Garrett Lynch - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Book chapters and sections by Garrett Lynch

At a Distance #4, 2020

A Haunting of Haunts is a collection of media kits that allow artists to reenact or create new ne... more A Haunting of Haunts is a collection of media kits that allow artists to reenact or create new networked performance art based on landmark performances. It provides media in image and 3D formats that can be employed within a number of networked environments.

#exstrange : a curatorial intervention on ebay, 2017

Auction action – commission an artwork, listed on eBay as ART, LIMITED EDITION, PRINT | Auction a... more Auction action – commission an artwork, listed on eBay as ART, LIMITED EDITION, PRINT | Auction action – commission an artwork #exstrange, were transformative actions that occurred within the context of the networked performance Transformations: Actions to Matter / Matter to Actions. Transformative actions within Transformations attempt to source items for free online and then sell them online. Actions that are performed online are considered to occur within a 'virtual' or digital context. Items that are acquired as a result of actions are physically manifested in 'real' contexts. A transformation therefore occurs from 'virtual' to 'real' and then back to 'virtual' again. The internet is both a staging ground for initiating transformation as well as the final destination for the items acquired and the documentation produced.

REFF RomaEuropa FakeFactory, 2010

The software used in the performance (RE:corder) allows the performer to explore, select and use ... more The software used in the performance (RE:corder) allows the performer to explore, select and use radio frequencies creating a live composition made from noise, sounds, words, voices and far away songs, corroded by distortion. The trip across the space of frequencies becomes a voyage in physical and geographical spaces in search of those people, cultures and instruments; reusing them, creating those sounds and voices that we feel so distant, eaten by the lengths traversed by signals and by the disturbances between us and their places of origin.

Terminal, Information Technology, Culture & Society, 2008

In under a decade and a half, net.art has developed from an obscure to a hyped form, gaining acce... more In under a decade and a half, net.art has developed from an obscure to a hyped form, gaining acceptance in the institution and being absorbed into popular culture. Why net.art has become associated with the web and not networks in general is evident within the form itself. The advantages the web embodies as an arena to conceive, create and present art means the web is for artists all at once their message, medium and [web]site.

This paper will identify and trace the pre-web origins of net.art to evaluate what contribution they can make to net.art’s future development beyond the browser. Within this context, Web 2.0 and more particularly the Internet of Things will be discussed as a means to enable this. Examples of progressive net.art practice will illustrate the evolution of net.art into a networked art.

Previously published in French as Net Art : au-delà du navigateur… un monde d’objets in an issue of the academic journal Terminal, Technologie de L’information, culture & société (Terminal, Information Technology, Culture & Society) titled Net Art, Technologie ou Création? (Net Art, Technology or Creation) and available through Editions L’Harmattan.

Journal articles by Garrett Lynch

Scene, 2020

This article discusses a selection from a series of performances created between 2008 and 2019 th... more This article discusses a selection from a series of performances created between 2008 and 2019 that as practice as research (PaR) explore ideas of identity, representation and place as they relate to the intersection of what are termed 'virtual' and 'real' spaces. These include I’m Garrett Lynch (IRL) (2010), I’m not Garrett Lynch (IRL) – Identity Badge Performance (2018–19), I’m Not Garrett Lynch (IRL) – Zazzle Store (2019), the three complementary performances Three Wearable Devices for Augmented Virtuality (2011) and As Yet Unnamed (2019). The performance series initially occurred online and later incorporated gallery spaces and sites in six countries. From the outset, my Irish identity formed a crucial background to my practice but remained an implied rather than directly discussed perspective. This article's purpose is to discuss practice from an Irish perspective and in so doing foreground and clarify how nationality and place were in fact essential to its development.

