10 Questions with Bobby Kim Ling Chen

Bobby is an “end-to-end” digital artist with specialised skills in image/video processing, digital generative and derivatives arts, etc., using diversified methods, multiple software, and techniques to derive his creatives.
He is “end-to-end” because he does all the works himself on his creatives. For example, in addition to the finished artwork, he may write a program himself to connect the artwork to a video, using Augmented Reality (AR) as a technique.
In terms of style and themes, Bobby likes colourful stuff. Although some of his works may carry similar themes, he believes “while imagination has no border, art has no limit”, and that includes the techniques used in turning imagination into realization and injecting digital science into the presentation process of the creatives.

Bobby believes that most artworks exist due to the intention of the artist to “communicate” his or her feelings to others, be it on an aesthetic piece of work, a sculpture, an illusion, a game, etc. In recent years, the rapid advancements in digital science may have added more venues and techniques for an artist to “communicate” his or her feeling, which may otherwise be lacking in traditional arts.These more advanced techniques could include using AR, multimedia (e.g., audio and video), cinematography, website, 3D modeling, virtual reality (VR), metaverse, etc. This application of digital science to traditional arts created a hybrid known as “Digital Arts”, which is understood by many as “artistic work or practice that uses digital technology as part of the creative or presentation process”. However, in Bobby’s opinion, whereas digital technology is mostly used in the creative process, it is currently underutilised in its presentation.

Bobby further believes the introduction of digital science into arts would eventually bring about a paradigm switch as to how arts would be appreciated in the future, particularly in its physical form and related presentation. For one and for example, expression may no longer need to be confined to the creative itself as additional elements of surprise, participation, interaction, engagement, etc., may now be “extended” outside the realm of the original creation with the help of technology onto other “digital devices” such as mobile phones, VR glasses, etc.

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ARTIST STATEMENT

Although Bobby does not like to be “boxed in” while doing his artworks, he would stay very close to the following philosophical principles, which perhaps best define his “body of works”: Aesthetic is a must but also scare not for being non-conventional. Advanced use of digital science experimentally on arts should be applied whenever possible.

Bobby believes although “aesthetic” is compulsory in artworks, it is also very subjective. The “key” to being successful is, therefore, for artists to share what they perceive as beautiful to as many people as possible, and hopefully, there are acceptance along the way. An artist must be bold and lead in his style and should not bend to public demands, especially when it comes to non-conventional stuff. What is non-conventional in yesteryears may be today’s contemporary and tomorrow’s glory.

In the creative preparation process, Bobby favors more vibrant colors over dull ones and more derivative and generative arts over (digital) painting and brushes. Both derivative and generative arts called for high-level digital processing techniques and reproductions of the digital elements using similar image processing and presentation software such as Adobe, PowerPoint, and beyond. Bobby is never afraid to experiment with new and futuristic digital methods and software to maintain his first call of being scientific and meet his artistic objectives in presenting the following elements in most of his 2d visual representational or abstract artworks: Light, Space, Time, and Optical Illusion.

In most of Bobby’s artworks, one could easily spot the “light” element, presented as a contrast or otherwise as something shiny. The “space” element is either supported by the “depth” from layering techniques and/or the art of proportioning and balancing. The “time” element is of two folds: “still” as captioned in time in the artwork itself, and “motion” if an “extension” is provided in the presentation, as discussed below. Although Bobby seldom employs optical illusion, it is nevertheless one of the techniques he would sometimes use to add excitement to his creatives.

In the presentation process, Bobby favors using an “extension” by applying digital science to the finished artwork. This extension may add fullness, interactions, surprises, emotions, etc., to the finished artwork by leading the viewers to another related artwork (such as an image), art form (such as music), medium (such as a video), game, etc., using a digital device (normally a smartphone), a benefit that traditional arts may find challenging to equalize. The extension creation may require HTML or Augmented Reality (AR) programming skills, QR code knowledge, or more as technology further advanced.

Celebrations In Motion, Digital Arts, 2022 © Bobby Kim Ling Chen

INTERVIEW

Let's start from the basics. Who are you? And how did you become the artist you are today?

