Blank Canvas Artist Talk: Dirt under fingernails that use keyboards & screens by Andrew Gryf Paterson

What are the routes into a hands-on practice with dirt, soil, compost, gardens, when your hands are more often on device interfaces and not garden tools? Or: how do you encourage others to get involved? This presentation tells a story starting in 2002 and ends at the current moment in 2026. It focuses on 2 projects that on either end of this timeline, a virtual environment design project involving a garden with teenagers in 2002, and a VeeJaying (VJ) project with a 3D scanner and composting worms, designed to attract teenagers to get involved somehow, which started in 2025, ongoing. There’s been much dirt under the fingernails inbetween all those years, including suburban allotment gardening, sharing Eisenia fetida and anti-instagram aesthetics. 

Self-styled ‘artist-organiser’, cultural producer, curator, educator, archivist and independent-interdependent researcher; Specialized in exploring connections between art, digital culture, science, cultural activism related to the commons, DIY/Do-It-With-Others, ecological and sustainability movements, along with cultural heritage and collaborative networks. Originally from Scotland, Andrew Gryf Paterson has an international practice of over 20 years, based in the Baltic Sea Region, most often in Helsinki, Finland. More or less archived here: http://agryfp.info

References:

‘Home-grown Tales’ (2002)

https://archive.org/details/agryfp-2002-home-grown-tales-cleveland-arts

‘Me an ma Wormies #1’ / ‘VJ Clew’ (2017-)

http://instagram.com/agryfp