Catherine Mason 
I will be giving a lecture on Jackson Pollock and Post-War American Art on Wednesday 30 September for the Richmond Art Society. The venue is the American University in London, Queen’s Road, Richmond TW10 6JP (non-members are welcome: £5.00) Hope to see you there!
Congratulations to Emily Allchurch on her newly-completed commission for Manchester Art Gallery. (Emily was a British Computer Society-featured artist of the month in 2013) This latest work references a painting from the Gallery’s collection by French Impressionist Adolphe Valette, who lived and taught in Manchester, influencing a generation of artists in the North, including LS Lowry. Albert Square, Manchester (after Valette), seen here, was crowd-funded through the Art Fund’s programme Art Happens. Typically of Emily the composition features many subtle details of the goings-on in this city as well as incorporating suggestions submitted to the artist via twitter. See the exhibition in Manchester 13 March – 7 June, or later in Nottingham
Congratulations to 2014 Lumen Art Prize winners Andy Lomas (Gold award for Cellular Forms) and Sally Sheinman (Founders Prize for What Makes You, You?), both outstanding artists who featured in my BCS column last year. The Prize is a major international competition with 800 submissions from 45 countries. The vast array of different styles and approaches which this prize attracts demonstrates the vibrancy of contemporary technological art. Exhibitions will be taking place around the globe this year, check it out.
An exhibition of Wells based artists at Catesby Court, an historic 17th-century Merchants House located on the harbour of Wells next the Sea., organised by me, with the kind permission of Valerie Chitty. For a private view invitation please email me.
On view last month in Cambridge was Gustav Metzger’s Auto-Creative art, a variety of materials and methods demonstrative of his long interest in kinetic art, particularly movement and random activity. His 1964 statement “At a certain point the work takes over, is in activity beyond the detailed control of the artist, reaches a power, grace, momentum, transcendence” is apt for an installation which has both a hypnotic visual and a psychedelic delivery. Read the full review and learn about his connection to the Computer Arts Society here.
the people who put posters in public places around city centres of famous art works (voted for by the public), have commissioned Antony Gormley to produce this drawing. Created by the artist using the stylus in one continuous motion on an iPad, Gormley says, “I’ve never drawn on an iPad before and was thinking should I draw on a blackened piece of glass? Then I thought this is really stupid, we’ve got this extraordinary facility that everybody knows about [..] so why don’t I give it a try?”
I think the end result is really quite fun. Only time will tell if this marks a new direction for this veteran of the British art establishment. Antony Gormley tells me that for several years he’s been using the digital as tools – all his sculptures start ‘life’ in the computer. 3D scans of his body facilitates manipulation of forms digitally, giving countless permutations and allowing valuable feedback. He also uses 3D printers. A new way of approaching the maquette?
You can see the work, which also consists of the animation of its creation, on digital screens nationwide including Piccadilly Circus & Manchester’s Trafford Centre, supported by the The Art Fund. Downloads and limited edition prints are available.
An ambitious exhibition of digital art and design opens this month at the Barbican Centre – Digital Revolution, featuring several works specially commissioned for the show – including our featured BCS image this month by Usman Haque, and much else besides to surprise and delight followers of the digital medium. Read all about it here.
Andy Lomas is a self-confessed code junky, saying, I write it for my own pleasure. His Morphogenetic Creations on view earlier this year at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, has just been awarded one of the best artworks at the Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of Behaviour (AISB) conference recently held in London. This month at the BCS he shares with us this amazing image and his coding vision.
This month we are considering a truly extraordinary use of the digital. Artist and creative entrepreneur Anna Hill is exploring how immersive art can communicate the human experience of space travel and, in her words, bring space down to earth. Read all about her unique approach in our BCS feature here:http://www.bcs.org/content/conWebDoc/52588
Digital Opera is emerging as a new art form and our BCS image this month is a still fromSecret Garden, the world’s first opera and ballet created for the iPad by media artist Professor Martin Rieser from his original poems, set to music by composer Professor Andrew Hugill. It aims to recreate a contemporary interactive version of the Eden myth in an urban environment through a virtual reality amalgam of animation, poetry and sound. Full article here: http://www.bcs.org/content/conWebDoc/52341