rory scott x exploration of “environments”

Still from Impermanence, courtesy of the artist.

Rory Scott is a multidisciplinary artist, whose work utilizes animation, extended-reality (AR & VR) along with handcrafted means to create emotive environments & reimagined life.  

Through both digital & handmade means, Scott explores the ideas of impermanence, the passage of time & the impacts of technology upon the evolution of humanity. As well as the important role that patterns play in shaping our personal & collective lives.

LUCIJA ŠUTEJ: Your work “Impermanence" has been an ongoing project for almost a decade now. How has your understanding and experience of the notions of time and change evolved throughout this process?

RORY SCOTT: It's difficult to narrow it down to one thing, or even several things, because it's completely changed my life perspective. I started with this daunting feeling about time, and not that I still don't experience it, but I feel way more comfortable with it now. I have come to think of time as a tool, rather than something that only takes away from you or that changes you. You have the ability to use time deliberately, to create change in and for yourself, and I find that to be really powerful & liberating. Hopefully my work serves as a conduit for people to look at the world and themselves in a new way in which they feel as though they have more control over their destiny and the ability to use time to create positive change in their own lives as well.

LŠ: How did the “Impermanence” project come about? Was it a deliberate decision, or did it evolve naturally from your various interests?

RS: It was actually very deliberate. I was at a point where I felt like I was at a crossroads. I could look a few years back and see how this chunk of time had passed, and I recognized that the same amount of time would pass again and perceptually even more quickly. The thought made me panic and from that moment, I started making a plan. I didn't have anything concrete, just the idea that I needed to do something and that this would be a dedicated journey. That's how things started and have progressed to now. Pretty early on, I knew I wanted to have a project that covered a lot of ground, about time, patterns, self growth & the relationship between humanity and technology.

Stills from Impermanence, courtesy of the artist.

LŠ: How did the project's meaning and intention shifted for you throughout the process? What have you noticed?

RS: When I started this project, I thought of it as a catalyst to test reality, to see what was possible through consistency and repetition. Testing my belief that when you do something positive, something positive must come from it in return. What originally started as a project, has become a way of living. All the principles I think about in my work are principles that I'm applying in my own life. For example, I have made a pattern of running everyday consistently for over 3 years. 1,200+ days in a row of deciding to run even when it has felt impossible to do so. This has made me more aware in all aspects of my life of what’s really a reason vs an excuse.  In that way, my work and life feed off each other back and forth, evolving with me over time. Right now, I'm really into breathwork, so my work is combining my art with my wellness practice. Currently, I am creating mixed reality wellness experiences and tools to be used during breathwork/meditation sessions.

LŠ: Did you always see the work as an ongoing, long-term endeavour?

RS: No, not at the outset. I had all these different ideas and observations about life, and I was keeping a journal over a period of time. Initially I was thinking I would present this body of work as a large format book. Then I realized my work needed movement and light in order for people to experience my thoughts and imagined worlds as being more personally felt and immersive. There was a point where I'd been working on the project for so long, I knew it needed my full attention to be produced exactly as I wanted, not just pushed out the door. That's when I realized it was more of a long-term goal. Then it moved from that to me realizing that really this is my lifelong project, the project from which I started, and I will carry on until I am unable to anymore. It will have different chapters and exist as a living body of work parallel to my life.

LŠ: I'm curious about the audience response to your work. What kinds of reactions have you received, and how do you foster connections with your viewers?

RS: The feedback has been positive, people have resonated with the work. People have written to me and chatted with me about their own life experiences and their thinking about the path forward. That has been really impactful on me, in terms of my own desire to continue on and share my journey. It has made me want to expand & to connect with others more deliberately through my work by sharing my practice as well. I feel like a lot of people are interested in starting a journey, but don't know where to begin, or they're scared. It's cathartic for myself and also a call to others to re-imagine their own existence & how we as individuals can have a positive impact on the world around us simply by transforming from within.

LŠ: What is your definition of time at present? 

RS: As for my definition of time, I feel excited about the future now, whereas before I was scared. There are things about time that I still struggle with, but I feel hopeful. That's what I want to share with others - this feeling of hope. You can go from feeling something is oppressive to that same thing becoming exciting through a shift in perspective, thinking about where different paths may lead because you're deliberately looking for the paths and trying to create them. Events that I was terrified of at the start of this journey, like losing my grandmother and her home, losing my mom and other people in my life, have happened now. Where I thought I would be vs where I am now in confronting loss & time, I feel completely different than I would have expected. I feel very grateful that I have this new acquired peace because I've had this deliberate practice & journey.

