Roy Ascott

FRSA The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

(born 26 October 1934) is a British artist, who works with

cybernetics Cybernetics is a wide-ranging field concerned with circular causality, such as feedback, in regulatory and purposive systems. Cybernetics is named after an example of circular causal feedback, that of steering a ship, where the helmsperson m ...

and

telematics Telematics is an interdisciplinary field encompassing telecommunications, vehicular technologies ( road transport, road safety, etc.), electrical engineering (sensors, instrumentation, wireless communications, etc.), and computer science (multimedi ...

on an art he calls technoetic by focusing on the impact of digital and telecommunications networks on

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

. Since the 1960s, Ascott has been a practitioner of

interactive Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but mo ...

computer art Computer art is any art in which computers play a role in production or display of the artwork. Such art can be an image, sound, animation, video, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, video game, website, algorithm, performance or gallery installation. Many traditi ...

electronic art Electronic art is a form of art that makes use of electronic media. More broadly, it refers to technology and/or electronic media. It is related to information art, new media art, video art, digital art, interactive art, internet art, and electr ...

cybernetic art Cybernetic art is contemporary art that builds upon the legacy of cybernetics, where feedback involved in the work takes precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. The relationship between cybernetics and art can be summarised i ...

and

telematic art Telematic art is a descriptive of art projects using computer-mediated telecommunications networks as their medium. Telematic art challenges the traditional relationship between active viewing subjects and passive art objects by creating interactive ...

. Ascott exhibits internationally (including the Biennales of Venice and Shanghai), and is collected by

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...

and

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three s ...

. He is recognised by

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 ...

as the "visionary pioneer of media art", and widely seen as a radical innovator in arts education and research, having occupied leading academic roles in England, Europe, North America, and China, and is currently leading his Technoetic Arts studio in Shanghai, and directing the

Planetary Collegium The Planetary Collegium (a.k.a. CAiiA / Centre for Advanced Inquiry in Integrative Arts) is an international transcultural and transdisciplinary new media art educational research platform that promotes on the doctorate level the integration of a ...

. In 2018 he became the subject of ''Cybernetics & Human Knowing: A Journal of Second Order Cybernetics, Autopoiesis and Cybersemiotics'' entitled "A Tribute to the Messenger Shaman: Roy Ascott". Dr.Kate Sloan's comprehensive study of his early work "Art Cybernetics and Pedagogy in Post-War Britain: Roy Ascott's Groundcourse" was published by Routledge in 2019. He is President of the

, Professor of Technoetic Arts

Plymouth University The University of Plymouth is a public research university based predominantly in Plymouth, England, where the main campus is located, but the university has campuses and affiliated colleges across South West England. With students, it is the ...

, and the De Tao Master of Technoetic Arts at the DeTao Masters Academy in Shanghai. He is also Chief Specialist of the Visual Art Innovation Institute at the

Central Academy of Fine Arts The Central Academy of Fine Arts or CAFA is an art academy under the direct charge of the Ministry of Education of China. The Manila Bulletin calls the school "China’s most prestigious and renowned art academy". It is one of the most selectiv ...

in Beijing. He is the founding editor of the research journal ''Technoetic Arts'', an honorary editor of '' Leonardo Journal'', and author of the book ''Telematic Embrace: Visionary Theories of Art, Technology and Consciousness.''

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

Biography

Roy Ascott was born in Bath, England. He was educated at the

City of Bath Boys' School Beechen Cliff School is a boys' secondary school in Bath, Somerset, England, with about 1,150 pupils. Its earliest predecessor school was founded in 1896. There are around 930 boys in years 7 to 11 and a co-educational sixth form of 402 pupils ...

. His

National Service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The l ...

was spent as a Pilot Officer in

RAF Fighter Command RAF Fighter Command was one of the commands of the Royal Air Force. It was formed in 1936 to allow more specialised control of fighter aircraft. It served throughout the Second World War. It earned near-immortal fame during the Battle of Britai ...

working with

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

defence systems. From 1955 to 1959 he studied Fine Art at King's College,

University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charte ...

(now

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public university, public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is ...

