As an artist that creates my work digitally, I've searched for methods to get out of the studio and work away from a desk. My career fantasy has been to combine my two biggest interests making art and long-distance hiking into a breezy new-media-plein-air painting. I needed a fast and fun process that I could practice while I was tired (and maybe a little delirious). With an iPad and few apps, I've gotten closer to that vision than ever.
Background
In 2015, I thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail and made series of glitch photos and iphone-collages focused on the shrines along the secular American pilgrimage route. I also made a formal video, Staying Connected : in the void, using my phone about my relationship to technology while "off the grid."
The Process
This Summer, I had this opportunity to travel to Latvia as part of residency with ASEFCC and hike the Great Wave Sea portion of the Jūrtaka (about 300 km). Leading up to the trip I started developing a workflow for a remote project that I could do entirely on an iPad on a plane or in a tent, etc. I experimented with different apps, and I was hoping to find an all-in-one sculpting/shading/AR/editing tool but it doesn't seem like we are there quite yet. I'm still waiting for Blender iOS ;) What I settled on though was:
-NomadSculpt to create the models- .obj->
-Procreate for shading: .usdz->
-RealityComposer for the AR installation: live render->
-Screen capture the live render in iOS: .mp4 ->
-Premiere Rush sound/light editing final video: .mp4 for uploading
More complex than I had hoped, but it worked pretty smoothly. I was able to create a full sculpt, shade it with photo layers, compose multiply AR elements, edit the video all from within my tent after walking 20 miles lol. It was a true mobile studio practice in the woods, and I can't wait to try out more hikes with this workflow.
The next level in this flow, would be tablet-based 3D animation program to make more complex animations than RealityComposer allows. But as far as a mobile studio practice goes, it's pretty good. I hope that other artists looking to create on the go can use my workflow, improve it (and tell me about it ;).
I’m minting all of the video-performances, and the models themselves as .glbs, on a custom Manifold contract. They are released on Wednesdays. They can be viewed and collected directly below:
The videos I produced were originally published on both the davaygrebere IG & the ASEFCC IG.
Links:
my website
my blog about preparing for the Jūrtaka
gallery of the NFT collection
ASEFFC website
article about the ASEFFC residency
baltic coastal hiking
