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Brian Reffin Smith (born 1946) is an artist, writer, teacher and musician born in Sudbury,
Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
, in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
, who won the first-ever
Prix Ars Electronica The Prix Ars Electronica is one of the best known and longest running yearly prizes in the field of electronic and interactive art, computer animation, digital culture and music. It has been awarded since 1987 by Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria) ...
, the Golden Nica, in
Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital of ...
,
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, 1987. He lives in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
,
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.


Life

Brought up in
Sileby Sileby is a former industrial village and civil parish in the Soar Valley in Leicestershire, between Leicester and Loughborough. Nearby villages include Barrow upon Soar, Mountsorrel, Ratcliffe-on-the-Wreake, Seagrave and Cossington. The popul ...
,
Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...
, Smith attended what was then an early comprehensive school, Humphrey Perkins School, at
Barrow-upon-Soar Barrow upon Soar is a large village in northern Leicestershire, in the Soar Valley between Leicester and Loughborough, with a population at the 2011 census of 5,856. Geography Barrow lies on the east bank of the River Soar, where the riv ...
. He studied metallurgy and metal physics at
Brunel University Brunel University London is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It was founded in 1966 and named after the Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. In June 1 ...
(his sculptural use of metals' internal crystal structures featured in the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
TV's science and technology programme
Tomorrow's World ''Tomorrow's World'' is a former British television series about contemporary developments in science and technology. First transmitted on 7 July 1965 on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled at the beginning of 2003. The ''Tomorro ...
) and later took a master's degree in the multi-disciplinary DDR (Department of Design Research) at the
Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...
, where he also was appointed a Research Fellow in 1979 and was later appointed College lecturer in computer-based art and design at the RCA from 1980 to 1984. He taught in the UK and France including most London art schools and French ''Écoles nationales'', the
Open University The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...
in the UK, and the
Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...
and
Arts et Métiers ParisTech Arts et Métiers ParisTech is a French engineering and research institute of higher education. It is a ''grande école'', recognized for leading in the fields of mechanics and industrialization. Founded in 1780, it is among the oldest French ins ...
in
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
. From 1986 to 2011 he was Professeur, art et informatique, at the École nationale supérieure d'art, Bourges, France. Working with computers since the late 1960s, Smith was a pioneer of computer-based
conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...
, with the aim of trying to resist
technological determinism Technological determinism is a reductionist theory that assumes that a society's technology progresses by following its own internal logic of efficiency, while determining the development of the social structure and cultural values. The term is ...
and "state of the art" technology which might merely produce "state of the technology" art. He was a council member of IRAT, the London-based
Institute for Research in Art and Technology The Institute for Research in Art and Technology (IRAT, also known as New Arts Lab; Robert Street Arts Lab) was founded in London in 1969 by a group of artists and activists including painter/author Pamela Zoline, video Pioneer John Hopkins, pain ...
. After showing interactive artworks at the Musée d'art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1983 he was invited by the French Ministry of Culture to intervene in art education, and was later appointed to a teaching post in the École nationale supérieure d'art (National Art School) in
Bourges Bourges () is a commune in central France on the river Yèvre. It is the capital of the department of Cher, and also was the capital city of the former province of Berry. History The name of the commune derives either from the Bituriges, t ...
. In the UK in 1979, Smith wrote 'Jackson', one of the first digital painting programs, for the
Research Machines 380Z The Research Machines 380Z (often called the RML 380Z or RM 380Z) was an early 8-bit microcomputer produced by Research Machines in Oxford, England, from 1977 to 1985. Description The 380Z used a Z80 microprocessor (hence the name) with up to 56&n ...
computer, software which was distributed by the Ministry of Education and used in schools and elsewhere. He was involved on-screen and as a programme adviser in BBC TV's ''
The Computer Programme ''The Computer Programme'' is a TV series, produced by Paul Kriwaczek, originally broadcast by the BBC (on BBC 2) in 1982. The idea behind the series was to introduce people to computers and show them what they were capable of. The BBC wanted ...
'' in 1982 and the BBC published his art software for the
BBC Micro The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an emphas ...
. In the
Portsmouth Sinfonia The Portsmouth Sinfonia was an English orchestra founded by a group of students at the Portsmouth School of Art in 1970. The Sinfonia was generally open to anyone and ended up drawing players who were either people without musical training or, i ...
orchestra, composed of players who could barely play their instruments, Smith sometimes played sixth clarinet, for example on the orchestra's World Tour, which started and ended one night in
Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...
, Wales. Smith has been cited as among the most prolific letter-writers to the UK newspaper ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', along with the celebrated
Keith Flett Keith Flett (born 31 October 1956) is a British socialist historian and a prolific letter writer in the British press. Activities Letters from "Keith Flett, London N17" are regularly published in the press, literary and political journals, advan ...
and others. Smith is a member of the OuPeinPo group of artists,
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, France (OuPeinPo is to art what the
OuLiPo Oulipo (, short for french: Ouvroir de littérature potentielle; roughly translated: ''"workshop of potential literature"'', stylized ''OuLiPo'') is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create works ...
is to literature); and Regent of the College of
'Pataphysics Pataphysics (french: 'pataphysique) is a "philosophy" of science invented by French writer Alfred Jarry (1873–1907) intended to be a parody of science. Difficult to be simply defined or pinned down, it has been described as the "science of ima ...
