NEW BOOK!

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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

Lecture with Victor Acevedo at Goldsmiths

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I am honoured to be hosting the American digital artist Victor Acevedo at Goldsmiths on 6 October 2026 for a talk and discussion: “Victor Acevedo: Spatial & Metaphysical Metaphors”. Free, no need to book, just come along for 6pm. Acevedo has been making images with computers since 1983, and this talk will explore 40 years of digital experimentation from his early work using desktop personal computers, to recent work on the blockchain. As an early adopter of digital tools, Acevedo will consider what has changed in digital art and what challenges he sees for the future.

I am a Visiting Research and Knowledge Exchange Fellow in the School of Computing at Goldsmiths.

Review of Harriet Thomas Weekes: The Right to Opacity & Am I a bad girl, Nanny? Crises of Innocence and Experience at the Barbados Museum and Historical Society

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This is a fascinating exhibition that centre women’s experiences, and explores questions of what can and cannot be known about people in the past, and how to heal trauma; it was a pleasure to write about it for Studio International: https://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/harriet-thomas-weekes-right-to-opacity-joscelyn-gardner-am-i-a-bad-girl-nanny-barbados-museum

New Podcast with Peckham Digital

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This new series, produced by Bea Taylor Searle at Peckham Digital, is about Ruth Leavitt’s groundbreaking book Artist and Computer published in 1976. I kick off the series with this introductory podcast talking to Bea about how artists first engaged with computers and why Leavitt’s book is still relevant today. Listen here! 

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

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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