Panel Statement

Chair Per­son: Ian Gwilt
Pre­sen­ters: Darko Fritz, Sue Gol­lifer & Melinda Rack­ham

In this panel the term com­pumor­phic art will be used to de­scribe an emer­gent col­lec­tion of art­works, artists and pro­jects that repo­si­tion the dig­i­tal com­puter as a form of cre­ative in­spi­ra­tion, cul­tural com­men­tary or aes­thetic ref­er­ence.

Through the pre­sen­ta­tion of their own re­search/prac­tice the panel will re­veal how com­pumor­phic art­works not only ref­er­ence the vi­sual aes­thetic of com­put­ing tech­nolo­gies but often uti­lize or ques­tion the cul­tural val­ues and on­to­log­i­cal qual­i­ties we com­monly as­cribe to the com­puter-dig­i­tal.

How­ever, this term is by no means fully re­solved and it is hoped that a lively de­bate around the no­tion of com­pumor­phic art – what this might mean and what it might en­com­pass – will take place in the forum.

• Ian Gwilt is a Pro­fes­sor of De­sign at Sheffield Hal­lam Uni­ver­sity, UK. He holds an MA in In­ter­ac­tive Mul­ti­me­dia, con­ferred by the Uni­ver­sity of Balears (UIB) in Spain, and the Royal Col­lege of Art (RCA) Lon­don. He has a Phd from the Col­lege of Fine Arts at the Uni­ver­sity of New South Wales ex­am­in­ing the the­ory and prac­tice of mixed-re­al­ity art. In the last 15 years he has shown and  cu­rated in­ter­ac­tive in­stal­la­tions, rapid pro­to­type sculp­tures and dig­i­tal art­works at a num­ber of in­ter­na­tional new media events, gal­leries and ex­hi­bi­tions. His cur­rent prac­tice/re­search is con­cerned with aug­mented re­al­ity and loca­tive media, the graph­i­cal user in­ter­face as cre­ative/cul­tural arte­fact, and ex­plor­ing new forms and con­texts for in­for­ma­tion de­sign and post con­sump­tion vi­sual com­mu­ni­ca­tion.