Roy Ascott
Encyclopedia
Roy Ascott is a British artist and theorist, who works with cybernetics
and telematics
. He is President of the Planetary Collegium
.
. He was educated at the City of Bath Boys' School
. His National Service
was spent as an officer in the Royal Air Force
working with radar
defence systems). From 1955-59 he studied Fine Art at King's College, University of Durham (now Newcastle University) under Victor Pasmore
and Richard Hamilton
, and Art History under Lawrence Gowing
and Quentin Bell
. On graduation he was appointed Studio Demonstrator (1959–61). He then moved to London, where he established the radical Groundcourse at Ealing Art College
, which he subsequently established at Ipswich Civic College, in Suffolk. Notable alumni of the Groundcourse include Brian Eno
, Pete Townshend
, Stephen Willats
, and Michael English
.
He taught in London (Ealing, and was a visiting lecturer at other London art schools throughout the 1960s. Then briefly was President of Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto, before moving to California as Vice-President and Dean of San Francisco Art Institute
, during the 1970s. He was Professor for Communications Theory at the University of Applied Arts Vienna
during the 1980s, and Professor of Technoetic
Arts at the University of Wales, Newport
in the 1990s.http://www.mediaartnet.org/artist/ascott/biography/
He has advised new media arts organisations in Brazil, Japan, Korea, Europe and North America , as well as UNESCO
http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=1480&URL_DO=DO_PRINTPAGE&URL_SECTION=201.html, and since 2000 has been a Visiting Professor in Design/Media Art at the UCLA School of the Arts. He is the founding editor of Technoetic Arts, journal of speculative research., and an Honorary Editor of Leonardo Journal. Ascott was an International Commissioner for the XLII Venice Biennale of 1986 (Planetary Network and Laboratorio Ubiqua ).
He is the founding president of the Planetary Collegium
an advanced research center which he set up in 2003 at the University of Plymouth
, UK, where he is Professor of Technoetic Arts. The Collegium currently has nodes (linked centers) in Zurich, and Milan.
, electronic art
, cybernetic and telematic art
.
The historian of art and technology Frank Popper
writes of Roy Ascott:
In his first show (1964) at the Molton Gallery, London http://telematic.walkerart.org/timeline/timeline_shanken.html, he exhibited Analogue Structures and Diagram Boxes, comprising change-paintings and other works in wood, perspex and glass. In 1964 Ascott published "Behaviourist Art and the Cybernetic Vision" in Cybernetica: journal of the International Association for Cybernetics (Namur). In 1968, he was elected Associate Member of the Institution of Computer Science, London (proposed by Gordon Pask
). In 1972, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
.
Ascott has shown at the Venice Biennale
, Electra Paris, Ars Electronica
, V2 Institute for the Unstable Media
http://framework.v2.nl/archive/archive/leaf/other/default.xslt/nodenr-143122, Milan Triennale, Biennale do Mercosul, Brazil
, European Media Festival, and gr2000az at Graz
, Austria
. His first telematic project was La Plissure du Texte (1983), http://telematic.walkerart.org/timeline/timeline_ascott.html an online work of "distributed authorship" involving artists around the world. The second was his "gesamtdatenwerk" Aspects of Gaia: Digital Pathways across the Whole Earth (1989),an installation for the Ars Electronica
Festival in Linz, discussed by (inter alia) Matthew Wilson Smith in The Total Work of Art: from Bayreuth to Cyberspace, New York: Routledge, 2007. Retrospective exhibitions of his work were shown in May 2009 at Plymouth Arts Centre, England and in the Incheon INternational Digital Arts Festival, Incheon, South Korea in September 2010.
, telematic art
. and systems art
. Ascott built a theoretical framework for approaching interactive artworks, which brought together certain characteristics of Dada
, Surrealism
, Fluxus
, Happenings, and Pop Art
with the science of cybernetics
. He was also influenced by the writings of Gordon Pask
, Anthony Stafford Beer
, William Ross Ashby
, and F.H.George.
Cybernetics
Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to information theory, control theory and systems theory, at least in its first-order form...
and telematics
Telematics
Telematics typically is any integrated use of telecommunications and informatics, also known as ICT...
. He is President of the Planetary Collegium
Planetary Collegium
The Planetary Collegium is an international platform for research in art, technology and consciousness, with its hub based in the University of Plymouth, with linked centers in Zurich and Milan...
.
Biography
Roy Ascott was born in Bath, EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. He was educated at the City of Bath Boys' School
Beechen Cliff School
Beechen Cliff School is a boys' secondary school in Bath, Somerset, England. Founded in 1896, it has 1,145 students aged 11 to 18.There are around 830 boys in years 7 to 11 and a co-educational sixth form of over 200 students...
