Chester Visual Arts is delighted to unveil exciting new digital commissions from Chester-based artists Robin Hunter and Emma Lucy.

The Digital Artbox Commissions are part of CVA’s Learning Programme, which encourages arts engagement and participation in Cheshire by working with artists, schools, youth organisations and adult learners. Visit our Learning Programme page for more information.

The commissions are inspired by the major V&A touring exhibition ‘Chance and Control: Art in the Age of Computers’, which CVA brought to Chester in 2019.

Make sure to share your creations by tagging CVA on social media!


Robin Hunter | Adventures in 10 Print

Robin Hunter | Screenshot of Adventures in 10 Print

Robin Hunter’s Adventures in 10 Print enables users to create playful, maze-like pattern drawings using a classic computer art algorithm. The original 10 Print algorithm started life as a one-liner party trick on the Commodore 64. It randomly printed a forward or backward slash that filled the screen. In Adventures in 10 Print, users control the visual rules, such as the line size and colour, generating original designs each time. It’s fun, simple to use – and highly addictive!

About Robin Hunter

Robin Hunter is a Creative Technologist exploring how technology can help people express themselves. Originally from Handbridge, Chester, he studied Creative Computing at postgraduate level at Goldsmiths, University of London. At Goldsmiths, the course explored the fundamentals of Computing and programming through the medium of art, media and sound. His highlight work produced a series of sound-reactive graphics & an interactive globe visualisation. His post-graduate year explores the technical and design considerations for digital music making collaboration, which has resulted in building and launching Ocean, a simple and fun way to make music online. Since graduating, he has worked as a Creative Technologist at Fjord, the world’s largest design agency. There he explores novel new technologies and how they can enable new interactions and services and engineering consumer-facing web apps. His work creating a new eye-enabled keyboard for MND patients has recently won D&AD Future Impact Pencil. Robin has worked with clients such as Intel, Facebook, Vue and more.

https://futurerob.in

How to use ‘Adventures in 10 Print’:

  • Access Robin Hunter’s Adventures in 10 Print at: www.chestervisualarts.org.uk/10print
  • Use the buttons and sliders to change the properties of your pattern
  • Select either ’10 Print’, Rain, ‘Night Sky’ or ‘Matrix’ to change pattern style
  • Move the six sliders on ‘Chance’ and ‘Control’ to change your image
  • Change background and line colour by clicking on the colour palette
  • Click ‘Add to Gallery’ to include your work in our online gallery. Make sure to enter your name and where you’re from!
  • Click ‘Download’ to save your image to your computer or device

Emma Lucy | Chance and Control

Emma Lucy | Chance and Control Colouring Sheet

Aimed at younger children and their families, Emma Lucy has created a series of vibrant colouring sheets and accompanying word search that celebrates the history of computer art, as explored in Chance and Control: Art in the Age of Computers.

Referencing key artworks and technologies used by the pioneers of digital art, Emma has used her signature illustrative flair to create an engaging educational activity for all the family. 

The Chance and Control pack includes these files:

  1. Main Colouring Sheet
  2. Exhibition Sheet
  3. Technology Sheet
  4. Word search
  5. Word search answer sheet

To download these files, please click the download link.

To download individual files, select the individual images in the gallery below and then ‘save image’ to your computer or device. 

About Emma Lucy

Emma Lucy began her new venture as an illustrator 10 years ago by exhibiting around her hometown of Chester, Cheshire. Her artwork was spotted by authors around the UK and USA which led to several children’s book collaborations and series, credited under her full name Emma K.L. Hunt. Emma then went on to study the arts gaining a BA Hons in Fine Art followed by an MA in Illustration from the University of Hertfordshire. Whilst studying Emma continued to illustrate children’s books working closely with authors to bring their stories to life through her artwork. In 2016 Emma also exhibited a collection of her mixed media pieces in collaborative exhibitions in London and New York, all of which were sold with the profits donated to the charity Visual Aids. Between 2013 and 2015 several of her children’s book collaborations with author Ruth Whenham were given literary awards for both writing and illustration, these included the Wishing Shelf Medal and Reader’s Favourite Silver Medal. Emma also collaborated with artists and students creating panel designs for the £14m state-of-the-art facility ‘Ancora House’ in Chester, which went on to win the ‘Project of the Year’ at the DIMH Awards 2017.

www.emmalucyillustration.com

How to use Emma Lucy’s ‘Chance and Control’ pack:

  • To print the colouring sheets: Click the download link above. A Zip file will download. Open this file to access the five files. Print the sheets from your computer and use as colouring sheets. You can scale the image to the size of your printer using printer options.
  • For creating digital drawings on smartphones or tablets  Save the image to your device. Open the image using a digital drawing application download these helpful Digital drawing instructions for Apple, Android and Windows devices.