Examining the use of written and to a lesser extent spoken language in performances, discussion explores how language is a problematizing starting point but equally enables an extension of my identity by implying my Irish nationality and Ireland as place. Irish nationality is described in this article as comparable to what is defined as 'real' and forms a component in the territorialization of both 'virtual' space and places of the phenomenological Other. Methods of moving between 'virtual' and 'real' spaces, influenced by the philosophical theory of Gilles Deleuze, are described in detail and performances are employed to demonstrate how this occurs. Finally, the use of naming and how it has impacted my identity in 'real' space and ongoing life is explored through the discussion of a performance in 2019.

Virtual Creativity, 2018

This article presents and discusses a series of four networked artworks undertaken since 2013. Th... more This article presents and discusses a series of four networked artworks undertaken since 2013. The artworks are performative, created within the web over a duration of time, are visible to an audience throughout their creation and as such can be considered as durational networked performances. Different in subject matter they overlap considerably in themes, form and methods employed and constitute a body of research that explores the networked image in relation to a number of 'post' art practices. Specifically this includes the questioning of media and form through postmedia, post-photographic, post-digital, post-internet and post-screen practices as well as addressing the manner in which the artist creates through post-disciplinary and postproduction methods.

Metaverse Creativity, 2012

This article discusses the artist Garrett Lynch’s residency in Second Life® at Yoshikaze ‘Up-in-t... more This article discusses the artist Garrett Lynch’s residency in Second Life® at Yoshikaze ‘Up-in-the-air’, HUMLab, Umeå University in Sweden. The artist’s mixed-reality live performance and installation work in the ‘virtual’ world, part of a wider artistic practice on networks, focuses on the identity and role of the artist within an environment mediated by networked technology. The residency enabled the continuation of this practice and facilitated through the site of the residency the development of ideas of space and place as they relate to identity. Eleven works, predominantly performance based, were produced during the residency that explored the breadth of the Virtuality Continuum. Each investigated the boundary between the ‘virtual’ and the ‘real’ and how creative practice can be produced at their intersection. Techniques of juxtaposition, framing, layering, folding, combination and mixing were employed throughout. Works involved performance across multiple ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ spaces and used specifically built props and environments in-world, performance software for a number of computing and mobile devices and Web 2.0/Second Life mash-ups. A number of recurring themes emerged in the development of work, including liminality, new frontiers, augmented or mixed presence and vision, which formed thematic strands of research. It is these thematic strands, their development and use that form the structuring of this article.

Published in Volume 2, Issue 2 of Metaverse Creativity.

This special issue of Liminalities has been compiled from the outcomes of the conference Remote E... more This special issue of Liminalities has been compiled from the outcomes of the conference Remote Encounters: Connecting bodies, collapsing spaces and temporal ubiquity in networked performance held at the University of South Wales on the 11th and 12th of April 2013. By providing an overview of contributions to the issue this editorial aims to both introduce networked performance to a new readership and for those already practicing in the field assemble and present the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary practice that can be considered as networked performance. Contributor's research themes, practice issues and their creative solutions are identified revealing common threads of enquiry running throughout the issue. In addition notable papers and performances from the conference that have not been included in this issue are discussed briefly.

Liminalities, 2014

On the second and final day of the conference Remote Encounters: Connecting Bodies, Collapsing Sp... more On the second and final day of the conference Remote Encounters: Connecting Bodies, Collapsing Spaces and Temporal Ubiquity in Networked Performance proceedings closed with a roundtable discussion entitled Performance Systems: Making vs. Exploiting. The purpose of the roundtable was to explore performance systems used by artists and to compare/contrast strategies of making custom technologies vs. exploiting or hacking pre-existing technologies. The roundtable members were largely gathered from the second half of the conference which placed a thematic emphasis on systems in networked performance art. Members consisted of three speakers; Marc Garrett (MG), Erik Geelhoed (EG) and Ian Biscoe (IB), and two performers; Prof. Dr. Stahl Stenslie (SS) and Paula Crutchlow (PC) who each researched or worked with a number of diverse systems, techniques, media and approaches. The roundtable was chaired by Garrett Lynch (GL). Additional contributions were made by conference speakers or performers in attendance and members of the public. These included; Annie Abrahams (AA), Elena Perez (EP), Elif Ayitar (EA), Kate Genevieve (KG) and Matthew Jarvis (MJ).

