MATTHIS GRUNSKY
ABOUT ● PLOTTER ● PAINTING ● BROWSER ● STEREO ● TEACHING
I use computational systems to produce drawings and paintings that explore the aesthetics of computer code, systems of spatial representation, and my own propensity for finding meaning in chaos.

My recent work includes plotter drawings, generative stereoscopic animations, and experimental interactive livestreamed video feedback.

I am currently based out of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, on Treaty One Territory where I teach drawing, painting and creative coding at the University of Manitoba, and maintain an independent artistic practice with support from the Canada Council for the Arts. I was previously based in Vancouver, BC, and am originally from Halifax, NS.

Get in touch with me at grunskm@gmail.com if you want to drop by for a studio visit and talk creative coding, pen plotting, painting, stereoscopics, or anything else!
I've been working with the motif of 'random' dots since my BFA grad show in 2012 at NSCAD University. For me, the dots are stand-ins for subject matter while other formal and material aspects of the work become the focus. I've experimented with various ideas including colour, canvas structure, found composition, and most recently stereoscopy. Pre-dating my interest in computation, this body of work represents my earliest foray into systems-based artwork.
Moving away from the LCD screen as its primary substrate, I'm interested in the many alternative material possibilities that plotting opens up for digitally generated art. Enabling more direct engagment with conventional art materials like paper and ink, plotting also allows for some truely novel approaches to drawing/printmaking that I've only just begun to explore. Through the manipulation of line, my plotter drawings approach topics like the generation of value, the depiction of perspectival space, and the simulation of human gesture. I build and program my plotters myself, giving me greater control over the specific relationships between my code and the finished drawings.
My teaching practice is centered around exploring the relationship between visual language and digital technologies, and exposing students to the language of computation through a fine art studio context. I've recently developed a series of courses for a variety of age ranges and backgrounds that aim to equip students with computational knowledge that they can take with them to their own artistic practices.
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Cursor Echo

Cursor Echo is an interactive livestreamed video feedback loop. As viewers engage with the work, their mouse movements are observed and recorded in a YouTube livestream. Over time the information is distorted and lost through video compression and instabilities in the network connection. Cursor Echo was most recetly exhibited at Public Access Memories Gallery in Spetember of 2022.

To-Do:To-Do

To-Do:To-Do is a website collaboration between myself and M.E. Sparks. The project features a series of small hand-coded websites that explore the act of list making as a mechanism for dealing with uncertainty. View Project

Schooling Lines

Generative stereoscopic animation
JavaScript program (p5.js)
Dimensions variable, 2019
View artwork

Stereoscope

Viewer for frames from schooling lines
Poplar, acrylic lenses
Approx 6"x6", 2021

Coding Sketchbook

Coding Sketchbook is a 3000 level undergraduate studio course that covers the fundamentals of creative coding with a focus on formal drawing elements (line, value, repetition, movement, etc). It was offered as a special topics class at the University of Manitoba School of Art in the fall of 2021. In addition to learning to make experimental artworks in JavaScript using p5.js, students are required to keep a weekly progress journal/blog in the form of a handcoded HTML website.

Drawn to Code

Drawn to Code is a beginner workshop for teenagers interested in experimenting with creative coding. The course covers a variety of ideas fundamental to programming with a focus on experimentation and visual exploration. Students work in the p5.js Web Editor where they can save their work and share it with friends.

Painting Through the Screen

Painting Through the Screen is a 3000 level studio painting course that was offered as a special topics class at NSCAD University in fall 2019 and winter 2020. The course looks at the relationship between painting practice and the digital screen, exploring topics such as image compression and glitch artifacts, computational systems of visual production, and the digital screen as a framing device. This class was co-developed and co-taught with M.E. Sparks.
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