Roy Ascott

RoyAscott

Roy Ascott . 1992 © Jan Sprij

Roy Ascott is a British cybernetic and telematics arts pioneer, experimental educator and an influential author.

He is the former Director of the ‘Groundcourse’ at the Ealing and Ipswich Schools of Art, London during the 1960s. This course was influential because of it’s radical approach to teaching art and Ascott had described it as ‘a microcosm of a total process of art education’. ^ He is the current Director of Planetary Collegium, a transdisciplinary centre for research in art, science, technology and consciousness, based jointly in the University of Wales College Newport, and in the School of Computing, University of Plymouth. He is also visiting Professor in Design|Media Arts at UCLA. He has published numerous highly influential books on the convergence of Art,Media and Technology + has contributed over 150 articles and academic papers in the journals and magazines of many countries.

A small excerpt describing his ideas on Telematics can be viewed here.

Another essay ‘Turning on Technology’ was featured in the catalogue of the exhibition – Techno Seduction, 17 January through 15 February 1997 at the Cooper Union, School of Art.

Web site: http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/rascott
Cited in: What is Generative Art?, Art of Conversation

1955-59. BA (Hons) Fine Art . King’s College, Newcastle, University of Durham. Studied painting under Victor Pasmore and Richard Hamilton, and Art History under Sir Lawrence Gowing and Quentin Bell.

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A list of some exhibitions:

1960 Univision Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne.

1961 St.Johns Gallery, York

1961 Artists International Association Gallery, London;

1963 Molton Gallery, London

1964 Gallerie Suzanne de Conninck, Paris

1965 Queen’s University, Belfast

1965 Hamilton Galleries (Annely Juda), London;

1968 Laing Art Gallery & Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne.

1968 Ikon Gallery, Birmingham;

1969 Exe Gallery, Exeter

1970 Angela Flowers Gallery, London

1972 University of Guelph, Ontario

1978 Anna Gardner Gallery, Stinson Beach, California

1980 Dartington Hall, Totnes.

1980 Terminal Art, First International Artists’ Computer Conferencing project , USA – UK. Directed by Roy Ascott. Bristol.

1982 Four Wings (Planetary I Ching), International Telematic project . Directed by Roy Ascott. Linz: Ars Electronica Festival.

1983 La Plissure du Texte (A Planetary Fairy Tale). Telematic project between artists in Paris, Amsterdam,Vienna, Bristol, Sydney, Vancouver, Pittsburgh, Toronto, San Francisco, Honolulu, Alma. Directed by Roy Ascott. Paris: Musée d’Art Moderne.

1985 Organe et Fonction d’Alice au Pays des Merveilles . Interactive videotex project (Minitel). Directed by Roy Ascott. Paris: Centre Pompidou, Les Immateriaux.

1985 Sonart: l’image à distance par son. Slowscan TV by short wave radio transmission, Alma – Québec, Pittsburgh. Directed by Roy Ascott and Robert ADRIAN. Alma, Québec: ANNPAC/RAC.

1986 Planetary Network: Laboratory UBIQUA .Artists in three continents interacting through computer networks, videotex, slowscan TV, fax ). Directed by Roy Ascott, Don Foresta and Tom Sherman. Venice: XLII Esposizione d’Arte La Biennale di Venezia.

1987 Digital Body Exchange . Digital image network between artists in Gwent, Perth, Sidney, Vienna, and Pittsburgh. Directed by Roy Ascott. Vienna: Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst.

1988 Making the Invisible Visible . Telematic image/text exchange between artists at University of Applied Arts, Vienna, Carnegie-Mellon University and University College London). Directed by Roy Ascott. Vienna: Hochschule für angewandte Kunst.

1989 Aspects of Gaia: digital pathways across the whole earth . Interactive art installation and telematic project with artists in three continents.Directed by Roy Ascott. Linz: Ars Electronica Festival of Art and Technology.

1991 Texts, Bombs and Videotape .(Slowscan TV, digital image and fax exchange between artists in Vancouver, Pittsburgh , Vienna, and Bristol. Directed by Roy Ascott. Bristol: Watershed Media Centre.

1991 Virtuelle Werelden. Documentary exhibition of computer communication projects by Roy Ascott,( also work by Peter Beyls and Hugo Heyrman). Antwerp: Internationaal Cultureel Centrum.

1992 The Geometry of Silence. Distributed sound installation. Directed by Roy Ascott. Vienna and Innsbruck: Museum Moderner Kunst and Ferdinandeum.

1992 Telenoia: a global networking project for the eighth day of the week. Telematic project using vidphone, fax, BBS, EARN. Directed by Roy Ascott.s-Hertogenbosch: V2 Organization.

1993 Three works made by Roy Ascott in the 1960s were included in the exhibition The Sixties Art Scene in Britain at the Barbican Art Gallery, London,

1994 Gasflow. Telematic project, Internet and walkie-talkies in a text/sound interchange. Directed by Roy Ascott. Amsterdam: Mission Impossible, Gashouder.

1995 Roy Ascott’s telematic art projects from 1984-94. Video documentation. Milan: Triennale di Milano.

1996 Identity in Cyberspace: WorldWideWeb and CD ROM project between artists in Newport, Barcelona and Dublin. Directed by Roy Ascott. Newport: CAiiA.

1996 Apollo 13. Interactive elevator (Televator), permanent installation. Concept design by Roy Ascott. Linz: Ars Electronica Center.

1999 Art-ID/Cyb-ID. Identities in Cyberspace. WWW project. Biennal do Mercosul. Porto Alegre, Brazil.

2003 New Technologies. Ascott, Bolognini, Forest, Kriesche, Mitropoulos. Museo del SannioBenevento, Italy

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Roy Ascott has formerly seved as the Dean at San Francisco Art Institute, Professor for Communications Theory, University of Applied Arts, Vienna and Principal of Ontario College of Art, Toronto.

He is on the board of several editorials including Leonardo, Convergence, Digital Creativity, IDEA etc. and is also involved as an advisor to various arts councils and media centers. His publications include :: Engineering Nature(2006), Telematic Embrace: Visionary Theories of Art Technology and Consciousness Technoetic Arts(2002), Art, Technology Consciousness(2000), Reframing Consciousness (1999), Art & Telematics: toward the Construction of New Aesthetics(1998). Some of his early publications were :: “Behaviourist Art and the Cybernetic Vision”. In: Cybernetica: Journal of the International Association for Cybernetics(1966/7), and “The Construction of Change” (1964).
RoyAscott

Roy Ascott . 1992 © Jan Sprij

 
Last change by hemant on 19th of July 2010