Institute for Research in Art and Technology
Encyclopedia
The Institute for Research in Art and Technology (IRAT) was founded in London in 1969 by arts theorist John Lifton
as an offshoot of the London New Arts Lab, itself a breakaway from the original Arts Lab
. Its early focus was on video and film, but this was subsequently expanded to include experimental literature, drama, sculpture and multimedia all based on art/technology crossovers. The Earlham Street (Covent Garden) gallery and workshops and the associated print lab attracted a very wide variety of artists and writers. The facility was closed by the mid-1980s.
In October 1969 a New Arts Lab, more formally known as IRAT (Institute for Research in Art and Technology) opened on Robert Street, Camden Town, in a former chemical factory, with a screening of David Larcher’s Mare’s Tail (1969). This new lab, in addition to housing theatre, gallery and cinema space, also provided a base for the LFMC distribution office, screening and a newly equipped film workshop with a step printer and neg/reversal processor.
The Directors in August 1970 included David Curtis, Hugh Davies
, John 'Hoppy' Hopkins
, John Lifton
, Pamela Zoline
(USA) with Biddy Peppin as Secretary.
John Lifton
John Lifton is an artist and theorist whose work explores the relationships between art, science, the environment and technology. He was a founder of both the London New Arts Lab , which focused on film and video art, and the Institute for Research in Art and Technology as dissident alternatives...
as an offshoot of the London New Arts Lab, itself a breakaway from the original Arts Lab
Arts Lab
The Arts Lab was an alternative arts centre, founded in 1967 by Jim Haynes at 182 Drury Lane. Although only active for two years, it was influential in inspiring many similar centres in the UK and continental Europe, including the expanded I.C.A...
. Its early focus was on video and film, but this was subsequently expanded to include experimental literature, drama, sculpture and multimedia all based on art/technology crossovers. The Earlham Street (Covent Garden) gallery and workshops and the associated print lab attracted a very wide variety of artists and writers. The facility was closed by the mid-1980s.
In October 1969 a New Arts Lab, more formally known as IRAT (Institute for Research in Art and Technology) opened on Robert Street, Camden Town, in a former chemical factory, with a screening of David Larcher’s Mare’s Tail (1969). This new lab, in addition to housing theatre, gallery and cinema space, also provided a base for the LFMC distribution office, screening and a newly equipped film workshop with a step printer and neg/reversal processor.
The Directors in August 1970 included David Curtis, Hugh Davies
Hugh Davies
Hugh Seymour Davies was a musicologist, composer, and inventor of experimental musical instruments.Davies was born in Exmouth, Devon, England. After attending Westminster School, he studied music at Worcester College, Oxford from 1961 to 1964. Shortly after he traveled to Cologne, Germany to work...
, John 'Hoppy' Hopkins
John Hopkins (political activist)
John "Hoppy" Hopkins is a British photographer, journalist, researcher and political activist, and "one of the best-known underground figures of Swinging London" in the late 1960s.-Life:...
, John Lifton
John Lifton
John Lifton is an artist and theorist whose work explores the relationships between art, science, the environment and technology. He was a founder of both the London New Arts Lab , which focused on film and video art, and the Institute for Research in Art and Technology as dissident alternatives...
, Pamela Zoline
Pamela Zoline
Pamela Zoline or Pamela Lifton-Zoline is a writer and painter living in the United States in Telluride, Colorado.Among science fiction fans, she is known for her controversial 1967 short story "The Heat Death of the Universe"...
(USA) with Biddy Peppin as Secretary.