I am a Canadian digital artist currently residing in Hong Kong. Because of my father's career, I became a traveller starting at a young age. Strangely enough, I saw the world more from an artistic perspective each time I visited new places. Scenic experiences and cultural feelings seemed to be frozen in time as pictures and images in the memory album, ready to be withdrawn for reviews and appreciation any time as I aged. However, I did not grow up to be the artist I wanted to be.
Instead, I was trained in accountancy, followed by MBA, and served as CFOs for many major multinationals earlier in my career. Later, I branched out to the high-tech world in terms of Information Technology (IT) and web designs. I cherish the exposures to these days as I believe they are the essentials of me being a digital artist today.
With the rapid advancements in technology, it is not long before one realizes that digital arts actually take more than just image processing and digital painting skills to be successful. In a non-team environment and with budget constraints (for software and hardware), the knowledge of how to apply digital science to traditional arts so to add values from elements of surprise, participation, interaction, engagement, fullness, etc., to the artwork itself is not just researches, but skills and experience.

When did you first realize you wanted to be an artist?

In the later years of my high-tech industry experience, I soon realized that the missed opportunity for me being a traditional artist had given birth to a new opportunity where my digital experience could be capitalized and put to use in another special way. That is, to be a "true" digital artist, using digital methods in the production of my artworks to the fullest extent, both in processing and presentation of the creative.

Abstract In Motion, Digital Arts, 2022 © Bobby Kim Ling Chen

And when did you start incorporating digital media, new technologies, and digital science into your production? What inspired you to follow this route?

To me, most 2D visual arts (perhaps with the exception of 2D multimedia artworks) are "limited" and "confined". For example, they are limited by the dimensions of the canvas or paper and confined by what they could express in a given space. Perhaps these "constraints" tested a traditional artist's skills and thus determined their artworks' values. For example, the better they could express "motions" in the stillness of a painting and to register a "smile" in a drawing, the more well-known they would become. Whether the registered smile would become a "laughter" in the next moment is not important.
In my humble opinion, whereas we should appreciate the existence of traditional arts, we should not forget it is "evolution that adds improvements to mankind and not revolution (as in revolving)". Photography captures a "moment" in time but yet it "evolves" to introduce the video, which captures "motions" in time. If we were contended with photography and just revolved around it, there would never be a videography that came by. On the same token, we cannot disregard photography now that we have videography. In this regard, to compare whether photography is better than videography is meaningless, just like comparing an apple with an orange. Both fields have their importance. Perhaps one accumulates time piece by piece to tell the "times of your life" (i.e., photography), and the other, "a story" when viewed (i.e., videography).
Science and technology have also changed our way of life tremendously in recent years. It helps us understand our environment and its elements much better and clearer, at a larger scope and with more accuracy. This growth in scope inevitably enlarges our coverage, senses, and human abilities to absorb and process more information, which raises the bar of expectation. Digital arts, which is a science to the extent that if the word "digital" is removed, it defaults back to "pure art" immediately, is of no difference. As digital arts are gradually being accepted into the art world as a new form of art, the expectation of wider expression and deeper communication of an artwork has also expanded. This could be achieved by adding "extensions" and techniques with the help of digital devices to an otherwise still art.
With this philosophy, digital media, new technologies, and digital science have been incorporated into my artwork production since the beginning. The intention here is not only to just enhance the expression and communication of the artwork but to "liberate" arts from any borders, boundaries, and constraints, which traditional still arts may find difficult to equalize.
Whenever I get excited discussing digital arts, I always like to mention the following inspirators. They are artists that may or may not have been involved with digital arts. However, their sayings and artworks, which bought illusions and fun factors to arts in the style of traditional 2D/3D media arts, gave me the courage to be nonconventional too:
• Sergi Cadenas for his illusory, dual-image portraits
• Patrick Hughes for his "Reverspective" concept
• Michael Murphy for her perceptual 3D art
• Nina Paley for her saying that "All Creative Work Is Derivative", and her animations.

Let's talk about your work. What are the main themes you pursue?

