Myfanwy Ashmore is a Canadian artist known for her game-related art. She works across digital and

new media New media describes communication technologies that enable or enhance interaction between users as well as interaction between users and content. In the middle of the 1990s, the phrase "new media" became widely used as part of a sales pitch for ...

formats.

Education

Ashmore studied at the Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1990, moving to the Ontario College of Art & Design's Sculpture/Installation where she graduated in 1996. She received her MFA from

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

in 1998.

Career

Ashmore is primarily known for her software-related art. She has exhibited alongside

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...

Sol LeWitt Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism. LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he pref ...

Liam Gillick Liam Gillick (born 1964, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire) is a British artist who lives and works in New York City.

Robert Gober Robert Gober (born September 12, 1954) is an American sculptor. His work is often related to domestic and familiar objects such as sinks, doors, and legs. Early life and education Gober was born in Wallingford, Connecticut and studied literat ...

George Brecht George Brecht (August 27, 1926 – December 5, 2008), born George Ellis MacDiarmid, was an American conceptual artist and avant-garde composer, as well as a professional chemist who worked as a consultant for companies including Pfizer, Johnson ...

, lo-bat, COVOX, Mark Hosler of

negativland Negativland is an American experimental music band which originated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1970s. They took their name from a Neu! track, while their record label (Seeland Records) is named after another Neu! track. The core ...

, Norman White and others. Her 2000 ''soma/somo'' project, a series of networked decaying grapefruits, was publicly criticized in the Canadian Parliament by

Inky Mark Inky Mark (; born November 17, 1947) is a Canadian politician and a former member of the House of Commons of Canada, representing the Manitoba riding of Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette. Mark was a member of the Conservative Party of Canada, ...

, heritage critic of the Reform Party. Mark argued that the public money spent by the

Canada Council for the Arts The Canada Council for the Arts (french: Conseil des arts du Canada), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It acts as the federal government's principal in ...

on this and other artistic projects was misspent. Her 2000

software art Software art is a work of art where the creation of software, or concepts from software, play an important role; for example software applications which were created by artists and which were intended as artworks. As an artistic discipline software ...

work entitled ''Mario Battle no.1'' has been one of her most recognized and widely exhibited works. This program and two subsequent works ''Mario Doing Time'' and ''Mario is Drowning'' (both 2004), are based on

Super Mario Brothers is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The successor to the 1983 arcade game ''Mario Bros.'' and the first game in the ''Super Mario'' series, it was first released in 1985 for th ...

. The series plays on typical " rescue the princess" themes, ''Mario Battle no.1'' was distributed by Year01.com and runme.org, initially by ROM and emulator on floppies across North America, and later online. It has been compared with Cory Arcangel's '' Super Mario Clouds'' as an example of games as art object, and "reduction and abstraction of the source material". The series, appeared in a 2006 exhibition at InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre, as well as in public screenings of a one-minute video of ''Mario Battle no.1'' in

Dundas Square Dundas may refer to: Places Australia * Dundas, New South Wales * Dundas, Queensland, a locality in the Somerset Region * Dundas, Tasmania * Dundas, Western Australia * Fort Dundas, a settlement in the Northern Territory 1824–1828 * Shire of ...

as part of Year Zero One's ''TRANSMEDIA :29:59'' festival. It was later exhibited in 2012 at the Platform Centre for Photographic and Digital Arts in Winnipeg. In 2004, Ashmore was part of the exhibition ''0.001 Percent Volume'', curated by Dave Dyment at

Mercer Union Mercer Union is a Canadian artist-run centre in Toronto, Ontario, established in 1979 to exhibit contemporary art. History Mercer Union was founded in 1979 by artists Michael Balfe, Peter Blendell, Ric Evans, Peter Hill, Jamie Lyons, David MacW ...

in Toronto. Her work was included in Episode 4 of Lorna Mills' ''Ways of Something'' (2014-2015).

Teaching

Ashmore has taught New Media in the Image Arts Program at Ryerson University (now

Toronto Metropolitan University Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU or Toronto Met) is a public university, public research university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District, Toronto, Garden District, although i ...

) in Toronto.

Awards

Ashmore has received numerous grants as well as awards from various councils and artist-run centres. She was nominated and short listed for the prestigious 2003 K.M. Hunter award through the

Ontario Arts Council The Ontario Arts Council (OAC) is a publicly-funded Canadian organization in the province of Ontario whose purpose is to foster the creation and production of art for the benefit of all Ontarians. Based in Toronto, OAC was founded in 1963 by On ...

References

External links

*
Mario Battle No. 1.
on year01.com
Mario Battle No. 1
on runme.org
April 2006 Interview With Myfanwy Ashmore

Curatorial Brochure of exhibition at Mercer Union - curated and written by Dave Dyment
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashmore, Myfanwy 1974 births Living people Artists from Toronto People from North York Canadian multimedia artists Canadian women artists OCAD University alumni