Acktarr is a incredibly ambitious, mysterious and I’d have to say smart guy, who persuaded our course leader to let him build a walk-in Intergalactic experience. He wanted to merge his interest in UV psychedelic art with his fondness for working with different materials. The excitement it brought to visitors was magnificently incredible as you crawled through a hole to a room of mirrors with neon coloured planets and stars. It is dark enough to make you quiver when you have to leave to the luminous artificial light of the white studio and back to normality – as close as you were to normality before you entered anyway. The room will also be at Mixed Special, where Acktarr wants particpants to “lie down and get comfortable and gaze in all directions in 360 and experience the sense of infinite space, finding various nebulae, planets, orbits, constellations, and a mysterious black void”.

Here is his interview:

What, if anything, do you listen to/watch when working?
Well, when I listen to music while working I like to try and make them relate to each other in some way to create a mood. For instance, this project I am doing on the subject of Black Holes that has a lot of sci-fi and cool retro style references, I’ve listened to soundtracks of films like Tron, Sunshine, Aliens and Inception. I also often listen to video game music such as Killzone and Portal. It all depends on what I’m working on.

How do you feel about collaborative work? Has that changed over the past three years?
As much as I like to work on my own, I was unaware of the full potential of working as a collaborative until I came to university. It’s good fun mixing each other skill sets and not to mention bouncing ideas and coming up with new ones as a team or duo.

During which project did it finally click?
I don’t simply think you can just click when talking about work or life. I believe it is a series of small clicks that lead to big clicks that lead to super clicks! Keep going until you have run out of clicks.

Give me an illustration insight…
If I had to give an insight into Illustration and creating in general, I would say go balls deep!

Desert Island Pencil Case (5 different media)

  1. The best PC touch screen Wacom tablet you can buy
  2. Charcoal and chalk
  3. Ink
  4. Spray paint
  5. Some bubblegum to chew on while working

Which living artist do you most admire?
Yoji shinwaka lead artist for metal gear solid

What would you be doing if you weren’t doing Illustration?
Well I would have probably of chosen to do any of the other things you can do in the creative realm such as Music, Dance, Acting or Designing. I am creative at heart.

I would like to work in 3D and explore interactive arts then get as much experience to work towards one day creating my own merchandising brand.

Have a look at Acktarr’s gallery page here.