7E Guest Artist Interview - Kim Pimmel Kim Pimmel is an artist working in a painstakingly beautiful

7E Guest Artist Interview - Kim Pimmel

Kim Pimmel is an artist working in a painstakingly beautiful way. All of the images you see above are created in analog with various tools. Kim utilizes stop motion photography, light, magnets, fluid dynamics and even builds custom electronics to achieve his art. After we were introduced to Kim via a mutual colleague (thanks Phil!), I decided to do a short interview.

7E: Your “compressed” series is very unique. What was the inspiration for doing analog style stop motion effects for visuals that would usually be created digitally?

As a software designer, I spend a lot of time in front of a screen, pushing pixels. While this satisfies the systemic, logical designer in me, it leaves me looking for ways to express my creativity in more playful, freeform ways.
I love analog mediums -  there’s something I find really special about the the look, feel, and imperfect nature of vinyl records, photographic film, analog synths. But I’m also heavily influenced by the abstract work of generative code artists such as Robert Hodgin and Erik Natzke. So, inspired by the analog visual effects in films such as 2001, Solaris and Flash Gordon, I started playing around with creating rich abstract visuals using everything from hand soap to ferrofluid. That was really the genesis of the Compressed series.

Compressed 03fromKim PimmelonVimeo.

7E: I see you’re also an electronic musician. How does music influence your work? Also, what are some of your favorite synths and effects?

I usually start with the visuals, but very quickly the music and visuals become two parts of the same creative expression. Pacing and rhythm influence editing. Color and texture affect tone. I have to admit my lovely Juno 106 and other analog kit are gathering dust as Ableton Live fits into my busy life better.

7E: Could you describe the technical aspects involved in creating the Light Drive series?

Light Drive was a great fusion of the playful expression of analog and the powerful control of digital. Every frame of the video is a long exposure light painting. The lights used for the exposures were placed on a Technics 1200 turntable and controlled remotely using Arduinos, bluetooth modules and Processing. The lights were attached to motors and wire armatures, which I could manually tweak to adjust the shape of the light’s rotated form.  The pitch controller on the turntable let me directly control timing, while the digital pipeline was great for sequencing and motion control.
I also built a custom camera timer for my DSLR from a cannibalized Nikon wired remote, an Arduino. This gave me lots of flexibility for adjusting the timing and length of long exposure sequences.

Light DrivefromKim PimmelonVimeo.