LŠ: Your work inhabits and reflects on different physical spaces of your memories.  For example, you employ this lens of kaleidoscope, and we as viewers are almost privy to all these memories and spaces that you've migrated through. What is the role of space and place in your work?

RS: From the very start, I've always thought about space in terms of my work - space in terms of the universe that exists outside of us, and the universe that sits within us. Spaces that just feel really sensual and good, where the lighting is right, the textures are right, the reflections are right. I've always loved dioramas, like when you go to the Natural History Museum and see dioramas with taxidermy animals in their natural habitats. When I started working on my project, I immediately began creating universe-type imagery and dioramas. Which evolved into me thinking about putting my work into 3D space via mixed reality, doing 3D scanning of actual objects, people, places, things that I want to preserve or find special. Space is significantly important and integral in my work; it's completely intertwined. You can't separate my work from thinking about space philosophically or physically.

LŠ: How is the project developing at the moment, and what directions are you currently contemplating?

RS: Right now, I'm taking a really big step forward with my project. I'm combining my wellness practice with my work, fully integrating them together. I'm going to be working on building digital communities that feel more authentic, where people can come together in meaningful ways. I think that in this world we live in, we have endless opportunities to connect meaningfully and to learn and grow, but we rarely engage with technology or digital environments in that way. I want to try to figure out how to deliberately do that, even if it's through stumbling steps.

I'm creating a YouTube channel for this new phase of my project, inviting people to be on that journey with me and also to experience it. I want to reach out to people and have them join me and do these practices within my art environments and spaces. That's where I'm heading right now.

LŠ: Can you walk me through your vision for these digital communities? I'm particularly interested in how you see the balance between virtual and physical spaces, and how people might engage with each other in these environments.

RS: I'm imagining creating a YouTube presence where people can join me and participate in my practice through my wellness videos. At a higher level of engagement, I am creating mixed reality, VR, AR experiences where you can practice, breathing, tapping, meditation, etc., alone or with others. Beyond that, I would like to host hybrid events where I am either streamed in or physically present to guide wellness sessions in physical spaces, with people gathered together both physically and digitally. Utilizing technologies such as AR, in combination with animation & projection to create immersive environments and collectively connected experiences. We often get together digitally, but it either feels sterile or like you're not really present with anyone else. Those are the barriers I'm trying to overcome. I want people to feel free and like they're able to show up digitally and physically in ways that we haven’t quite experienced yet.

LŠ: Your work is so multi-layered. We can see you gathering and researching different knowledge systems. How did you develop such a range of interests? Who supported your curiosity?

RS: I've always been super curious (laugh). I've always looked at the world as if it was new all the time. I'm one of those people who was very lucky to hold on to that throughout adulthood. I walk outside my house and I can look at a tree and find something magical about it every single time. My curiosity keeps me finding new tools, new ways of expressing what I want to convey. My toolset is completely built from figuring out how I can do something and what tool(s) can help me to achieve it.

I’ve been inspired by documentaries like Future Shock & The Singularity is Near and old sci-fi films that were just randomly on television when I was growing up. I was also fortunate that both of my parents went to school in the sciences, and they had old biology and chemistry textbooks lying around. I would look at those as a kid, and go to the library all the time. Meeting friends and teachers who inspired me too. At the Art Institute of Chicago, there was one professor that had a really profound impact on me with just one statement. He said, “A lot of you are going to leave and get regular jobs. Don't let your job be the end of what you do. You go home after work, and you keep up your practice, you keep your studio, and you keep working. You always keep your practice. You never abandon that. And you see where that leads you." That's what I did, and I feel like it was the best advice I was ever given.

Natural History Museum.

Grandparents’ home. All images courtesy of the artist.

LŠ: I loved your work and collaborations on music videos with Miles Tilman and Justin Wood. How do you approach the process of visually interpreting music?

RS: Those were from so long ago (laugh). It was when I first started really getting into animation and After Effects. It was just trial by error, and it was a very laborious process. Even though it's just like four minutes, there's a lot to think about. I never really went back to doing video work again because it was so taxing on my mind. I don't fully remember what my mindset was back then but I realized that music videos are more involved than I had previously thought.

LŠ: Looking back on your experience with music videos, how has that process influenced your current artistic practice? Are there any specific techniques or insights you've carried forward?

