Katherine Rae Diemert (k.d.rae) is a visual artist based out of Hamilton, Canada. She makes art that explores our relationship to the natural and digital worlds. You can reach her at kdiemert@gmail.com.
About Katherine
Katherine Rae Diemert (k.d.rae) is a visual artist based out of Halifax, Canada. She makes art exploring our relationship to the natural world, how our messages change within the digital world, and more.
Previously, Katherine was a board member at Factory Media Centre, an adjunct professor at Sheridan College’s BA Illustration program, and alumni of the School for Poetic Computation. Currently she is a Masters of Fine Arts candidate at NSCAD University.
You can reach her at kdiemert@gmail.com.
Previously, Katherine was a board member at Factory Media Centre, an adjunct professor at Sheridan College’s BA Illustration program, and alumni of the School for Poetic Computation. Currently she is a Masters of Fine Arts candidate at NSCAD University.
You can reach her at kdiemert@gmail.com.
Artist Statement
I am an artist from Hamilton, Ontario, currently based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, making visual and interactive mixed media work inspired by natural forms and artificial processes. I studied Illustration at Sheridan College (BA, Honors, 2015), later working in the interactive digital media industry. In 2019 I completed an intensive eleven-week program at the School for Poetic Computation in New York, a hybrid residency/school/research program. While there I learned programming and physical computing with a focus on creative applications, while also examining technology from a socially and culturally critical perspective. I was artist in residence at the Factory Media Centre in Spring 2020 and later joined their board of directors. In 2023 I began a Masters of Fine Arts at NSCAD University, continuing my research about technology and its relationship with nature.
In my artistic practice I create visual and interactive multimedia works, using methods of transformation to engage in dialogue with the natural world. My work explores experiences of environmental phenomena and objects through subject and material, investigating notions of real versus virtual and natural versus artificial.
I often begin with my experience of a space or object, then transform my subject through movement between digital and physical media in 2D and 3D spaces. Winter 2021 reflects my experience of quarantine, when I began taking daily walks through nearby forests. The player is confined to the space within the building frame, despite being able to see beyond, using the video game convention of ‘invisible walls’. In Untitled (Window), footage of a blue sky was projected onto a moving piece of fabric and filmed then re-projected, in a repeating process. The physical installation was then recreated in a virtual environment, incorporating the ‘real’ footage on simulated cloth. Both installation and simulation imitate yet obscure the ‘real’ scene, with each new layer further distorting boundaries of interior and exterior space.
In A rolling stone gathering moss, I attempted to document a real rock, first using photogrammetry, then digital simulations, paintings, and paper forms. Each translation leaves traces of the process in glitches and compression artifacts. Using augmented reality, I juxtapose these imitations with the actual stone, whose inherent qualities could not be captured by seemingly high-fidelity technology. The artifacts of this transformative methodology were curated in a digital show, which scales up the rock’s body to be the ‘gallery’ the player steps into.
In my installation works, I bring these digital artifacts into physical space through video projection onto lenses, water or mirrors that reflect the light and animate imagery in unpredictable ways. Water as a Gift is a multimedia portrait of a watershed, illustrating the effects of local townships' water-usage through mechanisms that create ripples across the mirrored map of the region, disturbing the video projection of scenes from the river. I am influenced by Ann Hamilton’s site-responsive work which engages viewers in multi-layered, sensorial interactions as in her piece, Event of a Thread. Additionally, Yeseul Song’s poetic and graceful incorporation of electronics in her Invisible Sculptures series, which uses audio, warmth, and smell to describe an invisible form.
Through my practice I explore how virtual imitations of real world phenomena change our perception of them. The natural objects in my work are personified, as in environmental personhood and Indigenous traditions. Rather than viewing these objects as resources to use, perceiving them as beings changes how I interact with them in my local environment; “to behold is to become beholden to.” (Odell, J. 2019) My work creates opportunities for audiences to consider an experience outside of our human one, whether that is the brevity of a cut flower’s lifetime or longevity of a weathered rock. I hope that by transforming our perception of them, we can change our relationship with them, as “it is human perception that makes the world a gift.” (Kimmerer, R. 2020)
I am an artist from Hamilton, Ontario, currently based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, making visual and interactive mixed media work inspired by natural forms and artificial processes. I studied Illustration at Sheridan College (BA, Honors, 2015), later working in the interactive digital media industry. In 2019 I completed an intensive eleven-week program at the School for Poetic Computation in New York, a hybrid residency/school/research program. While there I learned programming and physical computing with a focus on creative applications, while also examining technology from a socially and culturally critical perspective. I was artist in residence at the Factory Media Centre in Spring 2020 and later joined their board of directors. In 2023 I began a Masters of Fine Arts at NSCAD University, continuing my research about technology and its relationship with nature.