Conference papers by Garrett Lynch

Audiences are experiencing a growing apprehension and distrust of interaction in art and a reluct... more Audiences are experiencing a growing apprehension and distrust of interaction in art and a reluctance to engage with art that employs it. Interactive art can be categorised in broadly two ways: works that are highly technological or works that are highly social. While apprehension of interaction in art has always existed it is proposed that rather than originating from fear of technology or social embarrassment, it now originates in an understanding of what technology can do (e.g. surveillance, data harvesting etc.) and a hyper-awareness of the self in the public sphere.

This paper introduces a proposed term, Bahaviour [bah, as in bah humbug, and behaviour], as a means for articulating and discussing negative audience attitudes in participative and interactive forms. The paper was presented at InDialogue 2016 and followed by a open lunchtime discussion on the topic; specifically artist’s experiences with negative audience attitudes, strategies to address these and issues of institutions and platforms.

Slides are available below or on Google Docs:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1pfuBJCYVsB3-fU3Xdy7rihqbuqYq7qxisWqr1hCYsNg/edit?usp=sharing

This paper for the Journal of Media Practice / MeCCSA Practice Network Symposium titled Post-Scre... more This paper for the Journal of Media Practice / MeCCSA Practice Network Symposium titled Post-Screen Cultures/Practices on the 10/06/2016, presented four networked art practice works undertaken since 2014. The works included:

- This is Real Virtuality (2014), a networked photographic and text-based performance in weblog form consisting of a first person narrative that recounts the experiences of an unnamed individual noticing colliding virtu/re-alities, that is the merging of ‘virtual’ and ‘real’ spaces, in their daily life.
- We Entomb Memoir (2015), a series of process-based actions performed online with appropriated image macro generators.
- Transformations: Actions to Matter / Matter to Actions (2015 – ongoing), a series of performative actions employing what is colloquial termed as the ‘free stuff’ online community. Actions are documented through screenshots and digital photographs.
- Tran$actions (2015 – ongoing), a series of performative actions which employ the introductory or bonus offers provided by gambling websites as a means to create networked performance documented as screencasts.

While different in subject matter, the works form a series that engages with the networked image. They can be understood as post-photographic practice and touch on post-digital and post-internet art practices. The presentation discussed strategies employed in the works that relate to image production including, reframing photography within networked contexts and image creation, manipulation and appropriation within networks. In addition the presentation explored how an image forms a key component of each work including contributing to a narrative, being the artefact produced, documenting the work in progress and/or being the only trace of the work on completion.

Slides are available below or on Google Docs:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jbMSJlPOdsZ-aPwZIOdPgUUF88paxgA2TDoTTGbfuzo/edit?usp=sharing

The Art of Networks and Networks as Art is the title of a performance/presentation given at the 1... more The Art of Networks and Networks as Art is the title of a performance/presentation given at the 12th Annual Subtle Technologies Festival on the theme of Networks. The performance/presentation focused on the development of my work over the last five years and the role of networks within artistic practice. This was detailed in its most obvious sense of works ‘online’ but also explored ideas of interactive models within new media as networks in themselves between artist, artwork and user.

The audience were each given postcards with Datamatrix codes (specifically QR Codes) and short instructions on how to begin. These linked them to a webpage to download a 2D Code Reader. QR Codes were displayed on screen throughout the performance / presentation within slides which were online and accessible. The audience could view and interact with the performance / presentation in a variety of ways:

- simply watch the presentation;
- connect its contents with online media by photographing it though the 2D Code Reader on their web-enabled mobile phone with built-in camera;
- or view all of the materials on the artists site and on Google Docs.

