© Keetra Dean Dixon & JK Keller
Excerpts from R & D exercises
The driving frustration/pleasure of contending with our conditions fuels much of our collaborative work. Here you will find documentation of quick tool and material explorations constructed with no preassigned outcomes. By testing our means of making, we test our own capacity as makers, revealing the unexpected along the way.
Tool “Breaking”: Technologies, both old and new, common and unfamiliar, shape our comprehension and experience. They impact our concepts, forms and paths for the future. Just as our tools push us, so must we push our tools. These formal explorations use tools in ways they weren’t intended to be used, alter existing tools to produce unusual results or exploit weaknesses in common creative applications.
Material “Misuse”: Urging unexpected response via improper material application is simple curiosity in action; it’s learning, and we love to learn. We begin many studies by posing a simple question: “What happens if…?” and gain knowledge from the results. These explorations use common materials in atypical ways.
Javascript aligning scaling misaligning svg
Shifting and blending vectors in Illustrator
Messaging transformation via incorrect ASCII text alignment.
May 2012
Striping for use in ASCII.
May 2012
Manual moire & type scanned.
May 2012
Manual moire scanned.
May 2012
Manual Moire scanned.
May 2012
Type study with scanner and sphere.
May 2012
Type development in Google Sketchup
April 2012
Type developed in Google Sketchup
April 2012
Google Sketch up surface & background developement
Salt Crystal Growth
March 2012
Salt Crystal Growth
March 2012
Salt Crystal Growth
Live video processing of printed Reverse JK image
2012
Bandaids, Yellow paper
May 2012
Prototype video of salt crystals + chemicals on cardboard
2012
Javascript-generated HTML canvas
2011
Javascript-generated HTML canvas
2011
Spraypaint on paper
March 2012
Drill, wood, remote-controlled car parts, spraypaint
March 2012
Photoshop filter development applied to walk cycle animation
March 2012
Phone Arts Guest Contribution
iDough! & ArtStudio & Giffer! on iPhone
January 2012
Die-pressed modeling clay
April 2012
Photoshop filter development
March 2012
Photoshop filter development
March 2012
Photoshop filter development
March 2012
Photoshop filter development
March 2012
Inked Ball Bearings.
Ball bearings drop from drawing machine: Vacuum + Pierced Plate for Ball Bearings.
Keetra loads drawing machine: Vacuum + Pierced Plate + Inked Ball Bearings.
Drawing machine: Vacuum + Pierced Plate for Ball Bearings.
Inked ball bearings nested within 2 hoops
March 2012
Moiré pattern & live trace in Illustrator.
March 2012
Javascript, Illustrator & every font installed on a computer
2006
ASCII image using proportional-width font: right-aligned, centered, justified & left-aligned
2007
Javascript partnered with dashed stroke and randomized color
2008
Javascript partnered with dashed stroke and randomized color
2008
Javascript partnered with dashed stroke and randomized color
2008
Phone Arts Guest Contribution 04
iTracer HD + ArtStudio on iPhone
October 2011
Phone Arts Guest Contribution 03
iTracer HD + ArtStudio on iPhone
October 2011
Phone Arts Guest Contribution 02
iTracer HD + ArtStudio on iPhone
October 2011
Phone Arts Guest Contribution
iTracer HD + ArtStudio on iPhone
October 2011
Egg shell, cast gelatin & clay shards
March 2012
Cast gelatin, food coloring & found beads
March 2012
Cast gelatin & found beads
Cast gelatin & clay shards
March 2012
Cast gelatin, found beads, printed pattern & fabric
March 2012
Cast gelatin, food coloring, found beads & printed pattern
March 2012
Cast gelatin & printed pattern
March 2012
Egg shell, cast gelatin & clay shards
March 2012
Cast Gelatin, Food Color, Printed Patterning
March 2012
Cast gelatin, food coloring & clay shards
March 2012
Cast gelatin & food coloring
March 2012
Scan of woven ribbon
2011
Scan of striped sphere
2011
Scan of colored flowers
2011
Colorized face scan
2011
Colorized face scan
2011
Colorized hands scan
2011
Hands scan
2011
Scan of balloon & light
2012
Colorized face scan
2011
Colorized face scan
2011
Scanned glass bottom
2011
Scan of balloon & light
2012
Scan of striped sphere
2011
Scan of striped sphere
2011
Scan of woven ribbon
2011
Scan of cut cabbage
2012
Scan of woven ribbon
2011
Scan of Wacom pen tip
2009
Attempting to Draw a Straight Line on a Scanner
various pen tips dragged across scanner
2009
Scans of Wacom pen tip
2009
Scans of newspaper ad
2009
Scan of mirror
2011
JK creating Attempting to Draw a Straight Line on a Scanner
2009
That Thing That Separates Us, 2009
Photoshop scripting messing with profile silhouettes.