Although I am fascinated with the recent developments in the "metaverse", my concerns about environmental issues (particularly global warming), and that indeed a few of my artworks carry these themes, I do not like to be "boxed in". I am very diversified. My artworks, although digital, could range from representation to abstract, traditional to science-fictional, sketches to painting, etc.
The key to identifying my works, therefore, rest not in the themes but on the characteristics, "body of works", and colours. Yet again, no two artworks are the same for me. Hence, one might not see all the elements in one production.
Because of the fact that I like to experiment with new objectives, optical illusions, technologies, etc., in the artworks and see how well they are accepted, they are sometimes easily recognized by the nonconventional characteristics and boldness. For example, I have artworks that incorporate magic games and even optical illusions in them.
I am also a strong believer that while most digital artists apply digital science in the artwork "creation" process, it is currently underutilised in artwork "presentation", to expand the scope of communication and expression as discussed earlier, particularly on a still artwork. Most of my artworks would include the extended connection, identified easily by either a QR code and/or an Augmented Reality (AR) marker on the artwork itself to serve as a bridge to another presentation.
In terms of "body of works", my creatives are normally surrounded by the supporting elements of Light, Space (as in-depth and proportioning), and Time. The reasons why I am fascinated with these elements are due at large to the fact that while they are commonly seen in most 2D visual arts, including photography, their "makings" in my opinion, could be different. To simplify and to illustrate my point: in photography, these elements already existed in realism most of the time; and in most other art forms, they were the results of creations by the artists. These are the two extremes that could not meet, but digital arts may have opened the window of marriage for these elements. For example, extracting the sunset in a photograph (i.e., light in realism) and inserting it into a painted forest to give serenity to the finished artwork, or imposing a painted drawing with perspective into a photograph to elaborate the depth (i.e., space element).
On the "time" element, however, digital arts could go beyond both photography and traditional arts. I define "time" as being either "moment" in time or "motion" in time. As discussed earlier in digital arts, "motion" in time is achievable if an extension were provided. This is something the other two art forms may find difficulties in matching.

Meta Discovery Of An Old Stereo Set, Digital Arts, 2022 © Bobby Kim Ling Chen

Planet Earth, Digital Arts, 2022 © Bobby Kim Ling Chen

In your statement, you talk about your use of vibrant colors. What do these colors represent for you? And why did you choose them in the first place?

I like to inject elements of surprise and "wow" factors into my artworks where possible. Bright and vibrant colours represent "lives" and "excitements" to me. The crashes of these bright and vibrant colours could sometimes be a "wow" factor to the viewers on their own.

New technologies are key to your production; you use several different ones, from AR to video, HTML, and different types of programming. How do you keep up to date with the latest discoveries? And how do you incorporate them into your production?

When it comes to derivative and generative and image/video processing digital arts, it is very important that digital artists keep abreast of the developments of technologies. There are many reasons.
Firstly, the digital artist could apply the new technology and/or techniques as soon as possible to be ahead of others. Secondly, to replace old techniques with new ones. Thirdly, and equally important, is to examine if the new techniques actually "downgrade" the challenges a digital artist faces in their "major process". Just to give a rudiment example and in layman's terms, a digital artist may always use background removal tools in their artwork (hence their major process). If technology advancement has made such a process so accurate and easily available, the digital artist should inject more difficult processes into his major process or production as a whole. To continue with the earlier example, they may introduce "the recolouring the foreground" into the equation, if such a tool were not easily available. This is carried out not only to impose as a self-challenge to better oneself but also as a mechanism to ensure that new sophisticated techniques would always be injected into the artworks as old ones become extinct.
However, in general and in reality, although technology may be advancing at a rapid speed, programming languages seldom change, and there is always a "lapse" of time before new technologies/discoveries can be applied to arts as techniques. But that does not mean one should not keep a constant eye on the latest developments and experimenting with new artwork productions.
To keep myself up to date, I would normally spend around 30% of my work time doing research, reading up, and playing with new apps and programs. Where potential new techniques are available, I would start a test project and see if the new techniques could be applied in my future productions. For examples, I am now trying to see if an Augmented Reality (AR) marker with aesthetic design could help blend technology with arts easier and provide a smoother presentation; whether "marker-less AR" could further add surprises to the viewers; and whether AI generative arts could give me more data elements to use.

