I am an artist named Stephanie Jane Dickinson, and the name for my art practice is Cosmic Esoteric. I studied BA Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design. I started off my art making as a painter, but over the course of my education I discovered concepts and language as a way to make art in the wider world. I enjoy engaging with structures in a multitude of different and creative ways, and in many environments. Everywhere I go I can be an artist, and take my practice with me to engage, adjust and reflect. My practice is split into two distinct streams: 1. art in engagement with administrative structures, and 2. art in engagement with commerce.

Why do I like doing the things I do?

1. It’s empowering to view mundane structures which appear static as actually moveable machines. It is possible to bring values, ethics and reasoning into the machine, to make it work better. I call this “Painting with Email”.

2. It’s satisfying to take a lower value object and add a higher exchange value by processing it with my labour. It’s a game of value, gauging the level at which they can sell. I play a game with selling because I don’t believe in it. I wouldn’t quit my job because I would prefer to experiment with my selling, and consider levers to alter to see what happens. It gives me a detachment to be able to see how people relate to objects.