RS: It just made me better. It made me a better animator and made me think about timelines a little bit differently. I learned a lot through the process. I think that a lot of processes that you labor through and that you don't necessarily feel like you have a good flow with, those are the ones you learn the most from. I learned a lot about animation and what I want to achieve just by working on those projects.

LŠ: You've expressed interest in VR and AR and its potential to engage with human connections in distinct ways. How do you see the role of AR and VR in exploring new territories and gathering new knowledge?

RS: I think both open the door to exploring new territories in understanding more about reality itself. I think both AR and VR will play a profound role in our relationship to, and understanding of reality. I believe there will be more thoughts, dialogue and insights about the nature of our own existence. When I look at AR and VR, I see it as an explanation for reality as it exists. I believe that technology is just a mirror reflection of what we already experience in this world. You're able to see that there are layers to reality that are only visible to you via the tools that you have available. I think that's incredibly powerful to think about in terms of your own life and how you choose to live it. 

LŠ: Did you always consciously weave digital and physical processes in your work? How did your interest in digital sources come about?

RS: I didn’t always weave digital and physical elements together into my work. Early on, I did what most people do when they are interested in art, I tried to draw and paint. Which I wasn’t terrible at but my focus to master either wasn’t there.  As a kid, I loved playing around and making things in computer class. And that stuck with me and led me to visual design. Which eventually led to me starting Impermanence and from that moment on, it’s been a pairing of both digital and physical worlds.

My earlier work heavily reflects my interest in the push and pull between humanity and technology. Much of the process was done by hand and then assembled digitally. The work looks completely digital but the elements are real and composed digitally in a way where things are nearly but not quite perfect reflecting the spontaneity of humanity, contrasting the nature of the human touch to the predictability of technology.

I've always been interested in humanity and technology and the future of both. Ever since I was a very small child, I could see there's this interplay, and that this interplay will only become stronger as time persists. I feel like there is this reflective quality where technology inspires us and those inspirations spur the evolution & growth of technology. It's this interplay of mirroring back and forth that I'm really interested in.

LŠ: Were you ever drawn to movements like Op Art or New Tendencies?

RS: I love Op Art! I've always loved optical illusions, sacred geometry, patterns - all these things are in my toolbox of inspirations that I absolutely love and adore. The computer animations of John Whitney are a great example of what I really enjoy.

LŠ: I'd love to hear about your journey with NFTs. What aspects of this technology sparked your interest?

RS: I became aware of blockchain around 2019-2020. Then, of course, 2021 hit, and everyone started talking about NFTs. I think there's a big confusion about what NFT art is. Most people thought it's like a special type of art, but it's really just about legalities and being able to trace something and track its authenticity. I'm not into the idea of NFTs as this special type of art, but I am definitely with the idea of NFTs as something that gives art legitimacy. In the digital world, it's impossible to say “I own this." But now there's this possibility for things to actually be owned and kept track of, and I think that's very important moving forward.

LŠ: And how has digital fashion emerged out of your practice? 

RS: I've always loved fashion and wanted to create fashions, but I'm horrible at sewing, and I like to make things really quickly. When digital fashion burst into my awareness, I realized I could make something digitally. I started trying it out, and it's really fun. I think clothes are a definite expression of who you are without saying anything, and the same is true for physical reality and digital reality. Thinking about identity is something I'm interested in - how we're going to present ourselves in this digital world. It just goes hand in hand with my interest in fashion and thinking about self, and doing something experimental as well.

Blender dress, 2024.

LŠ: Your work explores how technology can mirror aspects of existence. What do you think are the most interesting ways in which digital environments expand realities or shape our collective understanding of what is “real"?

RS: Most interesting to me is thinking about how digital environments offer an opportunity for more inclusion within society. We are already witnessing how many more people have the ability to contribute and to connect than before. I believe that digital environments will continue to further expand what engagement can and will look like.  I think there are many instances where people are living in situations or with circumstances that limit their access to participate in life. Now there is a real opportunity to think about how we can expand reality to include more people into the fold. Digital spaces can expand access to otherwise inaccessible locations & experiences. This is an area that I am really excited about because I believe there is so much untapped potential and value here.

Eventually, I think digital environments will completely revolutionize everything, how we share space, communicate, work, learn, shop, entertain, etc. In the future digital environments will likely be just as important & valuable as the physical world now in terms of how much we interact there and come to depend on them. The agreed upon definitions of what’s real are about to change. I think the way we define reality will become less collective and more fractured. That there will be an increasing number of perspectives & the standard agreed upon definitions of reality from the past will no longer adhere. 

Installation views of selected exhibitions. All images courtesy of the artist.