) under

Victor Pasmore Edwin John Victor Pasmore, CH, CBE (3 December 190823 January 1998) was a British artist. He pioneered the development of abstract art in Britain in the 1940s and 1950s. Early life Pasmore was born in Chelsham, Surrey, on 3 December 1908. He ...

and Richard Hamilton, and Art History under

Lawrence Gowing Sir Lawrence Burnett Gowing (21 April 1918 – 5 February 1991) was an English artist, writer, curator and teacher. Initially recognised as a portrait and landscape painter, he quickly rose to prominence as an art educator, writer, and eventuall ...

and

Quentin Bell Quentin Claudian Stephen Bell (19 August 1910 – 16 December 1996) was an English art historian and author. Early life Bell was born in London, the son of Clive Bell and Vanessa Bell (née Stephen), and the nephew of Virginia Woolf (née Ste ...

. He was awarded the degree of B.A. Hons Fine Art, Dunelm in 1959. On graduation he was appointed Studio Demonstrator (1959–61). He then moved to London, where he established the radical ''Groundcourse'' at

Ealing Art College Ealing Art College (or Ealing Technical College & School of Art) was a further education institution on St Mary's Road, Ealing, London, England. The site today is the Ealing campus of University of West London. History In the early 1960s the S ...

, which he subsequently established at Ipswich Civic College, in Suffolk, working with artist tutors such as

Anthony Benjamin Anthony Benjamin (29 March 1931 – 17 February 2002) FRSA, RE was an English painter, sculptor and printmaker. Referred to as a 'polymathic artist' by critic Rosemary Simmons when writing about his work for the ''Borderline Images By Anthony ...

, Bernard Cohen.

R. B. Kitaj Ronald Brooks Kitaj (; October 29, 1932 – October 21, 2007) was an American artist who spent much of his life in England. Life He was born in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, United States. His Hungarian father, Sigmund Benway, left his mother, Jeanne ...

, Brian Wall, Harold Cohen, and Peter Startup. Important to the development of his understanding of cybernetics was his friendship with

Gordon Pask Andrew Gordon Speedie Pask (28 June 1928 – 29 March 1996) was an English author, inventor, educational theorist, cybernetician and psychologist who made contributions to cybernetics, instructional psychology, experimental epistemology and ed ...

. Notable alumni of the Groundcourse include

Brian Eno Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno (; born Brian Peter George Eno, 15 May 1948) is a British musician, composer, record producer and visual artist best known for his contributions to ambient music and work in rock, pop an ...

Pete Townshend Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend (; born 19 May 1945) is an English musician. He is co-founder, leader, guitarist, second lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the Who, one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s. Townsh ...

Stephen Willats Stephen Willats (born 1943 in London) is a British artist. He lives and works in London. Stephen Willats is a pioneer of conceptual art. Since the early 1960s he has created work concerned with extending the territory in which art functions. His ...

, and Michael English. Ascott taught in London Ealing, and was a visiting lecturer at other London art schools throughout the 1960s.He was then briefly was President of Ontario College of Art, now

OCAD University Ontario College of Art & Design University, commonly known as OCAD University or OCAD, is a public art university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus is spread throughout several buildings and facilities within do ...

, Toronto and then Chair of Fine Art at

Minneapolis College of Art and Design The Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) is a private college specializing in the visual arts and located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. MCAD currently enrolls approximately 800 students. MCAD is one of just a few major art schools to offer ...

before moving to California as Vice-President and Dean of

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

, during the 1970s. He was Professor for Communications Theory at the

University of Applied Arts Vienna The University of Applied Arts Vienna (german: Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien, or informally just ''Die Angewandte'') is an arts university and institution of higher education in Vienna, the capital of Austria. It has had university sta ...

during the 1980s, and Professor of Technoetic Arts at the

University of Wales, Newport The University of Wales, Newport ( cy, Prifysgol Cymru, Casnewydd), was a university based in Newport, South Wales, before the merger that formed the University of South Wales in April 2013. The university had two campuses in Newport, Caerleon ...

in the 1990s where he established the Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive Arts. He established the

in 2003. Ascott is recipient of 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) ...

Golden Nica award for Visionary Pioneer of Media Art 2014. The award is for "those men and women whose artistic, technological and social achievements have decisively influenced and advanced the development of new artistic directions." He is a Doctor ''Honoris Causa'' of

Ionian University The Ionian University (Greek: Iόνιο Πανεπιστήμιο) is a university located in the Ionian Islands, Greece. It is one of the newest institutions of Higher Education in Greece, created in 1984 pursuant to presidential order 83/84 Φ ...

