Memo Akten (born 1975) is an artist and creative technologist based in London (UK). He is known for the reappropriation of advanced electronics, software and hardware systems to create multimedia experiences that he describes as an attempt to "change our perceptions on our relationship with science, nature technology and culture". Akten's 2013 work "FORMS" won the Golden Nica at the

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) ...

. He has shown work at the

Victoria & Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

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 ...

Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I l ...

, and

Queen Elizabeth Hall The Queen Elizabeth Hall (QEH) is a music venue on the South Bank in London, England, that hosts classical, jazz, and avant-garde music, talks and dance performances. It was opened in 1967, with a concert conducted by Benjamin Britten. The ...

Career

In 1997, Akten received a Bachelor's Degree in civil engineering from Bogazici University. In 2012, Akten co-created a live theatrical performance involving kinetic light systems controlled by quadrotor drones. The exhibition was called "Meet Your Creator" and was created for the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors' Showcase. In 2013, Akten received the Prix

Ars Electronica Ars Electronica Linz GmbH is an Austrian cultural, educational and scientific institute active in the field of new media art, founded in Linz in 1979. It is based at the Ars Electronica Center (AEC), which houses the Museum of the Future, in the ...

Golden Nica for his collaboration with Quayola on a digital 3D project called ‘Forms’. His work has been featured in publications such as

Wallpaper Wallpaper is a material used in interior decoration to decorate the interior walls of domestic and public buildings. It is usually sold in rolls and is applied onto a wall using wallpaper paste. Wallpapers can come plain as "lining paper" (so t ...

, Dazed,

Eye magazine ''Eye'' magazine is a quarterly print magazine on graphic design and visual culture. History First published in London in 1990, ''Eye'' was founded by Rick Poynor, a prolific writer on graphic design and visual communication. Poynor edited ...

Guardian Guardian usually refers to: * Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another * ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper (The) Guardian(s) may also refer to: Places * Guardian, West Virginia, Unite ...

BBC #REDIRECT 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 ex ...

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

, Wired and

Dezeen ''Dezeen'' is an online architecture, interiors and design magazine based in London, with offices in Hoxton and also previously in New York City. History ''Dezeen'' was launched in London by Marcus Fairs at the end of November 2006. Its New Yo ...

. In 2009, his works ‘Body Paint’ and ‘Gold’ started touring with the

’s ‘Decode’ exhibition. In 2014 his work with

Marshmallow Laser Feast Marshmallow (, ) is a type of confectionery that is typically made from sugar, water and gelatin whipped to a solid-but-soft consistency. It is used as a filling in baking or normally molded into shapes and coated with corn starch. The suga ...

‘Laser Forest’ was part of the

Barbican A barbican (from fro, barbacane) is a fortified outpost or fortified gateway, such as at an outer fortifications, defense perimeter of a city or castle, or any tower situated over a gate or bridge which was used for defensive purposes. Europe ...

’s ‘Digital Revolutions’ exhibition. As a strong supporter of open-source software, Akten is one of the core contributors to the

openFrameworks openFrameworks is an open source toolkit designed for creative coding founded by Zachary Lieberman, Theo Watson and Arturo Castro. OpenFrameworks is written in C++ and built on top of OpenGL. It runs on Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, ...

project, and he gives lectures and workshops around the world. In 2007 he founded The Mega Super Awesome Visuals Company (MSA Visuals), a

creative technology Creative Technology Ltd. is a Singaporean multinational technology company headquartered with overseas offices in Shanghai, Tokyo, Dublin, and Silicon Valley (where in the US it is known as Creative Labs). The principal activities of the compa ...

studio. In 2011, with two new partners this evolved into

. In 2014, Memo left MLF to focus on personal work, collaborations and research.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Akten, Memo British contemporary artists Living people Artists from London Artists from Istanbul 1975 births