Blast Theory is a Portslade-based artists' group, whose work mixes

interactive media Interactive media normally refers to products and services on digital computer-based systems which respond to the user's actions by presenting content such as text, moving image, animation, video and audio. Since its early conception, various fo ...

digital broadcasting Digital broadcasting is the practice of using digital signals rather than analogue signals for broadcasting over radio frequency bands. Digital television broadcasting (especially satellite television) is widespread. Digital audio broadcasting is ...

and live performance.

Biography

The group was founded in 1991 by Matt Adams, Niki Jewett, Will Kittow and Ju Row Farr. The group is currently led by Matt Adams, Ju Row Farr and Nick Tandavanitj. Other members include the film maker John Hardwick and performer Jamie Iddon. Over its history, Blast Theory's work has explored interactivity and the social and political aspects of technology through a multitude of forms – using performance,

installation Installation may refer to: * Installation (computer programs) * Installation, work of installation art * Installation, military base * Installation, into an office, especially a religious (Installation (Christianity) Installation is a Christian li ...

, video,

mobile Mobile may refer to: Places * Mobile, Alabama, a U.S. port city * Mobile County, Alabama * Mobile, Arizona, a small town near Phoenix, U.S. * Mobile, Newfoundland and Labrador Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Mobile ( ...

and online technologies. Currently based at their studios in

Portslade Portslade is a western suburb of the city of Brighton and Hove, England. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century. The arrival of the railway from Brighton in 1840 encouraged rapid de ...

, Blast Theory tours nationally and internationally, working with a number of Associate Artists on different projects. The group has collaborated with The

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...

's Mixed Reality Lab since 1998. Works created collaboratively with the MRL include Desert Rain (1999),

Can You See Me Now? Can You See Me Now? (CYSMN) is an urban chase game developed by Blast Theory and The Mixed Reality Lab in 2001. CYSMN is a pervasive game, where performers on the streets of a city use handheld computers, GPS and walkie talkies to chase online ...

(2001) and

Rider Spoke Rider Spoke developed by Blast Theory in collaboration with the Mixed Reality Lab was first staged at the Barbican, London in October 2007. Created for cyclists, it combines elements of theatre, performance, game play and state of the art techn ...

(2007). Blast Theory's work has been shown at

NTT InterCommunication Center NTT InterCommunication Center (ICC) is a media art gallery in Tokyo Opera City Tower in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in ...

(ICC) in Tokyo, the

Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary ...

Sydney Biennale The Biennale of Sydney is an international festival of contemporary art, held every two years in Sydney, Australia. It is a large and well-attended contemporary visual arts event in the country. Alongside the Venice and São Paulo biennales and ...

, National Museum in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Hebbel Theater The Hebbel-Theater (Hebbel Theatre) is a historic theatre building for plays in Berlin-Kreuzberg, Germany. It has been a venue of the company Hebbel am Ufer (HAU) from 2003. The theatre, with approximately 800 seats, was built by Oskar Kaufmann i ...

in Berlin,

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

Art Fair, Dutch Electronic Arts Festival,

Sónar Sónar is a festival dedicated to music, creativity and technology, founded in Barcelona in 1994 by Ricard Robles, Enric Palau, and Sergi Caballero. The festival has been divided into two parts since its inception: Sónar by Day and Sónar b ...

Festival in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, and Palestine International Video Festival. Recent commissions include You Get Me (2008) at the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Op ...

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

, for Deloitte Ignite '08, and

Ulrike and Eamon Compliant ''Ulrike and Eamon Compliant'' is a work by Blast Theory that premiered at the 53rd Venice Biennale in June 2009, commissioned by the De La Warr Pavilion and supported by Arts Council England. The work is based on the lives of Ulrike Meinhof (Red ...

(2009) for the

De La Warr Pavilion The De La Warr Pavilion is a grade I listed building, located on the seafront at Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex, on the south coast of England. The Modernist and International Style building was designed by the architects Erich Mendelsohn and Ser ...

at the 53rd

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. In 2015 the group launched Karen, an app that psychologically profiles the user.

Approach

Blast Theory's artists describe their work as collaborative and interdisciplinary. With early works such as Gunmen Kill Three (1991) and Chemical Wedding (1994) fitting more in the category of live and

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

, Desert Rain (1999) saw a shift towards work that aims to question performativity, site and presence. Works such as

(2001), a game of chase through real and virtual city streets, have seen Blast Theory mix video games and performance, with

and You Get Me (2008) being open to a worldwide audience via the internet. Recent work uses mobile technologies such as text messaging, MMS messaging and 3G phones with the aim of "exploring how technology might be considered to create new cultural spaces in which the work is customised and personalised for each participant".