, Corfu, Greece; Honorary Professor at

Aalborg University Aalborg University (AAU) is a Danish public university with campuses in Aalborg, Esbjerg, and Copenhagen founded in 1974. The university awards bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and PhD degrees in a wide variety of subjects within humanities ...

Copenhagen; Honorary Professor at

University of West London The University of West London (UWL) is a public research university in the United Kingdom with campuses in Ealing, Brentford, and in Reading, Berkshire. The university has roots in 1860, when the Lady Byron School was founded, later Ealing Col ...

Education and research

He has advised new media arts organisations in Brazil, Japan, Korea, Europe and North America as well as

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

, and was Visiting Professor (VI), Design Media Arts, University of California Los Angeles (2003–07) at the

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

School of the Arts. Ascott was an International Commissioner for the XLII Venice Biennale of 1986 (Planetary Network and Laboratorio Ubiqua).

Planetary Collegium

He is the founding president of the

an advanced research center which he set up in 2003, with its Hub currently based in the

University of Plymouth The University of Plymouth is a public research university based predominantly in Plymouth, England, where the main campus is located, but the university has campuses and affiliated colleges across South West England. With students, it is the ...

, UK, and nodes in China, Greece, Italy, and Switzerland. In March 2012 he was appointed De Tao Master of Technoetic Arts at (DTMA), a high-level, multi-disciplined, creativity-oriented higher education institution in Shanghai, China. In 2014, he established the Ascott Technoetic Arts Studio at DTMA creating the Technoetic Arts advanced degree programme, taught jointly with the

Shanghai Institute of Visual Art Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts (SIVA) (上海视觉艺术学院) is a public university in Songjiang District of Shanghai, China. SIVA was established in September 2005 with the approval of the Ministry of Education. The school was founded a ...

. The DeTao-Node of the

was established in 2015. He is a Doctor Honoris Causa of

, Corfu, Greece.

Art

In his first show (1964) at the Molton Gallery, London, he exhibited ''Analogue Structures and Diagram Boxes'', comprising change-paintings and other works in wood, perspex and glass. In 1964 Ascott published "Behaviourist Art and the Cybernetic Vision" in ''Cybernetica: Journal of the International Association for Cybernetics'' (Namur). In 1968, he was elected Associate Member of the Institution of Computer Science, London (proposed by

). In 1972, he became a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

Interactive computer art

Since the 1960s, Ascott has been working with interactive

, and

systems art Systems art is art influenced by cybernetics, and systems theory, that reflects on natural systems, social systems and social signs of the art world itself. Systems art emerged as part of the first wave of the conceptual art movement extended i ...

. Ascott built a theoretical framework for approaching interactive artworks, which brought together certain characteristics of

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...

Surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

Fluxus Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. Fluxus ...

Happenings A happening is a performance, event, or situation art, usually as performance art. The term was first used by Allan Kaprow during the 1950s to describe a range of art-related events. History Origins Allan Kaprow first coined the term "happen ...

, and Pop Art with the science of

. He was also influenced by the writings of

Anthony Stafford Beer Anthony Stafford Beer (25 September 1926 – 23 August 2002) was a British theorist, consultant and professor at the Manchester Business School. He is best known for his work in the fields of operational research and management cybernetics. Bi ...

William Ross Ashby W. Ross Ashby (6 September 1903 – 15 November 1972) was an English psychiatrist and a pioneer in cybernetics, the study of the science of communications and automatic control systems in both machines and living things. His first name was not ...

, and F.H. George.

International exhibitions

Ascott has shown at the

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 ...

, Shanghai Biennale, Electra Paris,

V2 Institute for the Unstable Media V2_, Lab for the Unstable Media, founded in 1981, is an interdisciplinary center for art and media technology in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.Stephen Wilson, ''Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology'', MIT Press, 2002, p. 8 ...

, Milan Triennale, Biennale do Mercosul, Brazil, European Media Festival, and gr2000az at

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...

