Sarah Kim: Viewing online photos of your recent works from Self/Nonself: Recursive and Volatile, I noticed that you consistently used red throughout your pieces. With an overarching theme about the human image as constructed by our modern technological era and the vanishing distinction between the virtual and the corporeal, I assume that the saturated red reflects the corporeal body, so is there any other symbolic meaning for the other colors in your works? What component of your works reflects the exploratory theme of the technological sublime? As an art history major more familiar with artworks and art theories from before the 1900s than contemporary times, I had difficulties understanding your artworks’ thematic relations to modern technology and microbiology; could you further clarify what you mean by the technological sublime?

Justin D. Strom: During my time obtaining a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in painting, I was a figurative artist, so everything I worked on had to do with the body. Though my undergraduate background explains my thematic emphasis on the human body, my interest in the technological sublime began as a desire to understand the intersection between human body and science. In high school, I wanted to be a medical illustrator. Viewing numerous medical illustrations from the resource book Gray’s Anatomy and copying them by hand, I began questioning how one can illustrate processes in the body or reactions of the inner space if no one has ever seen it before (namely through the lack of sufficient technological capabilities)? And when I say “processes in the body,” I am referring to illustrations that demonstrate natural processes like digestion or maturation.

Another influence in terms of my artistic interest in exploring microbiology and technology’s effects on the human body was my choice for graduate schooling. For my Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Studio Art, I attended the University of Wisconsin which was one of the leading institutions in mapping out DNA and dealing with other biological issues like gene hacking and hybridisation. What solidified my interest in the intersection between art, the human body, and science, was my personal experience of taking a drug developed from human DNA, which tricks my body at a cellular level to not react adversely to the medicine. Despite the modern drugs “science fiction-esque” quality, progress in STEM cell research and human biology has made it possible for such innovations to exist in current reality. With the popular innovative efforts in science, contemporary society has reached an ethical tipping point in which DNA sequencing has become crucial and could change our entire perspective on the human body, with its unprecedented possibility to analyze DNA for disease, essentially ‘clip’ it out, and replace it with another donor’s DNA. Thus, is it morally reprehensible to manipulate human genetics despite its efforts to better society and prevent future diseases?

Furthermore, the art world has also experienced major changes after modern technological advances like the release of digital photography in my college years which greatly minimized the time lapse needed for development and paved the way for instant recall and scanning technology. A controversial issue that arose from this innovation in digital technologies was the donation of an executed prisoner’s body to science, allowing his entire body to be scanned online, with definitive coordinates that separated the body into parts. Not only was photography forever redefined, printmaking experienced similar advancements with the development of laser engravers and inkjet printers. Numerous technological advancements have thus influenced our artistic ability to portray and explore these intersections between art, science, and their influence on our perception of the human body.

The multiple themes regarding the body and science coalesce in my artworks mainly through a manipulation of compositions and media. I utilize hybrids of digital and traditional printing on reusable resources like plant life that replaced all synthetic plastics used in the past. The compositions also reflect this scientific theme through their adaptation of artistic styles reminiscent of Italian Renaissance and Dutch still life paintings. As a result of my experience abroad in Florence during my undergraduate studies, I include a heavy use of red, a larger than life scale, and a Renaissance-inspired display of the human form. I acclimate the notion of object symbolization found in Dutch still lives to rework the 3-D digital forms based on 2-D images of my body in my works, referencing the many results one single DNA can produce. Lastly, I coat my finished prints in a layer of resin to produce a highly-reflective surface that mimics technology and the small barrier it creates between the individual and the experience like a computer screen. The luster is also meant to induce a visceral reaction from the viewer because of its allusion to the human body. My conscious decision to use digital printmaking and continuously rework the forms through different apparatuses refers to the conceptual themes of my works that revolve around technology and its effect on the corporeal.

Kim: Since digital technologies for printmaking are constantly evolving, how does this ever-changing quality influence your artistic skills compared to more traditional techniques such as painting or drawing?

Strom: It is nerve-wracking to tinker with new technology, but as an artist, I can dabble with the A + B = C structure of digital programs like Meshmixer and simultaneously play with chaos and creativity within my works. These creative mistakes that result from constant dabbling are the essence of artistic innovation and can change the perspective around an established reality, opening up new possibilities and ways of understanding.

Kim: Lastly, I recall from online research that you were once part of a printmaking duo known as “Satan’s Camaro”. How does the creative process change when producing works in collaboration compared to solo works, and how did your experience with both affect your current works or artistic concepts?

JStrom: Well, my work within the collaboration dealt with the artworks’ mechanical aspects like the compositional forms. Thus, the seven year-long collaboration set an early stage for the forms found within my current body of work; the only difference is that I got rid of the identifiable visual body because it was too illustrative. Also, the conceptual themes for our tongue-in-cheek works were based more on popular culture and art than the scientific themes I address in my current work. The duo name itself is a pop cultural reference to Transformers. An interesting story was that during a G-20 Summit, our exhibition known as the “Medieval Techno Show” was shut down. The government was doing an examination of nearby shows and events, and they thought that our name indicated a relation to the satanic.