Is there anything else you would like to experiment with? Any medium or theme you would like to introduce into your work?

Holograms and 3D Modelling are on my radar of interest now. However, both technologies may still be in their own infancy, although one could let their imaginations run wild as to how they could be applied to arts in the future.

Mixed Reality Performance, Digital Arts, 2022 © Bobby Kim Ling Chen

Multiverse Love Story, Digital Arts, 2022© Bobby Kim Ling Chen

Your work heavily relies on the digital world. What do you think of the recent changes in the art community and market? Did you try any online exhibitions yourself? Or did you present your work anywhere on the internet?

The introduction of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) has indeed added value in recognising the original artist and crushing the potential devaluations of an asset due to copyright infringements. However, this recognition process currently only exists in the "crypto" world and not in the real world we live in.
In the real world where we live, I feel that digital arts are still new to many and are gradually making their way to full acceptance, although that may still take time, and I believe we are a decade out, to say the least. For one, digital arts are still considered third class to canvas, brushes, pencils and paper, and photography.
Firstly, there is the psychological factor. Whereas most traditional 2D arts are tangible items with frames, digital arts are normally intangible and could be seen directly from computer screens or monitors. This "formless feel" could devalue not only the value of the artwork itself but also the seriousness of considering digital arts as art in the first place. That is why some serious digital artists put their artworks on digital frames and ship them as "physical" art pieces to overcome this hurdle.
Secondly, there is always the reasoning logic. In traditional art, many attribute the time it took to create an art piece to its value. On the other hand, photography is looked upon as skilled art, and the value is set according to the difficulties involved in achieving aesthetic results. But both forms of arts have matured and opened sets of skill requirements, which the jury could refer to determine their worth.
Digital arts, perhaps due to their newness, may lack the benchmarks and standards in determining their worth. Because of the number of hardware and software that may be involved and the diversified methods that may produce the same results, it became more difficult to call out which one is better than the other.
Many also failed to understand that some digital arts may take numerous iterations of processes to derive their final forms. The high frequency of iterations also means a higher chance of failure. For the same reason, what a digital artist imagines or envisions at the start of the production might not look the same as the finished artwork after numerous iterations. Therefore, whereas traditional arts may take longer to produce, digital arts may have more redundancies.
The best way to judge digital art is to give it a category of its own in competitions. Ironically this is seldom the case. It is only human to pick the sweetest and most familiar fruits for consumption, let alone the healthy values of some unknown fruits.
Some galleries sometimes also use rules that may apply to 2D traditional arts across the board without realizing it may inevitably hinder the growth of digital arts. For example, they disallow watermarks or signs on the artworks. Unfortunately, QR codes or AR markers, which are the best technologies to extend expression and communication (for now), look like watermarks and are therefore disqualified.
Despite the above observations, I must agree that there are more and more forward-looking galleries and museums opening up to accept digital arts as a new art form.
I am a loupeart.com artist, a contemporary artist at Artmajeur.com, and an artist with solo exhibitions on artshowinternational.com, just to name a few.

The Making Of Meta Beings, Digital Arts, 2022 © Bobby Kim Ling Chen

What are you working on now? Do you have any new projects you would like to share with our readers?

I believe I am still young in my career. At present, I try to join as many international competitions as possible throughout the world, particularly those in the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe, to gain exposure and experience.
In the long term, I would like to be involved in new projects that would further demonstrate my abilities in marrying digital science with the arts.

And finally, do you think, in the future, we will be even more dependent on the digital world, for example, through the Metaverse? Or do you see this trend stabilizing and coexisting with the real world?

As science and technology progress, our dependency on the digital world will only grow further. We have been under this trend for the past fifty years and are far from stabilizing, even after the establishment of Metaverse, where Virtual Reality (VR) cities and towns are currently being built, office buildings, galleries, and many real properties are "on-sale" now as we speak, and Augment Reality (AR) are being applied in the real world for road directions, advertisements, etc. While the general public would take time to catch on to this trend, newer knowledge is being gained from outer space and the universe. The science fiction we know today will indeed be our digital world of tomorrow and many generations to follow.

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