Stephen Raoul Jones (born 23 January 1951) is an Australian
video art
Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting ...
ist, writer and curator. Born in
Sydney, Australia
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and List of cities in Oceania by population, Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metro ...
, Jones, together with
Tom Ellard
Tom or TOM may refer to:
* Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name)
Characters
* Tom Anderson, a character in '' Beavis and Butt-Head''
* Tom Beck, a character ...
, was a principal member of
Severed Heads
Severed Heads were an Australian electronic music group founded in 1979 as Mr and Mrs No Smoking Sign. The original members were Richard Fielding and Andrew Wright, who were soon joined by Tom Ellard. Fielding and Wright had both left the band b ...
from 1982 to 1992. He developed analog
video synthesizer
A video synthesizer is a device that electronically creates a video signal. A video synthesizer is able to generate a variety of visual material without camera input through the use of internal video pattern generators. It can also accept and " ...
s for the production of video art and for use in Severed Heads' live performances and
music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...
s.
Jones has created many video art and documentation works since 1975. ''Hunting For the Future'' (1977) is a documentation of
Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik (; July 20, 1932 – January 29, 2006) was a Korean American artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the founder of video art. He is credited with the first use (1974) of the term "electronic super hi ...
and Charlotte Moorman's Art Gallery of NSW visit in 1976 – it is now housed in the collections of the
Art Gallery of NSW
The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most importa ...
and the
Queensland Art Gallery
The Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) is an art museum located in South Bank, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA. It complements the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) building, situated only away.
The Queensland Art Gallery ...
, as well as included in ''Tell Me, Tell Me'', an MCA Offsite exhibition that toured South Korea in 2011. Jones and
Warren Burt
Warren Burt (born 10 October 1949) is an Australia-based composer of American birth. He is known for composing in a wide variety of new music styles, ranging from acoustic music, electroacoustic music, sound art installations, and text-based m ...
created ''Three Texts'' in 1977 at
La Trobe University
La Trobe University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora. The university was established in 1964, becoming the third university in the state of Victoria an ...
. His ''Stonehenge, TV Buddha and Tai Chi Transforms (The Systems Interfacing Reports)'' work (1976-'78) is included in the
National Gallery of Australia
The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...
.
Jones has also worked as a video post-production engineer. In 1996, he received the ''New Media Arts Fellowship'' to work on ''The Brain Project'' – a website dedicated to the science of consciousness. In 2007 he received a PhD studying the history of the electronic arts in Australia to 1975. Jones also maintains a private archive documenting artworks and exhibitions of art and technology based artists.
In 2013, Jones was guest curator for Artspace's This is Video'' exhibition
as part of ISEA 2013.
The exhibition revisited the 1981 exhibition ''Video Art from Australia'' which had been presented in Venice and subsequently toured through Australia.
Jones' book ''Synthetics: Aspects of Art and Technology in Australia, 1956 – 1975'' was published by MIT Press in their ''Leonardo Book Series''. Scanlines said the book ''has become the definitive work in the field in Australia''.
References
External links
Synthetics - A History of Video Art in Australia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Stephen
1951 births
Living people
Severed Heads members
Australian video artists