Patterns applied to 3d models
2011
Patterns applied to 3d models
2011
Patterns applied to 3d models
2011
Distortion of Illustrator brushes
2011
Illustrator blend tool manipulation
2011
Illustrator blend tool manipulation
2011
Manipulation of Moiré patterns
2011
Using the limits of Illustrator’s scale tool to degrade form
2007
Distortion of Illustrator brushes
2011
Illustrator blend tool manipulation
2009
Illustrator blend tool manipulation
2010
Manipulation of Moiré patterning
2011
Default Illustrator layer outlines rotated
2011
Vectorization of bitmap type
2005
Manipulation of Illustrator blend tool
2011
Vectorization of bitmap type
2005
Manipulation of Illustrator blend tool
2011
Using the limits of Illustrator’s scale tool to degrade form
2007
Distortion of default Illustrator layer outlines
2011
Illustrator blend tool manipulation
2010
Illustrator blend tool manipulation
2009
Paths revolved in 3d
2011
Paths revolved in 3d
2011
Illustrator filter development
2011
Illustrator filter development
2011
Illustrator brush development
2011
Illustrator brush development
2011
Illustrator blend tool manipulation
2011
Zig-Zag filter manipulation
2010
Zig-Zag filter manipulation
2010
Blend tool manipulation
2010
Javascript partnered with dashed stroke and randomized color
2008
36 Illustrator layers of the same paths rotated & selected
2011
Illustrator brush development
2011
Distortion of default Illustrator layer outlines
2011
Pattern brush development
2011
Distortion of default Illustrator layer outlines
2011
Pattern brush development
2011
Illustrator brush development
2011
Zig-Zag filter manipulation
2011
Zig-Zag filter manipulation
2011
Javascript partnered with dashed stroke and randomized color
2008
Javascript-generated HTML canvas
2010
Javascript-generated HTML canvas
2011
Javascript-generated HTML canvas
2011
Javascript in Illustrator connecting vertex points
2007
Javascript-generated HTML canvas
2010
Javascript-generated HTML canvas
2010
Javascript-generated HTML canvas
2010
Javascript-generated HTML canvas
2009
Javascript-generated HTML canvas
2010
Wood
2009
Tumbled modeling clay
2010
Spray painted paper
2010
Make-shift lathe
2010
Rock tumbler can tumble lots of things
2010
Layered & pressed wax pieces
2011
Layered & shaved wax
2012
Shaved wax
2012
Layered wax
2011
Layered wax
2011
Layered wax drips
2011
Layered & shaved wax
2011
Layered & shaved wax
2009
Layered & shaved wax
2011
Layered & shaved wax
2011
Layered & shaved wax
2011
Layered & pressed wax pieces
2011
Layered wax & acrylic
2011
Pushpins & styrofoam (scan)
2011
Acrylic paint
2012
Acrylic paint
2012
Acrylic paint
2012
Acrylic paint
2012
Acrylic paint
2012
Plastic fingernails & foam football
2011
Plastic fingernails & foam football
2011
Plastic fingernails & foam football
2011
Layered & pressed modeling clay
2011
Layered & pressed modeling clay
2011
Layered & pressed modeling clay
2011
Crystal garden chemicals & cardboard
2011
Crystal garden chemicals & cardboard
2011
Crystal garden chemicals & cardboard
2011
Hot glue beads
2011
Hot glue beads & printed pattern
2011
Dried ink
2010
Layered sticker dots
2010
Layered & pressed modeling clay
2011
Layered & pressed modeling clay
2011
Scan of layered & pressed modeling clay
2011
Cast wax
2011
Expanding foam
2010
Expanding foam
2010
Layered, pressed & cut modeling clay
2011
Photoshop filter applied to layered, pressed & cut modeling clay
2011
Rubber-dipped glass
2008
Layered sticker dots
2009
Aluminum cans & colored liquid
2011
Aluminum cans & colored liquid
2011
Frosting
2011
Frosting
2011
Frosting on wax paper
2011
Frosting on wax paper
2011
Milk bubbles
2012
Milk bubbles
2012
Milk bubbles
2012
Extruded modeling clay
2010
Extruded modeling clay
2010
Extruded modeling clay
2010
Extruded modeling clay
2010
Extruded clay
2010