, Austria. His first telematic project was ''La Plissure du Texte'' (1983), an online work of "distributed authorship" involving artists around the world. The second was his "gesamtdatenwerk" ''Aspects of Gaia: Digital Pathways across the Whole Earth'' (1989), an installation for the

Festival in Linz, discussed by (inter alia) Matthew Wilson Smith in ''The Total Work of Art: from Bayreuth to Cyberspace'', New York: Routledge, 2007. Retrospective exhibitions of his work were shown in May 2009 at Plymouth Arts Centre, England, then in the Incheon International Digital Arts Festival, Incheon, South Korea in September 2010, and at

SPACE (studios) Space studios, founded by Bridget Riley and Peter Sedgley in 1968, is the oldest continuously operating artist studio organisation in London. In addition to providing studios to artists across the city, ''Space'' operates a recognised exhibition pr ...

in Hackney, London in 2011. ''Syncretic Cybernetics'', a comprehensive exhibition of his work, was featured in the 9th Shanghai Biennale 2012. ''Roy Ascott: The Analogues'' (featuring his work of the 1960s) was shown at the Plug-in Institute of Contemporary Arts, Winnipeg, July–Sept 2013. In September 2014, a mini retrospective of his work was shown in Linz, at the time of his Ars Electronica Golden Nica awar

He discussed his work on Geran TV. The seminal work of 1962, "Video-Roget" was acquired in 2014, by the Tate Gallery, London for its permanent collection. Two key works were included in "Electronic Superhighway", at the Whitechapel Gallery, London in 2016. "Art in Europe 1945–68" shown in ZKM, Karlsruhr, Germany Oct 2016/ Jan 2017, included his "Change-painting 1966". His early work was the subject of the exhibition "Roy Ascott: Form has Behaviour", at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, Jan/Apr 2017.

Books authored by Roy Ascott

* ''The Future is Now: Art, Technology, and Consciousness''. 2012.Beijing: Gold Wall Press.2012 * ''Telematic Embrace: Visionary Theories of Art, Technology, and Consciousness''. Ed. and Intro. by

Edward A. Shanken Edward A. Shanken (born 1964) is an American art historian, whose work focuses on the entwinement of art, science and technology, with a focus on experimental new media art and visual culture. Shanken is Professor, Arts Division, at UC Santa Cru ...

. Berkeley: University of California Press. 2003. * ''Technoetic Arts'' (trans: YI, Won-Kon), (Media & Art Series no. 6, Institute of Media Art, Yonsei University). Yonsei: Yonsei University Press. 2002. * ''Art & Telematics: toward the Construction of New Aesthetics''. (trans: E. Fujihara). Tokyo: NTT Publishing Co. 1998.

Books edited by Roy Ascott

*Ascott, R., Girao, L. M. (eds). ''Presence in the Mindfield: art, identity, and the technology of transformation.'' Aveiro, Portugal: Universidade deAveiro. 2011. *Ascott, R., Gangvik, E., Jahrmann, M. (eds). ''Making Reality Really Real.'' Trondheim: TEKS. 2010. *Ascott, R., Bast, G., Fiel, W. (eds). ''New Realities: Being Syncreti''c. Vienna: Springer. 2009. *Ascott, R. (ed). ''Engineered Nature: art and consciousness in the post-biological era''. Bristol: Intellect Books. 2006. *Ascott, R. (ed). ''Art Technology Consciousness''. Exeter: Intellect Books. 2000 *Ascott, R. (ed). ''Reframing Consciousness''. Exeter: Intellect Books. 1999

References

External links

"Telematic Embrace: A Love Story? Roy Ascott's Theories of Telematic Art
by Edward A. Shanken, 2001.

2001 exhibition and online platform curated by Steve Dietz and inspired by Ascott's work.
Entry for Roy Ascott at the "Media Art Net"
includes a biography and links to further sources, including articles by Söke Dinkla, Inke Arns, Rudolf Frieling, and Oliver Grau respectively
La Plissure du Texte, in the online catalogue "Media Art Net""Roy Ascott: Teaching Change", a Tate Blog article written by Elena Crippa, 15 June 2011Webpage of the retrospective at Space London "Roy Ascott: The Syncretic Sense", May 20 – June 25, 2011Time Out recommendation for the exhibition "Roy Ascott: The Syncretic Sense""Degree Zero", article on Roy Ascott's Groundcourse, frieze magazine, web version of printed article, published on 02/09/06, written by Emily PethickReferences for Roy Ascott with the German art magazine "Kunstforum International"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ascott, Roy 1934 births Living people Artists from Bath, Somerset Cyberneticists Transdisciplinarity Postmodern artists British contemporary artists Postmodern theory Postmodernists Poststructuralists People educated at City of Bath Boys' School Academics of the University of Wolverhampton Academics of the University of Plymouth San Francisco Art Institute faculty Alumni of King's College, Newcastle UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture faculty OCAD University faculty Canadian academic administrators OCAD University administrators