In my artistic practice I create visual and interactive multimedia works, using methods of transformation to engage in dialogue with the natural world. My work explores experiences of environmental phenomena and objects through subject and material, investigating notions of real versus virtual and natural versus artificial.
I often begin with my experience of a space or object, then transform my subject through movement between digital and physical media in 2D and 3D spaces. Winter 2021 reflects my experience of quarantine, when I began taking daily walks through nearby forests. The player is confined to the space within the building frame, despite being able to see beyond, using the video game convention of ‘invisible walls’. In Untitled (Window), footage of a blue sky was projected onto a moving piece of fabric and filmed then re-projected, in a repeating process. The physical installation was then recreated in a virtual environment, incorporating the ‘real’ footage on simulated cloth. Both installation and simulation imitate yet obscure the ‘real’ scene, with each new layer further distorting boundaries of interior and exterior space.
In A rolling stone gathering moss, I attempted to document a real rock, first using photogrammetry, then digital simulations, paintings, and paper forms. Each translation leaves traces of the process in glitches and compression artifacts. Using augmented reality, I juxtapose these imitations with the actual stone, whose inherent qualities could not be captured by seemingly high-fidelity technology. The artifacts of this transformative methodology were curated in a digital show, which scales up the rock’s body to be the ‘gallery’ the player steps into.
In my installation works, I bring these digital artifacts into physical space through video projection onto lenses, water or mirrors that reflect the light and animate imagery in unpredictable ways. Water as a Gift is a multimedia portrait of a watershed, illustrating the effects of local townships' water-usage through mechanisms that create ripples across the mirrored map of the region, disturbing the video projection of scenes from the river. I am influenced by Ann Hamilton’s site-responsive work which engages viewers in multi-layered, sensorial interactions as in her piece, Event of a Thread. Additionally, Yeseul Song’s poetic and graceful incorporation of electronics in her Invisible Sculptures series, which uses audio, warmth, and smell to describe an invisible form.
Through my practice I explore how virtual imitations of real world phenomena change our perception of them. The natural objects in my work are personified, as in environmental personhood and Indigenous traditions. Rather than viewing these objects as resources to use, perceiving them as beings changes how I interact with them in my local environment; “to behold is to become beholden to.” (Odell, J. 2019) My work creates opportunities for audiences to consider an experience outside of our human one, whether that is the brevity of a cut flower’s lifetime or longevity of a weathered rock. I hope that by transforming our perception of them, we can change our relationship with them, as “it is human perception that makes the world a gift.” (Kimmerer, R. 2020)
EDUCATION
RESIDENCIES
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
AWARDS
* (2023–) Masters of Fine Arts, NSCAD University, NS
* (2019) School for Poetic Computation, New York City, NY
* (2015) Bachelor of Arts, Honours, Sheridan College, Oakville, ON
RESIDENCIES
* (2022) Roundtable Residency
* (2020) &NOW at Factory Media Centre, Hamilton
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
* (2020) And Now, Factory Media Centre, Hamilton
* (2019) Florescence, Liberty Arts Gallery, Toronto
SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
* (2022) Did you read my diary?, MFA group show, The Anna Leonowens Gallery
* (2022) PARK, The Anna Leonowens Gallery
* (2022) Journey with our Kin, Cambridge Art Galleries
* (2019) Fall 2019 Showcase, School for Poetic Computation, New York
* (2018) Magic Shop, Factory Media Arts, Hamilton
* (2017) Pen10, Group Show hosted by Pyramid Attack, Toronto
* (2015) Whirlygigs, You Me Gallery, Hamilton
* (2015) Colour War, Sheridan Illustration Graduating Class of 2015 Show, Toronto
* (2014) Dolce Dieci, Holcim Gallery, Oakville
AWARDS
* (2024) Canada Graduate Scholarship - Masters, NSERC, Canada Research Council
* (2015) Shaw Media Silver Award of Excellence
* (2014) Shaw Media Award
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