Notable works

2015 *''Karen'' 2009 *''Urike and Eamon Compliant'' *''Flypad'' 2008 *''You Get Me'' 2007 *''

'' 2006 *''Soft Message'' *'' Day of the Figurines'' 2005 *''Single Story Building'', Tate Online 2004 *''Energy Gallery'', The Science Museum *''Light Square'' *''I Like Frank'' 2003 *''

Uncle Roy All Around You Uncle Roy All Around You (URAY) is a pervasive game made by Blast Theory. URAY was built in the Equator project on the EQUIP architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills assoc ...

'' 2001 *''

'' – Installation 2002 *''Stay Home Read'' *''Single Story Building'' *''TRUCOLD'' 2001 *''Viewfinder'' *''Can You See Me Now?'' *''An Explicit Volume'' 2000 *''Choreographic Cops in a Complicated World'' *''Sidetracks : Light Sleeper & Body Chemistry IV'' 1999 *''Desert Rain'' *''10 Backwards'' *''Route 12:36'' 1998 *''Kidnap'' *''Architecture Foundation'' *''Atomic Installation'' 1997 *''Safehouse'' *''Invisible Bullets'' (video) *''Atomic Performance'' *''Blipvert'' *''C'mon Baby, Fight! Fight! Fight!'' *''Ultrapure'' 1996 *''Something American'' *''Internal Ammunition'' 1995 *''The Gilt Remake'' 1994 *''Invisible Bullets'' *''Stampede'' 1992 *''Chemical Wedding'' 1991 *''Gunmen Kill Three''

Selected awards

*2013 – The BIMA Awards (UK) – Nomination in Games category, I'd Hide You *2013 – The People's Lovie Awards (UK) – Winner in Events and Live Broadcast category for The Lovie Award and The People's Lovie Award, I'd Hide You *2012 – MUSE Awards (US) – Honourable Mention in the Applications & APIs category for Ghostwriter *2011 – Sheffield Doc/Fest Innovation Award (UK) – Nomination, Ulrike and Eamon Compliant *2010 – International Mobile Gaming Awards (Spain) – Winner Best Real World Game, Ulrike and Eamon Compliant *2009 – Brighton and Hove Business Awards (UK) – Winner of Most Awesome Use of Digital Media *2009 – 14th Annual Webby Awards (USA) – Nomination in NetArt category, You Get Me *2009 – IndieCade Festival of Independent Games (USA) – Finalist, You Get Me *2009 – Total Theatre Awards, Edinburgh Festival Fringe (UK) – Nomination in Innovation/Interaction/Immersion category, Rider Spoke *2008 – Winner of The Digital Collaboration Award at DiMA:S *2007 – Honorary Mention, Prix Ars Electronica for ''Day Of The Figurines'' *2006 – Winner of The Hospital Award for Interactive Media *2005 – Winner of the Maverick Award, Game Developers Choice Awards, USA *2005 – Interactive Arts BAFTA Award, nominated for ''

'' in two categories: Interactive Arts and Technical & Social Innovation *2004 – Net Art Award, the Webby Awards, nominated for ''

'' *2003 – Winner of the Prix Ars Electronica 'Golden Nica' for Interactive Art for ''

'' *2003 – VIPER Basel International Award, nominated for ''

'' *2002 – Interactive Arts BAFTA Award, nominated for ''

'' *2002 – International Fellowship Award, Arts Council England *2002 – Innovation Award, Arts and Humanities Research Board, awarded for ''

'' *2001 – International Media Art Award, ZKM Centre for Arts and Media, Karlsruhe, nominated for ''Kidnap'' *2001 – Transmediale Awards, Berlin, Honorary Mention for ''Desert Rain'' *2000 – Interactive Arts BAFTA Award, nominated for ''Desert Rain'' *2000 – Breakthrough Award for Innovation, nominated, Arts Council England *1999 – The 18 Creative Freedom Awards, nominated for ''Kidnap'' *1996 – Winner of the Barclays New Stages Award, for ''Something American''

Key reading

* Steve Benford, Rob Anastasi, Martin Flintham, Adam Drozd, Andy Crabtree, Chris Greenhalgh, Nick Tandavanitj, Matt Adams, Ju Row-Farr, 'Can You See Me Now?', Pervasive Computing, No.3, Volume 2, July/September 2003, pp. 49–51
Blast Theory, Desert Rain (A Virtual Reality Game/Installation), 2002, pp.1–36 (Blast Theory, London)

Dixon, Steve 'Digital Performance, A history of new media in theatre, dance, performance art, and installation', 2007, pp. 616–621 (The MIT Press, Cambridge, UK)

Giannachi, Gabriella 'About War and Inaction: Blast Theory's Desert Rain', Virtual Theatres: An Introduction, 2004, pp.115–122 (Routledge, London)

Emma Govan, Helen Nicholson and Katie Normington 'Making a Performance, Devising Histories and Contemporary Practices', 2008, pp. 179 – 187 (Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, London)

References

External links

*
Arts Council England
* *
IPerG – Integrated Project of Pervasive Games

Mixed Reality Lab, Nottingham
{{Authority control British digital artists Postmodern artists English contemporary artists English artist groups and collectives Culture in Brighton and Hove Pervasive games