London, United Kingdom
Born 1965 in the UK. Originally trained as a chemical engineer before spending 15 years working in finance. Nine years ago I decided to change profession and pursue a career as a full time artist. I am married and have four children.
To view higher quality video of my work online see:
www.vimeo.com/davidtheobald
and visit my website:
www.davidtheobald.com
I work primarily in digital media, video and video installation, mainly using digital composition and animation.
Today, location is not so much defined by geography, but by our position within the complex web of processes that make up contemporary society. My work attempts to capture such a situation, caught in a perpetual state of transit where increasing complexity is often presented as the illusion of progress. As the global economy lurches towards an uncertain future, these complex connections that form the basis of day-to-day existence seem ever more evident and ever more precarious.
How can art respond? I think that art is the ideal place for thinking about these issues. By reinterpreting ethics as a process of imagining and recognizing new possibilities rather than simply choosing from commoditized options, we can shift it to the heart of a political process of artistic production. This response brings together ethical and aesthetic concerns in a way that preserves a vital distinction between art and the products of the culture industry. Under these conditions, art becomes a sticking point the complex sensory/cognitive gristle that remains when all else has been rationalised away.
Working with digital technology inevitably raises questions about mediation in modern society and the seemingly endless pursuit of much graphic design, animation and game technology towards ever more spectacular optical effects, the spectator held in thrall of the screen. In contrast, the use a restricted viewpoint, repetition, mundane subject matter and flat narrative in my work seem more likely to generate feelings of futility, frustration and perhaps humour which, in some cases, might give way to a deeper contemplation of the systems in which we live.