In 2019, I worked with the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art to develop designs for an art vending machine, a community outreach project first brainstormed 5 years prior. The goal was to get art into the hands of the community, and cash into the hands of local artists.

Thankfully a vending machine could rely on established patterns of user interaction— with each product mapped to a code in the payment terminal. However, the machine needed an exterior to stand out, frame its unique contents, and encourage community interaction.

Since launching, it’s dispensed 450 art objects and become a staple of Kelowna’s tourist economy and art scene, with a second machine recently installed at the Kelowna Art Gallery.

Art for art’s sale

I had first discussed the possibility of an art vending machine with the Alternator’s director in 2013. I was an art/design school student in a practicum with the gallery, drafting up community outreach projects from wearable merch to downhill sculpture-racing competitions. It was 2019 that the vending machine plan was picked up again, thanks to a community member’s friendly donation of a newer model. When the Alternator approached me, I was excited to help them design the exterior.

As an artist-run centre, the Alternator often rely on temporary art-in-the-community projects, and community events. So their plan to put an art vending machine in the community was their chance at a long-term engagement. As an interactive art object itself, its art works would be consistently refreshed. But it needed to look and feel like a distinctive art object itself, to frame and encourage a novel interaction.

They wanted something eye-catching and distinctive. But it couldn’t look like other vending machines. The stocked art would be unique and locally produced. After some “competitor” research, we found that vending machines traditionally boasted loud, colourful, hyperreal graphics— trending toward loud, colourful, and flat graphics.

I created variations that emphasized the Alternator’s red-and-black brand colours, getting inspired by various moments and approaches to art and design. I looked at Bauhaus School, Soviet Constructivism, and 90s zines and artist books.

I did what I could to create three designs that would meet the project’s needs. The director and board wound up unanimously agreeing on what we all thought was the most fun and unique direction. Inspired by deskilled drawings of the 90s zine movement and artists like David Shrigley. This approach to drawing brought in the artists’ hand to make something naive and approachable, just as suited to political messaging as a silly doodle. We went with a silly doodle, leaving any political messaging up to the art inside. I loosely rendered characters who interacting with blobby objects labeled “art,” alongside quirky text that read “please buy the art” and “do not eat the art.”

Adapting to its natural environment

We kept costs low and longevity in mind by producing the graphics for cut vinyl rather than print. Ultraviolet light streaming through the foyers of art centres and community spaces can cook the art right off a CMYK print in no time. Prints are also more costly and time-consuming to produce.

It was important to have art on all sides, to adapt to new orientations and locations. First located in the Rotary Arts Centre, it found more success since moving to BNA, Kelowna’s most popular brewery and night-life location.

Since the first vending machine opened, it’s provided artists thousands of dollars in support, and become a part of Kelowna’s tourist economy and art scene. It’s also helped meet the Alternator’s goal of getting art into the community. It’s dispensed over 450 local art objects and counting.

I’ve since helped the Alternator with designs for a second ArtMart, with graphics inspired by the first. It features monsters and creatures who collect, wear and hoard art objects. It’s was recently installed in the Kelowna Art Gallery.

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