Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art presents a talk by visiting artist Roy Ascott on Thursday, July 4th at 7:00 pm in room 3BC55 in the Buhler Centre. The talk is free and all are welcome to attend.

Roy Ascott was born on 26 October, 1934, in Bath, England. He was educated at the City of Bath Boys’ School. His National Service was spent as a commissioned officer in the RAF Fighter Command (working with radar defence systems). From 1955-59 he studied Fine Art at King’s College, University of Durham (now Newcastle University) under Victor Pasmore and Richard Hamilton, and Art History under Lawrence Gowing and Quentin Bell. On graduation he was appointed Studio Demonstrator (1959–61). He then moved to London, where he established the radical Groundcourse at Ealing Art College, which he subsequently established at Ipswich Civic College, in Suffolk. Notable alumni of the Groundcourse include Brian Eno, Pete Townshend, Stephen Willats, and Michael English (Hapshash and the Coloured Coat).

Roy Ascott has shown at the Shanghai Biennale, Venice Biennale, V2, Milan Triennale, Biennale do Mercosul Brazil, European Media Festival, Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris, among others. Instigator of Telematic Art, his seminal projects include La Plissure du Texte at Electra, Paris 1984, (Second Life versions in 2010, 2012), and Aspects of Gaia Ars Electronica, 1989. His retrospective The Syncretic Sense was shown at Plymouth Arts Centre UK, 2009; at the Incheon International Digital Art Festival, Korea, 2010, and at SPACE, Hackney, London, 2011. Roy Ascott: Syncretic Cybernetics was part of the Shanghai Biennale 2012.

He is Founding President of the Planetary Collegium (World Universities Forum Award for Best Practice in Higher Education 2011), and the DeTao Master of Technoetic Arts at the Beijing DeTao Masters Academy in Shanghai; Honorary Professor of Aalborg University, Copenhagen, and University of West London.

In 1960s London, he established the radical Groundcourse at Ealing and then Ipswich, and taught at the Slade, Saint Martins and the Central Schools of Art. In the 1970s he was President of Ontario College of Art, Toronto, and later Vice-President of San Francisco Art Institute. He was Professor of Communications Theory, University of Applied Arts, Vienna, in the 1980s, and University of Wales Professor of Interactive Arts in the 1990s. He is a graduate of King’s College, University of Durham. He lectures and publishes throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia. Founding Editor of Technoetic Arts (Intellect), and Honorary Editor of Leonard (MIT Press).

His books include: 未来就是现在:艺术,技术和意识 [The Future is Now: Art, Technology, and Consciousness], Gold Wall Press, Beijing, 2012; Telematic Embrace: Visionary Theories of Art Technology and Consciousness, University of California Press, 2003. 테크노에틱 아트 [Technoetic Arts]. Yonsei University Press, 2002. テレマティックス：新しい美学の構築に向かって。 [Art & Telematics: toward the Construction of New Aesthetics] NTT, Tokyo, 1998.

He advises new media centres, festivals and juries throughout Europe, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Japan, Korea, the USA, CEC and UNESCO, including Tate Modern, London; Ars Electronica Centre, Linz; Nabi Art Center, Seoul; Culture Lab, Newcastle University; Conseil Régional, Lille, France. He established the International Art & Technology consultancy Technoetic Arts Ltd in 2003.

Related Exhibit:

Roy Ascott: The Analogues