My
My studio is in a disused school building in south east London, a property guardianship I was lucky to find when I moved to London in August 2021.I started out making small clips of myself playing music, but I wanted something more engaging than the static shots I was making, so I built a rig that would rotate above my head. After a while I started to wonder if it would be possible to create a rig that could rotate around me, from a wider angle closer to the ground.
I tried various ways to achieve the new camera rig design, from wires running from the ceiling, to a track made from a garden hose. Ultimately, the solution that worked best was a track comprised of trampoline parts and curtain rails. I designed and constructed a camera robot using electric motors housed in a biscuit tin, aligned to the track by a series of rollers.
Having a way to capture spontaneous videos of performances allowed me to record musicial ideas on the fly. I realised it could be compelling to stitch these moments together, creating a video journal that documents the evolution of songs as they develop.
The camera rig is lightweight - less than 6kg - portable, and easy to set up. I use a 240v battery pack to power my synthesiser and sampler, making it fully mobile. This setup allows me to pack the rig into a bag, and travel by bus or train around Greater London, creating performance videos in this format anywhere, so long as there’s 15 feet of clear space for the track.
My
In 2021, I was recording music where I played multiple instruments - guitar, bass, keys and programmed drums. The challenge came when trying to recreate the sound live; many bands rely on backing tracks to do this, but I wanted to avoid the inflexibility that creates. In 2023, I formed electronic duo LOGJAM, with Calum Bradbury-Sparvell (drums, trumpet, and sampler). Together, we created performances where we alternated between midi controllers, samplers and acoustic instruments, to live-play all layers that appeared in our recordings, in place of using a backing track.I had been using a midi controller to play synth parts whilst recording, that was designed in the layout of a guitar fretboard, suiting me as a guitarist. This gave me the idea to attach it to my guitar, allowing me to play bass with one hand, and synth parts with the other. This setup gave way to simpler, more percussive basslines, and a rhythm-driven interplay between the bass and synth parts.
Below are some examples of live performances with LOGJAM (2023-2024) using my Original ibanez 5 string bass with controller attached.
The bass had become heavy with the controller attached, so I switched to a smaller, travel-sized 5 string bass, and added a microphone to the top of the bass. This setup allows me to move around more freely whilst singing.
After the LOGJAM duo disbanded in 2024, I began Final Sound Final Colour, which is as much a musical project as it is a film project. The performances exclusively use sampled and looped drums. To negate the need for backing tracks, I designed a foot pedal and button system that allows me to create unique drum patterns, by blending different drum parts, muting sections, and seamlessly switching between sounds.
With this system, it’s possible to create endless variations live. The goal of the film is to capture those spontaneous, unplanned moments, and happy accidents as they happen.
My art
Art has always been a big part of my life and a way for me to understand myself and relate to others. As a child, I was often encouraged by my peers when I would draw. For a few years I was known as “that shy kid who can draw.” I still remember sketching a monster when I was in Year 5, that made such an impression on another child that his mother told my mother he didn’t want to talk to me anymore because it had scared him. That made me feel slightly proud.
These days I’m inspired by outsider art and folk art, I enjoy the textures of unusual materials and unconventional techniques, and I regularly use canvas, acetate and silk. I love how different materials respond differently to the same mediums. While I’m not formally trained, and wouldn’t claim to know much about art in an academic sense, I really enjoy watching documentaries about Art, and often visit galleries.
Animation is another art form I deeply enjoy and find incredibly meditative. It’s a slow process, and there’s no getting away from that. I’ve spent countless hours drinking coffee and sketching individual frames, finding the process both relaxing and fun. Below is an example - an animation I created for the video of the song I Want This To Be Over with LOGJAM.
This process allows me to explore different layers of textures, and the addition of clear plastic adds a “junky charm”. I feel like clear plastic, one of the least respected materials in society today, carries a subversive quality, and sticking shiny clear plastic on raw unbleached canvas feels unexpected.
In my paintings, I create warped, colourful yet earthy compositions, often using soft pinks and murky greens with bold black white and red lines to shape attention and focus. The subjects are usually people.
A lot of my references come from found photos and street photography. I’m drawn to capturing natural expressions, and i prefer working with images of people that feel unposed. I’ve used lost digital photos from the 1990’s and 2000’s, posted to a website dedicated to found photography, especially for this reason. These photos, taken in an unassuming way, feel natural and capture a time before people instinctively adjusted themselves for the camera, mindful of how the image might be shared with the world. I enjoy this period, when digital photography made taking many photos spontaneously easy but before the internet made us more weary of being photographed.
For me, art is an outlet, but I wouldn’t say it has to mean anything. Still, it almost always ends up absorbing a bit of meaning - something personal to you as the artist. Perhaps you’ll remember your state of mind when you created something, or reflect on how it makes you feel now. Looking back at your past self, their motivations now might feel foggy and mysterious.
Sometimes, I think I even try to convince myself that I created something with a clear intention, or meaning, when the ‘meaning’ came after. I don’t approach art with a plan to convey meaning, any more than a rainy day intends to make you feel restless. Painting is a natural process for humans, a physical expression of the creativity and curiousity that is present in our minds - whether someone paints, or is completely disinterested in art. The same impulses are present for all of us. We like patterns; we like colours; we love to pour meaning into objects, until it pours out over the edges, spills onto the ground, and gets on your shoes.
I am...
Jack Mckeown, an electronic musician and visual artist based in south east London. Starting out as a guitarist, and later transitioning into electronic music, I’ve now combined both worlds with a unique setup and instrument that allows me to orchestrate a blend of the two.
My influences span left-field rockers such as Frank Zappa, Connan Mockasin, and King Krule, as well as electronic musicinas such as Flying Lotus, Toro y Moi, and Caribou.
Currently, I’m working on a series of performance videos, which are being edited together with my own animations to create a unique film project.