Graphic elements and colours taken from software interfaces of everyday digital devices define the personal language of Aaron Scheer, a Berlin based visual artist who creates paintings and aquarelles by combining digital and analogue techniques. As part of a common vocabulary, such elements are overturned and transformed into something else, leading the eye to a care for attention towards the aesthetic dimension of those virtual structures that daily mediate and shape how we experience life, identity, relationships, work and space.

Always threatened by the possibility of suddenly disappearing due to system flaws, a virtual object is by nature fragile and intangible; in a sense this is one of the beauties of software-based art, that opens up multiple possibilities in artistic practice: always in flux and never fixed, the virtual object allows to move between the temporalities of the process in a non-linear way, until the artist sets a boundary; thus Scheer combines the possibilities offered by different softwares with a painting logic, limiting the temptation towards ctrl-z.

In this interview, Aaron Scheer talks on the potential of digital art to be the loud voice into the endless scrolling of our lives.

I read that one of your first approach to art was with traditional painting, then you started experimenting in materials using an old printer machine from your parents’ house. Would you like to talk a bit more about your background and what brought you do digital painting?

I like to use everyday tools, such as a low-key printer, to experiment with. It's easily accessible and has lots of stories from everyday life to tell. It's also surprising, as you don't expect those tools, which you've been using so often and never really questioned, to be or do something else: say art. Someone once said that I'm perverting those tools. I like to turn something productive into something unproductive, twist the original intention. Free the machines from slavery, (all the while maybe becoming their slaves). But in everything I do, there's always somehow a painterly sensibility to it. That's where my background in painting comes through.

Even if your creation process and production is based on digital device and softwares, there’s a final switch to analog surfaces such as printed paper. So I’m really curious on the choice behind this medium as this tension between digital and analogical is really a key element throughout your work. Tell me more...

Well, I guess this has something to do with my painterly sensibility that I was talking about earlier. After trying out a few options, a matte thick kind of Aquarelle-ish paper was just fitting best. Combined with pigment ink, the results were incredibly rich pieces that felt like they were soaked in paint. It contributed perfectly to my idea of blurring the boundaries between the analog and digital world. To the extent that, up to this day, people can't really tell how it's been done. The fact that I usually frame my pieces with glass is an ode to the screen that I'm working on and emphasizes the tension, once again.

You take distinctive elements of contemporary communication devices such as user interfaces, graphics, logos, glitches, …, evocative of earlier artistic currents like net-art or post-internet art. What cultural influences and aspects of contemporary information society defined your work and ideas?

It's born out of the fact that I'm simply spending most of my time in front of the screen. So all these elements you've been describing became naturally my language, my visual language. It's just that I'm isolating, emphasizing and exaggerating certain elements. A good friend of mine once said that he thinks that art has the purpose of drawing attention to things you would normally not pay attention to. I like that thought. In my case, it's drawing attention to the digital void that we're being sucked in. My pieces suck you in, in a similar manner. Meant to be stared at, like a zombie hitting a wall with its head.

One of the potentials of softwares as artistic medium is that you can produce infinite variations of the same object… so in this way there’s the chance to construct a layered body of work always in becoming and never fixed until you decide so. What’s your process in the making?

Yeah, that's exactly what I'm limiting myself to. I've been creating a technique where I can't change and control every little element. I'm working with different softwares that are not compatible with each other and I'm downloading single files that once downloaded, can't be changed anymore. It's a painting logic, once again. If you paint on canvas, let's say with acrylic colors, every move you make will be eternal; you can't just delete it. You can only modify it, react to it. It gives you some pressure and a good working flow. I'm applying that logic to my work as well.

Do you believe that today’s image sharing/production being at everyone’s hand has somehow penalised art making and fruition? Also, based on your experience, could NFTs actually benefit digital artists?

Good question. What's for sure is that more and more images are being created by the minute, second. It's like a constant stream of stuff. And because it's such an overflow of images, our attention span gets shorter and shorter. That's why digital art becomes louder and louder. To catch your attention, while you're scrolling like a zombie (remember?). Just have a look at the current NFT scene. That's where curation comes in. I've been saying for years now that curation is a new form of art production. I, for example, see curation as a very important part of my overall work. Sometimes I catch myself being overwhelmed by the output of my own creativity. Too many pieces on my laptop, all screaming for attention. That's why exhibition spaces, offline or online, are so vital. It gives you the chance to slow down and think more deeply about the interrelations of your works and the message you want to convey.

As most of your production exist in a physical way as printed matter, how does experiencing an artwork change when the exhibition environment is virtual (and how we could improve that)?

Native digital art for native digital spaces. Native physical art for physical spaces. Is what I might have said a few years ago. But it's unfortunately not that simple. If you wanna see good examples of how you can experience native digital art, have a look at what Keiken did with istthisit. A fully immersive art experience that was tailored towards being experienced on the screen. Other good examples are what platforms like Off Site Project or Dateagle Art trying to do. Doesn't mean though that it's not possible to present digital art in physical spaces. Have a look what Theo Triantafyllidis is doing, for example. I think the main principle should be to think about how your art can be best experienced, based on the space that you're navigating in. Both digital and physical spaces have their own distinctive characteristics. Use those to your advantage.

Any future project you’re working on?

I'm working on two shows at the moment, one at Kunstverein Ahlen and one at Artemis Gallery in Lisboa. In parallel, I'm working on a bigger commission. I've been also recently publishing a big ass book with the artist group darktaxa that I'm being part of: noPublication. And just released my second edition with Office Impart, in Berlin. Further projects are in the making. Stay tuned!