NEW BOOK!

It’s been a long time coming (three + years!), and my latest book is now out – Creative Simulations: George Mallen and the Early Computer Arts Society published by Springer. This tells the story of the beginning of the Computer Arts Society, through the career of George Mallen, the last surviving founder of CAS and pioneer of creative computing systems since 1964. Mallen commenced his career with cybernetician Gordon Pask, and Pask’s concept of interdisciplinarity influenced various activities including the Ecogame (exhibited in London 1970 and in Davos 1971) – a cooperative project involving many CAS members. Ecogame was the first digitally-driven, multi-player, interactive game (simulation) in the UK. Learn all about this and many other exhibitions and events from the 1960s and 1970s in this new book.

Listen to a talk I gave to the Computer Arts Society now on YouTube

On-line talk: 18 September – George Mallen & the early Computer Arts Society

Join me on Zoom to hear about some of the artists and artworks in my new book – Creative Simulations. Don’t know who George Mallen is? Well, I’ll tell you all about him and the ground-breaking Computer Arts Society project Ecogame of 1970. Ecogame was a simulation model of an economic system, dealt with opportune issues of ecology and environment, and was the first multi-player, digitally driven, interactive gaming system in the UK.  It exemplified the CAS belief in a positive ‘human machine interrelationship’ made visible through art. Watch the recording here: YouTube

Presentation at EVA London Conference

I’m pleased to be participating in EVA this year on 8 July, in a symposium chaired by Jonathan Bowen and Tula Giannini: Computation, AI, and Creativity. Featuring my new book Creative Simulations, about George Mallen and the history of the Computer Arts Society. Read the EVA paper here. And come to a FREE book launch evening event!

Latest for the Tickle – featuring 1980s micro-computers

Geoff Davis and his Micro Arts initiative, which allowed people to create computer art at home using their TV and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Read all about it in the Tickle, arts magazine published and sold as an NFT on Objkt.com

Essay published in new book about Dominic Harris by Halcyon Gallery

“As if Stirred by Magic”, my essay for the Feeding Consciousness: Dominic Harris exhibition this past summer at the Halcyon Gallery, London has just been published in a beautifully-illustrated hardback book.

Also included is a transcription of a talk in the gallery between the artist and myself.