Dan Hoopert

Interview

Dan Hoopert is a 3D Artist and Designer based in London. His work is often focused around re-creating elements from the natural world with a surreal touch. Using 3D software and a strong eye for realism Dan aims to create a feeling of phenomena through abstract image and sound, blurring the lines between physical and digital. We spoke to Dan about the exceptional and beautiful ways in which he is engaging with nature.

How would you describe your artistic practice?

I would describe my artistic practice as very research based. I usually try to look for something that I find interesting or beautiful, this can either be something taken from the outside world or a process that behaves in a unique way and look at ways I can break this down into its simplest elements.

I think a lot of the time this always revolves around nature because to me every process, adaptation, function and characteristic displayed by things untouched by humans has always felt like the purest base for any concept. This is also what I think just interests me the most as a base for artwork, I enjoy diving into these things and learning as much as I can along the way.

Everything always begins with experiments. If I stumble on some kind of technique or look that feels exciting I begin looking for ways to add context or interesting ideas that it could be paired with and seeing how that feels or if it works for me. Sometimes the idea behind what’s happening visually comes before the work, sometimes after. I’m always trying things out all the time, the projects I release usually come off the back of research or tests that excite me enough to try and flesh out into something more.

I come from a design background and I think this approach probably reflects that and the approach of most designers when looking for ways to communicate ideas. I get a lot of joy if I feel like I’ve managed to communicate or draw attention to something I thought was cool or create the same feeling in an abstract way through my own work.

How are you using technology to engage with nature?

I wouldn’t necessarily say I use technology to engage with nature, at the moment I think I use it more as a tool for capture. For this I’ll use whatever I can get my hands on. Things like LiDAR scans, Gaussian splats, height fields and research data. I feel like these technologies allow me to draw a real connection between work and the outside world which I think is important. This doesn't have to be complicated either, I just like it when there’s a proper connection. I think I’d find a single line drawn on a screen interesting to look at if it was generated by a leaf floating down a stream somewhere.

I would always like to do something that directly engages and interacts with nature but I think for now what I do is more of a one way engagement.

What interests you about working with emerging technologies?

Not much from the perspective of making artwork, if a new tool or technology pops up that I think would help me with specific processes I'm always interested in checking things out. Most of the time nowadays, especially with ai tools I sometimes feel like a chimp who's been given a bigger hammer. I think there's a strength in mastering certain things and really understanding how they work and knowing what you are doing before moving onto the next greatest tool that makes x or y easier to do.

Having said that, I'm definitely grateful for this. What is possible as a standalone artist constantly changes all the time due to new technology, everything gets faster, more intelligent, sometimes things that were very expensive become super cheap because another thing surpasses it. Maybe a process that took 3 days to complete on a single machine was holding back a project and now only takes 3 hours. It's nice to take advantage of these things where possible but I rarely imagine myself moving away from my primary set of tools/software any time soon.

How do you view the relationship between art and innovation?

I’d say art and innovation definitely influence each other but they can also exist without, I think something can always be art without the need to be innovative. I’m not sure how direct the relationship is, things will always change but it doesn't cancel out what came before. I think there will always be people obsessed with the latest innovations and how this can be used in art but also people still replicating mediums and techniques hundreds of years old and both are good to me, being honest It’s not something I think about too much unless it has some kind of relation to what I am making.

What do you want the viewer to take away from your work?

I’m happy as long as they take away something, I think a lot of what I do revolves around communicating in an abstract way that allows whatever I'm trying to communicate to be open ended. I want it to form a feeling or the start of an idea and anything else is a bonus. I’m never that interested in delivering a specific message. If I can use the work to make someone pause and maybe think about something I’m hinting at in a new way that feels exciting to me. I think I just like the connection aspect of being able to place a thought or feeling in someone’s head through a reaction to the work without the need for any other form of communication. Even if that's as simple as someone thinking it looks nice.