Jeremy Trilling

www.jeremyelantrilling.com

Experience with digital and traditional art making:

I have always loved to create things. Some of the earliest formal art I experimented with was in 3rd grade, spending much of my time outside of class at the pottery studio throwing pots on wheels and creating all sorts of clay designs. As a more solitary endeavor, origami design fascinated me all throughout elementary school.  I proceeded to create wooden bowls and cups on a wood lathe at my home shop leading me into other nearby glassblowing and blacksmithing shops. In middle school, one could find me almost exclusively in the metal shop, welding and machining sculptures out of scrap steel. 

In Highschool, I designed curriculum for and co-taught a Fabrication Art class, utilizing digital and traditional fabrication tools to create a vast swath of mediums, and artistic scales and styles. 

I began to create art vehicles in high school, having a machinist mentor hone my manufacturing abilities to become automotive. On my website, one can see a selection of ground up built electric vehicles I designed, created and utilized for my daily commuting. Now my art has transitioned into the air – creating personal electric flying vehicles that are both inhabited by humans as well as uninhabited. The most recent art being that of electric hot air ships – working towards lighter than air craft that enable sustainable aviation. A strong influence in these endeavors is Alberto Santos Dumont, who created a vast portfolio of flying machines around the turn of the 20th century.

Experience with programming or technology:

As an RBE major, I have been exposed to a variety of programming experiences of which the most artistically inclined was the program Processing – I created an interactive game using its visualization abilities in highschool.

Creating electric vehicles has been a large part of my work for many years now, working at Playground.global, Joby Aviation, Kitty Hawk Aero. Other technological occupations I have held include DEKA Research, Epic Aerospace, and Mirage.ink.

During High School, I co-founded the nation’s first completely highschool student run makerspace – MakeX, where I mentored users in digital fabrication and set-up the shop spaces. 

Other creative arts you like to practice

I play the Trombone in marching band and have also done so in jazz and symphonic settings although my efforts have been directed elsewhere as of late. I also very much enjoy the art of cooking. Most recently, an intersectional creative art I have worked on is robotically applied tattoos – having successfully tattooed live two human posteriors. 

Your creative inspirations

I find much inspiration in film, recently the work of Hayao Miyazaki. People such as Alberto Santos Dumont and people closer to me like Robert Schneeveis (my machining mentor), have imbued a style fabrication art that I have greatly admired. And who am I to neglect the inspiration of nature which is at the core of it all. 

Your artistic goals

I would like to be able to create mechanical devices that utilize electronics stitched together by software to facilitate meaningful human experience. 

Recent creative projects you’re proud of

I am proud of my recent creation, the Pumpkin Carriage which is for all intents and purposes, a flying car. Another point of pride in this work is that I designed, created, and tested this vehicle within the span of a week.

Anything else you’d like your classmates and professor to know about you

The prospects of sustainable aviation and the experience of residing in a floating tiny-home thrills me to work on developing the necessary skills and systems to realize this vision.