I’ve recently come to call my core act ‘realization’. It involves making things ‘real’ - and in doing so, many things happen, the results of which sometimes make up the bulk of the meaning of the things we make.
In other words, I navigate the complexities of ‘bringing things to life’ - by applying broad experience, unique perspective and playful research and collaboration. I share the results with my audience, clients, and community.
My main mode of realization is through prototyping. I define parameters through ideation and drafting. I create active hypotheses through functional systems and experiments that delimit the problem space. That is, I find ‘edges’. An edge is a place where things break, or where new properties are discovered through emergent behavior. I try to find new ways of doing things. I believe there are many, many, many ideas we are yet to explore.
I am a compulsive maker. -------I collect tools, techniques, knowledge, fascinations ----- I spin together technology with an obsession with images, symbolism, and the subtle elements of a visual communication. ------- I incorporate broad technical experience, touching most aspects of the production of modern media --------- I sketch, draft, plan, paint, sculpt, model, texture, light, rig, render, edit, compose, create interactive, immersive, inter-disciplinary, experiences ------- i do so with: blender, TouchDesigner, unreal, unity, three.js, html and javascript. ------ I spec, build, install, deploy audio visual systems in theatrical, commercial and artistic virtual and real spaces.
All this is a thoughtful orchestration of the many elements of a modern visual media across implementations. I help clients and my audience navigate the technical elements to express an intention. I facilitate creative conversations through balance of active imagination and applied knowledge.
The core of this
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Director, Z-Space Arts and Technology Society, a non-profit collective in Gastown—Vancouver, with members skilled in interaction, motion design, animation, and art, founded in 2015.
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Co-founder, Inter/mediate Arts Society with a mission to make interactive technology more accessible and diverse through non-hierarchical, play-based workshops.
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Builder, award-winning virtual spaces such as TempleGarden.xyz, which won a top prize in the 2022 Monaverse Renaissance Buildathon.
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Experimental animated work at events such as New Forms Festival, Ottawa International Animation Festival, GIRAF Film Festival, and Les sommets du cinéma d’animation de Montréal.
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Venice Biennale, 2012-2020, Jonny worked with Stan Douglas to reconstruct Vancouver history through detailed 3D simulations, resulting in projects like Circa 1948 (iOS/NFB), the play Helen Lawrence (Canadian Stage), and major exhibitions at Victoria Miro (London), Fruitmarket Gallery (Edinburgh), Haus Der Kunst (Munich), David Zwirner Gallery (New York), and the 2022 Venice Biennale.
Clients
Ste.Marie — AD Projects — HTC Viverse — National Film Board of Canada — Stan Douglas — Vancouver YVR Airport — EOS Lightmedia — IM4 Lab - CreativeBC
