Martin Rieser


Martin Rieser is Professor of Digital Creativity in the Institute of Creative Technologies, in De Montfort University, Leicester.

Background

Joint research Professor between the and The Faculty of Art and Design at De Montfort University, his track record as a researcher and practitioner in Digital Arts stretches back to the early 1980s. Originally a graduate of English Literature and Philosophy from Bristol University, he subsequently studied Printmaking at Atelier 17 in Paris with Stanley William Hayter and then at Goldsmiths, where he also developed an abiding interest in Photography. From such an already hybrid background he moved into Computer Arts, establishing the first postgraduate course in the discipline in London in 1982.

Research

His art practice in internet art and interactive narrative installations has been seen around the world including Milia in Cannes; Paris; The ICA London and in Germany, Montreal, Nagoya in Japan and Melbourne, Australia.
He has delivered papers on interactive narrative and exhibited at many major conferences in the field including Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts: Montreal 1995, Rotterdam 1996, Chicago 1997, Nagoya 2002, University of Oslo 2004, SIGGRAPH, 2005, Banff Arts Centre 2005, Digital Matchmakers Trondheim 2005 Plan ICA 2005, NAI Rotterdam 2008, Intelligent Environments Seattle 2008, Locunet, University of Athens 2008, and at many other conference venues across the UK and Europe.

Installations and visual research

His interactive installations include Understanding Echo shown in Japan 2002, Hosts Bath Abbey 2006 and Secret Door Invideo Milan 2006, The Street RMIT Gallery Melbourne 2008. He is currently developing mobile artworks for Manchester and Vienna, and public installations for the new DMC in Leicester.
In 1988, he exhibited at the First International Society of Electronic Artists conference held in Utrecht. In 1990, created an interactive exhibition utilising giant digital panels and interactive sound installations with an accompanying multimedia program on the theme of the Electronic Forest. This was one of the first such installations of its type and prototyped the connection of such exhibitions to the internet. In 1990 he began experimenting with permanent digital ceramic printing for Public Art.
In 1992, he also directed the Media Myth and Mania section of the joint Watershed/Artec exhibition and CD publication From Silver to Silicon. The latter piece has been shown at many venues around the world including Milia in Cannes; Paris; ICA and the Photographer's Gallery, London and at ISEA Montreal. Other visual research projects included the direction of a 1995 collaboration involving five other artists using the subject of mythologies to explore the full range of narrative and visual interfaces in interactive media in a piece called Labyrinth. This work involved drama, digital image, virtual environments, and interactive video at F-Stop Gallery in Bath and as part of the Cheltenham Literary Festival. It has been previewed at a number of venues including the Oberhausen Short Film festival in Germany and at ISEA in Montreal. His 2002 research project Triple Echo won an AHRB award and involves a three screen interactive video depicting a love triangle based on the Orpheus legends. Understanding Echo, 2002 was funded by the DA2 . An interactive video drama, it was shown at the Cheltenham literary festival, Watershed Bristol and at ISEA2002 in Nagoya Japan.
He took AHRB research leave in 2004-5 creating a new, large–scale locative work for Bath Abbey called Hosts which uses mobile and positional technologies combined with interactive sound and video. In 2006 he was commissioned by Electric Pavilion to create Starshed, an interactive map of the uncanny for mobile and webmedia. Also in 2006 he exhibited Secret Room at Arthotel for Invideo Festival Milan. Current research includes Vienna Underground a locative media commission for the emobilArt European workshop and Riverains for the b.Tween Festival in Manchester. He is developing two further works for the new Digital Media Centre in Leicester: Secret Garden, a virtual reality opera co-authored with Andrew Hugill and The Street, an interactive video wall, featured in autumn 2008 Melbourne in HEAT: The Art of Climate Change

Residencies/commissions

Watershed/Cambridge Darkroom residency which involved constructing a self-curating web site and multimedia piece called Screening the Virus, based around publicly submitted artwork on HIV/Aids related themes. This was later short listed for a Wellcome Trust Sci-Art award. He had an Honorary Research Fellow Residency at La Trobe University Melbourne which led to his exhibiting The Street in HEAT: The Art of Climate Change, an RMIT Melbourne International Exhibition Commission in 2008. Other recent commissions include Riverains, a b.Tween Festival Locative commission for Exploding Narrative and the 2008 Watershed Pervasive Media commission
He has published numerous essays and books on digital art including New Screen Media: Cinema/ Art/Narrative, which combines a DVD of current research and practice in this area together with critical essays. And has recently edited The Mobile Audience, a book on locative technology and art due out this year from Rodopi, also logged in a blog:
He has also acted as consultant to bodies such as Cardiff Bay Arts Trust and the Photographer's Gallery London, Arkive in Bristol, The Soros Media Institute in Prague and UIAH in Helsinki.

Curation

He has experience of curation and judging through number of other international exhibitions in electronic art, including The Electronic Eye European Digital Art at Watershed 1986, the first International survey exhibition of Digital Printmaking: The Electronic Print, Arnolfini in Bristol 1989. Arcade 2- 1997, Arcade 3 2000, He helped to make a successful lottery bid to fund a national digital arts initiative Imag@nation subsequently transformed into DA2: an arts initiative promoting digital art practice nationally, and internationally.

Publications

Conference proceedings
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