Showcase & Discover Creative Work

Tim Porter is a 2012 graduate from Cornell College, double-majoring in Studio Art and Environmental Science. He comes from the Metro-Detroit Area, more specifically Northville, Michigan. During his time at Cornell, he began his career focusing on painting, but has since moved into broader media, best classified as sculpture. The content of his art works is inspired by his study in the sciences, and often draws forms from analysis of some form of data, or from a systematic process.

He enjoys focusing on the media used in his works, and learning new methods of working with materials and technology such as acrylic resin or aluminum. His works often use technology in some form, such as for image analylsis or even creation. His work draws aestethic influence from minimalist artists and designers, such as Donald Judd, Dieter Rams, Dan Flavin, and Allan McCollum. Read Less

Visual Art, in a basic sense, is about creating visual data. The source for this visual data varies from artist to artist; some use what they see in dreams to inspire them, others remix existing visual information into altogether new visuals. I seek to turn seemingly inconsequential or illegible data sources into art through the use of systematic analysis. I select data that forms noise in the torrents of information that flood our everyday lives.
By carefully choosing what data to use and how to process that data, I embed meaning into my works. This meaning, however, is not readily apparent, nor sometimes even discernible through thorough visual inspection. Superficially, the output of my systems resembles a work of minimalist aesthetic, appearing in forms common to both data visualization and minimalism, such as lines and grids. But deeper inspection reveals that the fingerprint of the data I use lies in the specifics of those very forms. The data input often determines aspects such as the colors or shapes present in my works. Thus, proper understanding of the data inputs and the system that molds the data can greatly enhance the appreciation of the art, allowing the viewer to discover a secret aspect of my works only available through context and knowledge thereof.
The beauty of this method of practice is that the systems can theoretically produce works of art ad infinitum, so long as there is data available as an input. Furthermore, providing that the data inputs differ substantially, the works produced will vary accordingly. A careful curation of the data’s variability is crucial because the curated data is the foundation of my process, one that is wholly dependent upon the qualities of the data I provide. Through deliberate curation, I can present to the viewer previously unexamined insights into art, the world around us, or my own personal experiences. Read Less