We're so excited to be introducing our newest editorial series across TLNT: In Your Words, a series of features on Talenthouse, Ello, and Zooppa allowing for Creators to speak directly to topics of their choosing with control on how they want to speak about it. We want to give you a platform to share your work, tell us about your experiences as an artist, and to make your voice heard on topics that matter to you.
Our first iteration of In Your Words is an interesting two-part interview between two Ello creators. Read on to learn more about them and check out the first half of the interviews between AR artists Isabelle Udo and Harun Köktürk!
Isabelle Udo is a Dutch Interactive Designer based in Amsterdam. She specializes in Augmented Reality where she makes Beauty and Fashion focused AR headpieces that grow and flow organically with the movement of the users head. Her work is cross-disciplinary where she uses many different softwares and hardwares to create her artwork digitally, but also incorporates analogue in the form of interactive installations and light sculptures.
Harun Köktürk is a Turkish multidisciplinary designer based in Berlin who graduated from DEU, Faculty of Fine Arts in 2015, Turkey. Currently, he focuses on creating Augmented Reality experiences while experimenting in various fields of art and design to discover new universes of the digital realm.
HK: Hey Isabelle, it’s so nice and exciting to meet with you here! Tell me a bit about yourself and how Isabelle Udo intertwined with AR World for the first time?
IU: Hi Harun! Thanks for the great conversation! I’m a Dutch interactive Designer currently living in Amsterdam. My journey into creative technology began when I studied Interactive Media Design in the Netherlands. I graduated in 2014 and continued my studies in Audio Visual arts in Brussels, Belgium.
I’ve always been very curious about new emerging technologies, experimenting with softwares and hardwares and implementing it in my audiovisual work. Though when the Facebook Spark AR Platform opened in August 2019 a whole new world opened up for me. Since I had quite some experience with several digital procedures the software felt really intuitive for me. It was love at first sight and it completely changed my life.
HK: When AR became your passion, was it your intention to be the Mother of Plant filters?
IU: At first I was experimenting a lot with different concepts and ideas on how to approach making a filter. The first filters I made were definitely a different style. Through practice I started to get very familiar with the 3D softwares and I wanted to try more complex filters. Plants lend themselves perfectly for creating complexity in 3D due to their beautifully organized chaotic structure.
I really try to challenge and push myself to make something that is as close to reality as possible. I feel like I had some successes with the plant filters I created early on and it became part of my visual code. I love to stay within this style but I also like to vent out conceptually. You can see this with for example the “money tree” filter and the “Medusa” filter. The style and complexity are the same but the concept is a bit more towards popular culture.
HK: What influences you for creating interactive and AR experiences besides nature?
IU: Often I find inspiration while I’m not actively looking for it. The conversations I have with my friends, places I go and things I experience. I also look quite a lot at pop culture and the art world. What interests me is to think about what could be appealing for a broad range of people.
I also walk a lot around Amsterdam. This is a habit I picked up around a year ago and it really helps me clear my mind. It also makes way for new ideas that I will save in my phone to get back to at a later point. This means my phone is full of strange voice messages and short quotes I sent to myself.
Catch the full interview over on ELLO.
Tell us what you think!