The Journey
From early experiments like Synaesthesia, where music and painting were combined to deepen engagement, my work has continually explored how technology can extend the experience of art beyond the physical object.
Connecting the Journey
As my explorations expanded through new technologies and narrative world-building, the role of the audience also began to shift. Viewers became collaborators in meaning, collectors became contributors, and individual works began to operate as connected systems within a larger whole.
Today this process continues through work such as EXPOS3D, where the exhibition itself becomes a responsive and participatory experience, and through Book of Logos, a visual language in which people play an active role in shaping meaning through interpretation and engagement. These systems are still developing, pointing toward new ways that art, symbolism and collective exchange may shape the cultural narratives of the future.
The evolution of my practice can be traced across five distinct phases.
Building on the idea of narrative worlds linked across multiple forms, my practice has increasingly shifted toward spaces where viewers are no longer passive observers but directly involved in how the work is experienced.
This approach culminated in EXPOS3D, an immersive exhibition combining painting, animation, augmented reality, blockchain, real-time AI-generated video shaped by visitor movement and an AI entity called LOGOS that observed and responded to visitors in real time. Visitors move through an environment where physical pieces, screens, cameras and responsive systems react to their presence and participation.
Many of these ideas also extended the spiritual and symbolic themes that first emerged in earlier artworks such as the Bitcoin Angel, examining how belief systems, mythology and technology converge in contemporary culture.
Alongside these works, I began developing Book of Logos, an evolving symbolic language centred on how meaning can be constructed and shared within digital networks. The project combines game mechanics and collective interpretation, inviting collectors and audiences to actively engage with the artwork narrative.
Together, these projects reflect a growing interest in creating frameworks through which symbolism, technology and collective exchange shape how the work is encountered.
As the crypto art movement continued to grow, my work began evolving from individual artworks and self-contained series into larger interconnected projects. What emerged were networked worlds, in which paintings, animations, digital works and physical objects formed part of a wider narrative unfolding across multiple media and platforms.
Projects such as CryptoAngels combined painting, animation, NFTs, Bitcoin Ordinals, a series of 21 bronze cast sculptures and even a video game to explore themes of tech and faith in contemporary culture.
During this period I also began experimenting with new tools and ambitious collaborations, including MAN vs MACHINE (2021), an eight-month project developed with rapper Ice Cube that marked my first use of AI, alongside works such as The Oath and The Crown, a large-scale collaborative release created with the London Evening Standard to mark the coronation of King Charles III.
This period also gave rise to The Engine, an expansive world of paintings, animations and essays that explores creation and destruction, order and entropy, through a vast allegorical narrative.
These projects moved beyond standalone artworks toward interconnected systems in which story, technology and audience could engage across multiple formats.
The exploration of these networked worlds laid the foundation for the next stage of my practice: immersive environments in which audiences become active participants in the experience of the artwork.
In June 2017 I purchased Bitcoin and quickly fell down the cryptocurrency rabbit hole. The technology and culture of this emerging space inspired a new body of work exploring the intersection of art, finance and decentralisation.
By the end of the year I began work on a series of paintings that would become Crypto Disruption, an exhibition exploring the people and ideas shaping the crypto movement. Scanning each painting triggered an augmented reality video, extending the painted image into a digital narrative.
Before the exhibition opened in October 2018, crypto enthusiasts who had followed the works in progress online began contacting me to purchase the paintings with Bitcoin. It was the first time I encountered a community of collectors who deeply connected with my work and embraced the fusion of art and tech. It marked a pivotal moment in my career, revealing how blockchain technology could reshape the way art is collected by allowing artists and collectors to connect directly beyond traditional gatekeepers.
This exploration continued through projects such as CryptoCubism (2019-2020), a series that reinterpreted some of Picasso’s iconic Cubist compositions through the lens of contemporary crypto culture, linking the disruptive spirit of modernist art with the innovation of the blockchain movement. In February 2021, the NFT release of Bitcoin Angel, an open edition of 4,158 artworks, became a major breakthrough, introducing my work to a much wider global audience.
The original Bitcoin Angel painting had first appeared in the Crypto Disruption exhibition, and its imagery became a recurring symbol within my work. Themes of angels, faith, and belief systems began to emerge more clearly, later developing through subsequent projects and eventually feeding into the spiritual and philosophical framework of EXPOS3D and Book of Logos.
In 2011 I began experimenting with QR codes.
The idea quickly evolved into large-scale QR code paintings made with thick impasto oil paint that looked like abstract artworks but could still be scanned with a smartphone, directing viewers to a bespoke website where artists worldwide could upload their work to connect with new audiences. The platform also enabled visitors to comment on and share the uploaded artworks online, turning the project into a growing international community for artists to connect and reach new audiences.
These projects explored how physical artworks could function as gateways to online spaces, turning paintings into portals that connected viewers to communities and new layers of engagement. As smartphones became part of everyday life, I became fascinated by the idea that a traditional painting could open access to new forms of information and interaction.
From 2013 onwards, this exploration expanded into augmented reality and NFC tag experiments. At a time when very few artists were using AR as a creative medium, I began incorporating mobile-triggered animation and video into paintings, helping to pioneer AR art.
Education at Leith School of Art and Edinburgh College of Art formed the foundation of my early practice in drawing and painting.
My degree show (2008) explored the psychological impact of colour through two separate spaces: one filled with red abstract paintings, the other with blue, each designed to evoke contrasting emotional and physiological states.
This exploration evolved into my first solo gallery exhibition, Synaesthesia (2010), a series of paintings inspired by contemporary Scottish music. MP3 players provided in the exhibition allowed visitors to listen to the song that inspired each painting while viewing the work.
I had previously read a study suggesting that visitors spend on average around 17 seconds looking at each artwork in a gallery. That statistic motivated me to think about how viewing time might be extended. With the addition of music, visitors spent on average over 90 seconds engaging with each painting in my exhibition. The MP3 experiment revealed how technology could deepen engagement and encourage viewers to spend longer with the artwork, prompting me to explore ways that physical artworks could connect with the digital world.