I’ve been an artist as far as I can remember. It started with Legos and making wild sculptures by dripping candle wax in ice water (try it: you’ll see… It’s very cool). I must have been about 8. I grew up in France steeped in movies, art and culture. Skipping a few years to film school in the cinema department at San Francisco State University, I finally found confirmation of what I had always perceived but hadn’t yet been given the words to express.
When I got an Amiga computer in 1988, I immediately started applying my experimental instincts and visual fluency to the creative investigation of digital tools. I’ve been playing in that sand box ever since.
It’s easy to forget that the raw matter from which all the media we endlessly consume is an immaterial and formless electronic abstraction based on a cold logic. We design sleek surfaces that hide this coldness and lull us into believing they are a convenient substitute for reality and are helpful in the pursuit of increased productivity. I enjoy poking holes in this machine. I have some opinions on the political and social implications of doing this but really, my main motivation has always been a curiosity without expectation of outcome. I want to know what’s under the hood, how it works, and what happens when it’s reassembled differently.
My professional life is in entertainment; I started out working on visual effects movies and animated features. I eventually segued to themed entertainment at Walt Disney Imagineering where my high end CG production experience could be integrated with other digital technologies into a physical canvas that supported immersive experiences and interactive story telling. I can’t complain about a job where we invent new ways of telling stories on every project. (www.thomashollier.com)
My personal work is documented here. It revolves around image making, perspective, looking, time, memory and the development of a creative process. Ultimately, “play” has emerged as the guiding principle of my approach. It is through play that we understand the universe around us and how we become active participants in it, both as children and as adults. It is through play that we learn to live.
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