Artist Statement

Exhibition Art & Computers

Smallworld is the title I use to refer to a collection of programs that I have been working on for the past four years or so_ Rather like the brush that has had several new handles and more than a few heads the Smallworld of today has a lot in common with the programs of a few years ago. In fact some of them are effectively the same programs. New programs have been added, however, and old ones refined so that different aspects of the work can be realised. In their current state the Smallworld programs enable movement and pressing of buttons on a computer ‘mouse’ to cause changes in the apparent movement of shapes in a 3D space, drawn in a perspective projection on a colour screen of a computer monitor. The way the movements of the shapes on the screen change depends on the kind of input from the ‘mouse’. Some of the rules that are written in the programs become evident through comparison of the effects of different inputs from the mouse on the apparent movement of the shapes in the space depicted on the screen.

• Stephen Bell (UK), born 1955. Research Technician in the Loughborough University of Technology Computer Human Interface Research Centre (Lurcum, studying towards a Ph.D., subject of study being interactive computer art. Sessional Lecturer at the Fine Art Department of Reading University.