Jens Karlsson Chapter3.NET Desktop Imperium

Hello jens, a short intro would be useless i guess considering the number of interviews you have done already so let's just use this question as the opening one... if your life is a digital art (or art), what style would it be? It would be a species; A parasite organism embracing its surroundings with loads of love and optimism. What pulled you to do digital artwork, btw? It actually all started with photography, something that

In my first year I came to realize that traditional photography had it's limitations even though I loved the beauty of the craftmanship. So I started exploring the fields of photo manipulation and worked a lot with Corel photopaint. This was back in 95 and photoshop had not yet been born.

A year or so later I hooked up with James Widegren of threeoh who also studied info&ad and we began getting involved in the online design scene with swank army and all that, and we founded our own design studio and started competing in challenges and stuff. I think that's how I got hooked up and found my path into digital design.

But the short answer to this question would be that I've always been a creative individual looking for new outlets and our society and technology opened my eyes for incredible opportunities within the digital environment, thus the path.

JEN'S PALLETE

What particular work do you think propelled you into the limelight, a certain work that gained respect and attention from the art/design community?

Desktop Imperium in 2000, for sure.

What goes on inside your mind as you push those pixels to the limit?

I'd say it's a meltdown of everyday interpretations, my surroundings and all the things that inspire me. When experimenting freely that is. When jamming conceptually I treat every move I do with a lot of self criticism always asking why.

When can you say that your work on a particular image/file is over... what must it have for it to satisfy you and you can say that that image is complete?

That's impossible to answer actually, it all depends on what the purpose is. For individual work I always try to reach a certain level of detail, some kind of personal limit that's built into the back of my head I assume.

What things/tools must your PC, cubicle or working place must have for you to work well?

The machine just has to be bitchin' and the OS needs to be customized for me, I also require a lot of organization of libraries, etc in order to work fast. Else than that all we need is love right, whether it comes from surfin thehun.net or chillin' with your buddies in a playful environment. AND music of course, wouldn't survive a sec without it.

Would you still choose to work even if you have enough 'supply' to last for two lifetimes?

For the man? Definitely no! Would I continue doing what I love? Yes.

Do you create for yourself or for an audience?

Good question. For my personal work I don't think about much else than reachin' a result that satisfies my own eyes, but at the same time subliminally I believe every artist that exhibits his work for the public sense a lot of expectations and that naturally affects you.

Designing a product would obviously be the latter, for an audience that is.

What factors constrain your creativity?

Loads of things; lack of human relations, too much exposure to media, boring surroundings, if the coffé tastes bad, hunger, empty wallet, restrained mentality among co workers due to company policies, forgetting to take my vitamins, bad breath, not enough sex, lack of stress/pressure, and finally the worst enemy ROUTINE. Gank, gank, gank.

What keeps you busy if you're not infront of your PC?

Videogames, partying, skate/snowboarding, shopping, browsing through fashion mags, photography, the movies, observing the financial market, planning for the future.

Where do you think the design community will be twelve years from now... and where do you see yourself by that time?

We will be finding ourselves asking that same question, always paying more interest to what's in the future than the current, including me.

Your words to the aspiring artists and readers of this interview?

Don't drink too much coffé it's bad for you.

[ FEATURES SECTION / PIXELCATALYST.HOME ]