. His National Service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
was spent as an officer in the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
working with radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
defence systems). From 1955-59 he studied Fine Art at King's College, University of Durham (now Newcastle University) under Victor Pasmore
Victor Pasmore
Edwin John Victor Pasmore was a British artist and architect. He pioneered the development of abstract art in Britain in the 1940s and 1950s.-Biography:...
and Richard Hamilton
Richard Hamilton (artist)
Richard William Hamilton, CH was a British painter and collage artist. His 1956 collage, Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?, produced for the This Is Tomorrow exhibition of the Independent Group in London, is considered by critics and historians to be one of the...
, and Art History under Lawrence Gowing
Lawrence Gowing
Sir Lawrence Gowing was a British artist, writer, curator and teacher. Initially recognized as a portrait and landscape painter, he quickly rose to prominence as an art educator, writer, and eventually, curator and museum trustee...
and Quentin Bell
Quentin Bell
Quentin Claudian Stephen Bell was an English art historian and author.Bell was the son of Clive Bell and Vanessa Bell , and the nephew of Virginia Woolf . He was educated in London and at the Quaker Leighton Park School.Principally an artist, as a potter, he was drawn to academia...
. On graduation he was appointed Studio Demonstrator (1959–61). He then moved to London, where he established the radical Groundcourse at Ealing Art College
Ealing Art College
Ealing Art College was 'Ealing Technical College & School of Art', a further education institution on St Mary's Road, Ealing, London, England. The site today is the Ealing campus of University of West London...
, which he subsequently established at Ipswich Civic College, in Suffolk. Notable alumni of the Groundcourse include Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
, Pete Townshend
Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...
, Stephen Willats
Stephen Willats
Stephen Willats is a British artist. He lives and works in London.Stephen Willats is a pioneer of conceptual art. Since the early 1960s he has created work concerned with extending the territory in which art functions...
, and Michael English
Michael English
Michael English is an American Christian singer. Initially, he was a member of his family's singing group, and is currently a member of The Gaither Vocal Band. During his solo career, he recorded eight studio albums. English's highest-charting solo single was "Your Love Amazes Me", which reached No...
.
He taught in London (Ealing, and was a visiting lecturer at other London art schools throughout the 1960s. Then briefly was President of Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto, before moving to California as Vice-President and Dean of San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute is a school of higher education in contemporary art with the main campus in the Russian Hill district of San Francisco, California. Its graduate center is in the Dogpatch neighborhood. The private, non-profit institution is accredited by WASC and is a member of the...
, during the 1970s. He was Professor for Communications Theory at the University of Applied Arts Vienna
University of Applied Arts Vienna
The University of Applied Arts Vienna is an institution of higher education in Vienna, the capital of Austria. It has had university status since 1970.-History:...
during the 1980s, and Professor of Technoetic
Technoetic
The term technoetic was created by Roy Ascott during his career as an artist and theorist in the fields of cybernetics and telematics. Ascott coined the term from a compound of the Greek words Techne and noetikos, and defined it as the quest to understand the effects of technology on...
Arts at the University of Wales, Newport
University of Wales, Newport
The University of Wales, Newport is a university based in Newport, South Wales. The university has two campuses; Caerleon on the northern outskirts of the city and a £35 million campus on the banks of the River Usk in Newport city centre opened in 2011...
in the 1990s.http://www.mediaartnet.org/artist/ascott/biography/
He has advised new media arts organisations in Brazil, Japan, Korea, Europe and North America , as well as UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=1480&URL_DO=DO_PRINTPAGE&URL_SECTION=201.html, and since 2000 has been a Visiting Professor in Design/Media Art at the UCLA School of the Arts. He is the founding editor of Technoetic Arts, journal of speculative research., and an Honorary Editor of Leonardo Journal. Ascott was an International Commissioner for the XLII Venice Biennale of 1986 (Planetary Network and Laboratorio Ubiqua ).
He is the founding president of the Planetary Collegium
Planetary Collegium
The Planetary Collegium is an international platform for research in art, technology and consciousness, with its hub based in the University of Plymouth, with linked centers in Zurich and Milan...
an advanced research center which he set up in 2003 at the University of Plymouth
University of Plymouth
Plymouth University is the largest university in the South West of England, with over 30,000 students and is 9th largest in the United Kingdom by total number of students . It has almost 3,000 staff...
, UK, where he is Professor of Technoetic Arts. The Collegium currently has nodes (linked centers) in Zurich, and Milan.
Work
Since the 1960s, Roy Ascott has been a practitioner of interactive computer artComputer art
Computer art is any art in which computers play a role in production or display of the artwork. Such art can be an image, sound, animation, video, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, videogame, web site, algorithm, performance or gallery installation...
, electronic art
Electronic art
Electronic art is a form of art that makes use of electronic media or, more broadly, refers to technology and/or electronic media. It is related to information art, new media art, video art, digital art, interactive art, internet art, and electronic music...
, cybernetic and telematic art
Telematic art
Telematic art is a descriptive of art projects using computer mediated telecommunications networks as their medium. Telematic art challenges the traditional relationship between active viewing subjects and passive art objects by creating interactive, behavioural contexts for remote aesthetic...
