Toggler is a Fermynwoods Contemporary Art website feature allowing commissioned artists to explore, demonstrate and celebrate the potential of creativity in website design.
As websites become increasingly standardised to ensure familiarity and ease of use for online visitors, Toggler allows artists to champion the role of curiosity and creativity in exploring other possibilities for presenting content online.
Visitors are able to view our website through different lenses by toggling between styles developed by commissioned artists.
Saskia Freeke is an artist, creative coder, interaction designer, visual designer and educator whose work focuses on structure, geometry and playfulness.
Can you tell us a bit about your practice?
Within the digital space I create visual work by means of coding, such as, for example, generative patterns and animations. In January 2015 I started creating daily digital sketches as a challenge to explore my artistic practice. This project has been ongoing for over six years. I often extend the digital artworks into the physical realm in various ways, methods for which I regularly use tools and machinery like, for instance, a drawing plotter or a laser cut machine.
My background in interaction design has given me an understanding on how to design with the user in mind. Additionally, my masters in Computational Art has taught me to reflect on user interaction and its design. I’m intrigued by the way we interact with digital spaces through physical gestures, how certain interactions are embedded in our daily lives and how we “connect” with certain technology.
What interested you in the Toggler commission?
The interactions we have with the digital space, such as websites, are constructed of many standardisations nowadays. This is important and good for user experience. We want the user to focus on the content, not to be bothered with technical elements or unnecessary style elements.
The Toggler project reflects on the constructed digital space of Fermynwoods’ website, where the interpretation of each artist uses different building blocks of this space to reflect on.
Can you explain the ideas behind your approach to Toggler?
My aim was to highlight the construction of the underlying nested elements that are not always visible, but ever-present. The page is constructed from blocks within blocks, enclosed within each other. The links and content are highlighted through animations, drawing focus towards these elements. Additionally, these animations make the content less readable, thus moving the focus back to the construction.
To explore our website using Saskia’s commissioned code select SASKIA FREEKE from the drop down Toggler menu above. Please note Toggler will not affect your visiting experience of the home page. To return to the standard website design, please select DEFAULT from the menu.