Practical Magic: Eddie Lohmeyer
Eddie Lohmeyer, Topographia Nervosa, 2020, still frame
Practical Magic is an online interview series with early and mid-career creatives. Through a selection of prompts we spotlight each person’s practice and (hopefully) prove art world creatives are the real influencers of today.
interview with: EDDIE LOHMEYER
media artist, University professor
For the month of August, each twice-weekly PM interview will be with a selected artist from our 3rd Open Call Exhibition Celestial Opera, Human Cathedrals. Eddie Lohmeyer’ submitted works included a mesmerizing video called Scrolling Landscape 3, which compiled a plethora of digital landscapes from Nintendo games and presented them in a dizzying kaleidoscopic format. Along with his fine arts practice, Eddie is an Assistant Professor of Digital Media at the University of Central Florida. A bit more about Eddie:
Eddie Lohmeyer is an Orlando-based artist and educator. His practice explores processes of de-familiarization and the unveiling of normal perceptions of digital technologies. His process incorporates deconstructive approaches such as glitch, physical modifications, and assemblage. His videos and installations have been recently exhibited with 1308 Gallery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Yeltsin Center in Yekaterinburg, Russia.
Revisiting Eddie’s responses, we’re intrigued to watch his TV recommendation, and are excited to follow along on his promise of scaling up the work! Plus, we couldn’t resist featuring one of his influences - VALIE EXPORT - by way of her recent Tate video interview. Read below for all the deets!
PP: What are you listening to in your studio or when you work?
EL: Mostly hardcore punk with a peppering of folk, indie, and electronic...I like to get mentally amplified when working on things, whether its sitting in front of multiple screens or assembling found junk in my studio. Current musical artists in my rotation are: Code Orange, BEAR, Cult Leader, END, Vein, Sturgill Simpson, Alice in Chains, Harms Way, 3TEETH, HEALTH, Judas Priest, Fiona Apple, Daughters, Death Grips, Ho9909.
PP: Current binge-worthy tv/film recommendation?
EL: The German science-fiction series Dark [streaming on Netflix!] is really compelling. It's a labyrinthine show about time travel, determinism, love, and the cyclical nature of personal identity.
PP: Where do you live and how does it affect your practice/career? What's the creative community like there?
EL: I currently live in Orlando, FL which has a vibrant interactive media arts community. Florida is a surreal place: equal parts beautiful and terrifying. There's always an unpredictable energy in the ether here that informs the kinds of glitch, collage, and creative coding that I engage with.
Eddie installing sculpture work
PP: What is the next big milestone you've set for yourself? How close to achieving it are you?
EL: My recent goals have been situated around scale. I'm always working toward exhibition opportunities that will allow me to project my work in larger formats and with multiple channels. In my practice, large-scale projections result in experiences that are perceptually disorienting and question dominant forms of media spectator-ship and interaction.
PP: What is a typical day in the life for you as a creative? How do you structure your day/week to manage your practice?
EL: Throughout the pandemic, I've found myself staying up into the late hours of the morning and just sort of arranging pop culture fragments left over from the 1990s and millenial culture. When starting new work, I typically only have a seed of an idea which becomes meaningful when I experiment with deconstructing the materiality of digital media. Often times, I'll look through weird archival footage, videogame speedruns, educational films, dated websites, commercials, art historical images, etc. and attempt to create formal associations by corrupting the data of those source materials and/or use repetitive, mundane tasks in editing software (zoom, mask layers, dissolves).
Nail Controller, 2019, installation view, Ground Level Platform, Chicago.
PP: What's your favorite article of clothing to wear and why?
EL: Plaid shirts. I love sacrificing a plaid shirt to various paint, glue, epoxy, varnish stains when working in my studio.
PP: Who or what are major influences for you right now and why?
EL: Current influences are:
VALIE EXPORT, samurai, bandanas, fermentation, Midsommar, Tool, Cory Arcangel, Tomagotchis, terrible films in 4K, 1917, No Man's Sky, Cuphead, Dark, educational films, roadside scavenging, projection mapping, black holes, the color pink.
Eddie Lohmeyer, 8 Bit Melancholia, 2020, installation view, 1308 Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Practical Magic interviews post weekly on Thursdays - check back to see who we’re chatting with next.