IS 2003 / 3rd Digital Sculpture Competition / Jury

Pr. Keith BROWN

BIOGRAPHY

Keith Brown is one of the foremost digital sculptors presently working in Europe. He is principal lecturer and Director of Art & Computing Technologies in the School of Art and Design and MIRIAD (Manchester Institute for Research and Innovation in Art & Design) at The Manchester Metropolitan University. He is an associate member of the world renowned 3D Imaging Technologies Group at De Montfort University, currently exploring the possibilities for true 3D integral projection for sculptural installations and architectural application. He is also involved with developing real-time interactive cybersculpture in true space using integral imaging for broadcast media and the World Wide Web.

Founder and President of FasT-uk (Fine Art Sculptors and Technology in the UK) he has done much to promote digital sculpture in the UK, Europe, and at further international levels. He is a regular contributor to international exhibitions, symposia and conferences on electronic arts and has contributed articles to several academic journals and publications.

His work embraces a wide range of digital activities, both virtual and actual. His main concern is with "Real Virtuality" or "Cyberealism" rather than "Virtual Reality", reversing the order between the cyber and the real. These works present sculptural forms and images that could otherwise not be realized except in the digital and cyber environments thus producing a new order of object, which is made physically manifest in 2D, 3D and 4D media.

His entire body of work is computer based, with his most recent developments involving the synthesis of sculpture and technology continuing to gain recognition worldwide. Using the computer, in a direct way, as the medium, his work is conceived while interacting with the cyber-modeling environment. The work includes time-based-cyber, print, cyberkinetics, 3D Integral Imaging and 3D Printing. His images, objects and dynamic pieces display an innovative and masterful articulation of the medium. Working in a highly intuitive way, the artist has produced some stunning results, appreciated for their entrancing aesthetic and dynamic execution. Embracing a wide range of activities Brown's work continues to break new ground in an area that is destined to largely distinguish the work of this new millennium.

 Statement:

"The possibilities for computer generated sculpture are obviously immense. As the computer gradually takes its place in the tool chest of the contemporary practitioner, we are inevitably seeing changes that challenge our traditional views and preconceptions about how sculpture is conceived, produced, and experienced. The computer and related technologies, for many, including myself, have become much more than simply a new set of design and production tools. They have presented us with completely new media to explore and no doubt there will be many more to follow. If there is one single influence which will separate the art of this millennium from that of the past, and constitute a paradigm shift of aesthetic and conceptual advancement, of equivalent cultural significance to the first "hand paintings" made in the caves of Paleolithic man, then my calculated guess is that it's going to be, if it is not already, computer generated."

Keith BROWN Web page