchamp who once said that the most important ability of the artist is to make choices. I can feel the truth of this sentence in almost every second of my work, because it is a kind of dialog in which the computer proposes options in some way, and I have to make the right decision.

Anyway, there are technical aspects related with digital art as well, but they are somewhat different from the traditional ones. However, I do not consider that I am far enough to draw lessons yet on this precise point.

On the whole, I would tend to say that originally, Art was based on technique on one hand and on inspiration (roughly speaking "surrealism") - on the other hand. Since some of the technical details can now be nicely handled by the software, the mental (surrealist) part now appears as the beating heart of the creative process.

Why did you enter this contest and what decided your selection for entry?

As I do not enter to win but to make my work available for as many people as possible, after winning the contest in 2002 I said to myself : why not enter again for the new contest ? And therefore I entered again in 2003. But I did not ever imagine nor dreamed of winning the first prize a second time. It seemed to be impossible.

I selected the image "Planet X" because it is a very typical result of digital artwork combining several programs and techniques in one image. In fact it is a collage of 3 or 4 objects created in Bryce 5 and the experimentation with different surfaces whereas the final collage is made in Photoshop.

Is there anything about being an artist that you do not like?

I do not like people hiding the way they work and keeping their artistic recipes secrets.
I do not like all these copyright signs everywhere, supposed to protect intellectual property of works of art that will most probably never make a copper coin anyway and showing so plainly that their authors greed is deeper than their work.

Would you sell your most favourite artwork, or keep it?

Well, since the Original is the Copy as regards Digital Art, I can actually sell and keep my art ! :-)

How important was education and training to you?

I studied architecture but before I fell upon the computer I was actually an autodidact photographer and I came to become familiar with the machine using the same self learning way. I never visited any computer lessons and I am working by trial and error. This is the most interesting way for me to learn and to make some progress because it makes me free of any assumptions about the original intents of the tool creators and often leads me to new approaches or solutions that were never thought of.

Is there anything in your art career that you would have changed?

I should have bought a faster computer earlier than I did. It would have been a great saving of time to me.

If you were invited overseas to exhibit, where would you like that to be?

I already had several exhibitions in the USA, but until now i could not afford to go there personally when the opening took place due to lack of time and money. The reason why this hurts me is that I simply would like to meet my overseas friends personally one day.
And all the nowadays restrictions because of security reasons don't make it easier to go there either. In November I participated in a surrealist exhibition in Ohio, some of my American friends joined the opening but I had to send my pictures there by snail mail. Beside this they were shown in form of a screen show which is an exhibition method that I appreciate a lot !

How can the Internet be made better for working artists?

As I could see from experimental collaborative works with friends, there is still a need to enhance the interactive features of the www.

Of course, there are lots of experiments and proposals going on in this direction on the web, but they are usually too complicated (to use) and yet far too simplistic (as regards the results)

Another point where I expect some progress are the web exhibitions themselves. I find really strange that after so many artistic and technical revolutions, we still basically stick to the traditional ways : showing digital art works "painted" on virtual canvas and hanging on virtual walls. One century ago, people with almost no technical means at all had far more innovative ideas.

Zazie

Zazie won First Prize in this contest for Digital Art 2 years in a row... 2002 and 2003.