, Paris, France, holding the Chair of Catachemistry and Speculative (or sometimes 'Computational') Metallurgy. He regularly shows artworks and makes performances in the context of
'Pataphysics Pataphysics (french: 'pataphysique) is a "philosophy" of science invented by French writer Alfred Jarry (1873–1907) intended to be a parody of science. Difficult to be simply defined or pinned down, it has been described as the "science of ima ...
, often 'zombifying' the audience by wrapping their heads in lengths of bandage or toilet paper. He is an advocate of including critique or reflection about artworks in the artworks themselves. In 1988 he showed "Artist/Critic" - two Amiga computers, not linked together, using text and a very little artificial intelligence to play the rôles of, respectively, an artist and a critic. Spectators/participants were invited to "help" one or the other text simulations by, for example, telling the artist what the critic said, or meant, and vice versa - the only way the two computers could communicate was by people typing to one what the other had said on its screen, often paraphrasing or adding their own thoughts, to which the critic, or artist, then responded. The concealed stratagem was that the simulations, that of artist and critic, were identical. Areas of work, research, teaching and performance include ideas of
Zombie A zombie (Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in whic ...
and 'Pataphysics in art and elsewhere, and the ''
détournement A détournement (), meaning "rerouting, hijacking" in French, is a technique developed in the 1950s by the Letterist International, and later adapted by the Situationist International (SI),''Report on the Construction of Situations'' (1957) that ...
'' or "hijacking" of systems, mechanisms, programs, etc. from computing and other areas of science and technology, as well as cognitive psychology, to make conceptual art. Smith claims to have become a
Philosophical Zombie A philosophical zombie or p-zombie argument is a thought experiment in philosophy of mind that imagines a hypothetical being that is physically identical to and indistinguishable from a normal person but does not have consciousness, conscious ex ...
, and hence to have a deeper insight into problems of existence,
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
and art, after a botched heart operation in a
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
hospital when, instead of the more usual latex balloon being used to inflate a blocked artery during angioplasty, the team had recourse to a
pufferfish Tetraodontidae is a family of primarily marine and estuarine fish of the order Tetraodontiformes. The family includes many familiar species variously called pufferfish, puffers, balloonfish, blowfish, blowies, bubblefish, globefish, swellfis ...
(or
fugu The fugu (; ; ) in Japanese, ''bogeo'' (; 鰒魚) or ''bok'' () in Korean, and ''hétún'' (河豚; 河魨) in Standard Modern Chinese is a pufferfish, normally of the genus ''Takifugu'', ''Lagocephalus'', or ''Sphoeroides'', or a porcupinefish ...
) which swells rapidly when a harmless voltage is applied to its tail. Smith has insisted, contrary to
David Chalmers David John Chalmers (; born 20 April 1966) is an Australian philosopher and cognitive scientist specializing in the areas of philosophy of mind and philosophy of language. He is a professor of philosophy and neural science at New York Universi ...
who invoked the idea of a philosophical zombie as an attempted refutation of
physicalism In philosophy, physicalism is the metaphysical thesis that "everything is physical", that there is "nothing over and above" the physical, or that everything supervenes on the physical. Physicalism is a form of ontological monism—a "one substanc ...
, that it's "Zombies all the way down" (at the 5th International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology, Riga, Latvia, 2013.) Exhibitions of
conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...
,
installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called ...
,
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 ...
etc., often computer based, include "Art for Society",
Whitechapel Gallery The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the fir ...
, London, 1979, "Electra", Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1983; Fondation Cartier, Paris, Pixim, 1988, La Villette, Paris,
SIGGRAPH SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) is an annual conference on computer graphics (CG) organized by the ACM SIGGRAPH, starting in 1974. The main conference is held in North America; SIGGRAPH Asia ...
, 1988, (USA various and Moscow), Galerie Zwinger, Berlin, and Krammig & Pepper Contemporary, Berlin, 1986–, gallery A3, Moscow 1990, Muses Maschine Art Laboratory Galerie, Berlin, 2014–2015, DAM (Digital Arts Museum) Gallery, Berlin, 2016. In addition to many books on computers for children and on computer-based arts for adults, Smith has broadcast and written widely on art and technology. He is a book and peer reviewer for Leonardo Journal. Smith contributed presentations to international conferences on Art, Design, Consciousness Studies, Media Histories and Digital Arts. In his writings on computers in the early 1980s (for example "Computers", Usborne Publishing Ltd, 1981) Smith appeared to predict in some detail smart devices such as the
iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...
and also the idea of using software held not in a computer but remotely, in the
cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may co ...
, or elsewhere on the World Wide Web. In his chapter in '' White Heat Cold Logic: British Computer Art 1960–1980'', Smith wrote: This quotation inspired a symposium, "Ideas before their time", held at the
British Computer Society Sir Maurice Wilkes served as the first President of BCS in 1957 BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, known as the British Computer Society until 2009, is a professional body and a learned society that represents those working in infor ...
in
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
in February 2010 at which Smith was the invited Keynote speaker. Smith's "43 Dodgy Statements on Computer Art", described by ''
Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...
'' as "timeless",
''
Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...
'' included ‘The sadness of most art is that it does not know its future. The sadness of computer art is that it does not know its past’ and ‘What would be pretentious or nonsensical if one said it oneself does not become more worthy when spoken by a computer-generated avatar’.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Brian Reffin 1946 births Living people People from Sudbury, Suffolk People from Sileby Alumni of Brunel University London British conceptual artists British digital artists Academic staff of the University of Paris Academics of the Royal College of Art Pataphysicians