.
The historian of art and technology Frank Popper
Frank Popper
Frank Popper is a historian of art and technology and Professor Emeritus of Aesthetics and the Science of Art at the University of Paris VIII. He has been decorated with the medal of the Légion d'honneur by the French Government...
writes of Roy Ascott:
In his first show (1964) at the Molton Gallery, London http://telematic.walkerart.org/timeline/timeline_shanken.html, he exhibited Analogue Structures and Diagram Boxes, comprising change-paintings and other works in wood, perspex and glass. In 1964 Ascott published "Behaviourist Art and the Cybernetic Vision" in Cybernetica: journal of the International Association for Cybernetics (Namur). In 1968, he was elected Associate Member of the Institution of Computer Science, London (proposed by Gordon Pask
Gordon Pask
Andrew Gordon Speedie Pask was an English cybernetician and psychologist who made significant contributions to cybernetics, instructional psychology, experimental epistemology and educational technology....
). In 1972, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
Royal Society of Arts
The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity...
.
Ascott has shown at the Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
, Electra Paris, Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica is an organization based in Linz, Austria, founded in 1979 around a festival for art, technology and society that was part of the International Bruckner Festival. Herbert W. Franke is one of its founders. It became its own festival and a yearly event in 1986. Its director until 1995...
, V2 Institute for the Unstable Media
V2 Institute for the Unstable Media
V2_, Institute for the Unstable Media, or simply V2_, is an interdisciplinary center for art and media technology in Rotterdam, the Netherlands...
http://framework.v2.nl/archive/archive/leaf/other/default.xslt/nodenr-143122, Milan Triennale, Biennale do Mercosul, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, European Media Festival, and gr2000az at Graz
Graz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. His first telematic project was La Plissure du Texte (1983), http://telematic.walkerart.org/timeline/timeline_ascott.html an online work of "distributed authorship" involving artists around the world. The second was his "gesamtdatenwerk" Aspects of Gaia: Digital Pathways across the Whole Earth (1989),an installation for the Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica is an organization based in Linz, Austria, founded in 1979 around a festival for art, technology and society that was part of the International Bruckner Festival. Herbert W. Franke is one of its founders. It became its own festival and a yearly event in 1986. Its director until 1995...
Festival in Linz, discussed by (inter alia) Matthew Wilson Smith in The Total Work of Art: from Bayreuth to Cyberspace, New York: Routledge, 2007. Retrospective exhibitions of his work were shown in May 2009 at Plymouth Arts Centre, England and in the Incheon INternational Digital Arts Festival, Incheon, South Korea in September 2010.
Interactive computer art
Since the 1960s, Ascott has been a working with interactive computer artComputer art
Computer art is any art in which computers play a role in production or display of the artwork. Such art can be an image, sound, animation, video, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, videogame, web site, algorithm, performance or gallery installation...
, telematic art
Telematic art
Telematic art is a descriptive of art projects using computer mediated telecommunications networks as their medium. Telematic art challenges the traditional relationship between active viewing subjects and passive art objects by creating interactive, behavioural contexts for remote aesthetic...
. and systems art
Systems art
Systems art is art influenced by cybernetics, and systems theory, which reflects on natural systems, social systems and social signs of the art world itself....
. Ascott built a theoretical framework for approaching interactive artworks, which brought together certain characteristics of Dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
, Surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
, Fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
, Happenings, and Pop Art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
with the science of cybernetics
Cybernetics
Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to information theory, control theory and systems theory, at least in its first-order form...
. He was also influenced by the writings of Gordon Pask
Gordon Pask
Andrew Gordon Speedie Pask was an English cybernetician and psychologist who made significant contributions to cybernetics, instructional psychology, experimental epistemology and educational technology....
, Anthony Stafford Beer
Anthony Stafford Beer
Anthony Stafford Beer was a British theorist, consultant and professor at the Manchester Business School. He is best known for his work in the fields of operational research and management cybernetics.- Biography :...
, William Ross Ashby
William Ross Ashby
W. Ross Ashby was an English psychiatrist and a pioneer in cybernetics, the study of complex systems. His first name was not used: he was known as Ross Ashby....
, and F.H.George.
External links
- Entry for Roy Ascott at the "Media Art Net" includes a biography and links to further sources, including articles by Söke Dinkla, Inke Arns, Rudolf Frieling, and Oliver Grau respectively
- La Plissure du Texte, in the online catalogue "Media Art Net"
- "Roy Ascott: Teaching Change", a Tate Blog article written by Elena Crippa, 15 June 2011
- Webpage of the retrospective at Space London "Roy Ascott: The Syncretic Sense", May 20 - June 25, 2011
- Time Out recommendation for the exhibition "Roy Ascott: The Syncretic Sense"
- "Degree Zero", article on Roy Ascott's Groundcourse, frieze magazine, web version of printed article, published on 02/09/06, written by Emily Pethick
- References for Roy Ascott with the German art magazine "Kunstforum International"