At the intersection of art, design and technology is where I find myself.

Working between these disciplines, I am both at home and estranged from each. Because of the general reluctance to consolidate these subjects I have had to rely on my own investigation to expand my knowledge and skills in each. Emerging from the combination of art design and technology, my work has come to be the sum of techniques I have invented and tools of my own creation.

My explorations are proto-scientific, guided by aesthetics, and fueled by discovery. Thriving from experimentation and evolution, I constantly search for knowledge and skills that serve my work and help me further repurpose, reshape and recombine elements in art, design, and technology.

The estrangement from the subjects I work within stems from the fact that my projects are seen as foreign by each. Artists see my work as overly aesthetic or technical, by designers it’s seen as impractical, by engineers as merely artistic, and from an institutional perspective, it's simply too dangerous. despite these considerations, my drive to further develop and experiment has not diminished. I find myself obliged by my various fascinations to delve deeper into the chasm that exists between art, design, and technology, and find new ways to amalgamate the three.

The methods I explore first began with pyrography. Heat and combustion revealed the potential of using active and reactive elements in my work. Pyrography was what first led me to experiment with other forms of combustion. Beginning with pulverized match heads, then gunpowder, I ended up creating my own deflagrative compounds. This led to experimentation with liquids: alcohol, petroleum distillates, and most importantly, refuse solvents containing dissolved pigments from other artists.

The next phase of technical evolution was the use of electricity. The emergence of the technique began by drawing small electric arcs from the confines of a plasma globe. Soon it expanded to the construction of Tesla coils and Marx generators, machines capable of generating hundreds of thousands of volts. The chaotic and fractal effects extracted from electricity paired seamlessly with the work done with fire. The interest I took in electricity fueled my affinity for technical and scientific subjects, which set the stage for the explorations that followed.

Having employed the intensity and chaos of fire and electricity the next step seemed to call for a strong contrast, a contrast that would nonetheless maintain the underlying character of the previous techniques. Computerized Numerical Control was the answer. I began experimentation by etching with an ultraviolet laser mounted on a Cartesian plotter. This approach allowed for the incorporation of algorithmically generated designs into the work. While antithetical to previous approaches, this new technique, one of logic and precision, still remained in the same vein as my prior work as Generative Art: I coordinate the broad strokes, the meta-composition, then my methods, machines, chemicals, and the reactions therein take care of the details. Note the progression to seemingly higher orders of energy, from fire to electricity to light.

Due to my vicariance from art, design, and technology, my work diverged from any one discipline. Now inhabiting all three simultaneously. As such, the techniques I have developed, by their own nature, stand as compelling views into the relationship between machines, nature, control, beauty, and the very subject I am entrenched between.

-jayden romay

Past Exhibits

2015-16: Conflagraciones. Exhibit at the cultural center El Nigromante, INBA, San Migue de Allende Gto.

2014 : Border Crossings. Joint show, part of the Chicago Expo: 2014, curated by Margarita Failoni.

2013 : Art department exhibit of the Austin Community College, Austin, Texas. Winner of "Best in Show" award.

2010 : The Artists of San Miguel, Mexico On the Road. Joint show in various establishments, New Braunfels, Texas.

2008 : Phoenix Rises. First solo show in the Atelier gallery, Fábrica Aurora, San Migue de Allende Gto.

2006 : Arte en Papel. Joint show in the Le Noir gallery, San Miguel de Allende.