Paul Theriault: Electronic Empathy

The First Stop

Paul is an electronic media artist working with computers, cameras, televisions, scanners and more. He seems to have empathy for the often slightly outdated technology he tinkers with, mapping emotional and cerebral processes onto them. He is also an abstract oil painter who paints on scanner beds rather than canvas. These paintings are always erased to make way for a new painting, but they live on as moments captured by the programmed eye of the scanner. Sometimes these digital images are printed out, and other times they are displayed on the backlit surface of a deconstructed flat screen television. In this episode Paul and I discuss his unusual process and the ideas behind his work. For more images of the artist’s work, visit https://paultheriault.net/