The intention was to not alone present works which focus on ideas of the network, connecting, augmenting, being distributed and multiple but to emphasise these ideas through the presentation format.

Slides are available below or on Google Docs:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vjzvDY3zCB89KBADdr-vHSA0IjcyY5nmpcm1aaIPaCY/edit?usp=sharing

Journal editing by Garrett Lynch

Liminalities, 2014

The journal of performance studies, Liminalities issue 10.1, is a special issue guest edited by G... more The journal of performance studies, Liminalities issue 10.1, is a special issue guest edited by Garrett Lynch (University of South Wales) and Rea Dennis (Deakin University). The contributions to this issue have been compiled from the outcomes of the international conference Remote Encounters: Connecting Bodies, Collapsing Spaces and Temporal Ubiquity in Networked Performance held at the University of South Wales on the 11th and 12th of April 2013.

Since the Internet entered the public domain in the early 90’s there has been an explosion in its artistic application as a means, site and context for creative practice. In many respects, much of this practice is performative in nature and as a result has attracted artists from performance backgrounds to what can be considered as a new ‘site’ for performance. The Internet is however only one of many network technologies that have enabled networked performance and as such the conference and now this issue of Liminalities set out to explore the use of any form of network as a means to enhance or create a wide variety of performance arts.

Conferences by Garrett Lynch

Remote Encounters: Connecting bodies, collapsing spaces and temporal ubiquity in networked perfor... more Remote Encounters: Connecting bodies, collapsing spaces and temporal ubiquity in networked performance was a two-day international conference with performance evening organised and chaired by myself at the University of South Wales on the 11th and 12th of April 2013. Its purpose was to explore the use of networks as a means to enhance or create a wide variety of performance arts. How do networks as a site for performance provide opportunities for us as artists and performers? In particular how can we remotely collaborate, merge geographically separate places and times, reconfigure the space of performance and the relationship between artist and audience?

The conference was initiated as part of my research and practice on networked art and with a view to revealing performative aspects within that practice. A mixture of delegates with differing research, practice, means and economic situations, attended representing a wide variety of performance arts. Artists performing at the conference in Wales performed with others (artists and audience) in England, France, Belgium, Italy, Singapore and the United States confirming that visual forms enabled a multitude of possibilities for artists to see, synchronise, collaborate and create at distance. Papers discussed issues concerning remoteness, artist’s performance methods and technological techniques were explored in depth and the network was considered in a number of ways as an enabling or limiting technology.

Short articles by Garrett Lynch

A short article titled Remote Encounters: a report about networking practitioners on the Remote E... more A short article titled Remote Encounters: a report about networking practitioners on the Remote Encounters conference and Liminalities journal special issue published on Digicult.it. The report specifically addresses my own objectives as both organiser of the conference and journal issue and artist/researcher.

Why is it important to know about the developments of Google and its influences on society? What ... more Why is it important to know about the developments of Google and its influences on society? What bearing has this on new media art? To date new media art has been an information based art form, but not necessarily an informed one. Information has been used in various ways, background noise, continuously flowing content, as a trigger to indicate a change from one state to another yet rarely has the information been used successfully as simply the information it is due to the complexity of presentation within the tools that access it and the difficulty to separate content from presentation other than how intended.

Google and Art: A commercial / cultural new media art economy? is a short article for Isea’s regular newsletter which discusses the influence Google has had on culture and how this has manifested itself in new media art, particularly net.art, in what have commonly become known as mashups. Use of content providers such as Google in this way contribute to a long running trend in contemporary art which questions the role of the artist and their relation to their audience.

Thesis Chapters by Garrett Lynch

Since the introduction of the World Wide Web in 1991, it has had a significant impact on contempo... more Since the introduction of the World Wide Web in 1991, it has had a significant impact on contemporary art. As a consequence, however, networks are almost exclusively considered as technologically determined, art produced is digital, refers to the internet and is more often than not specifically web-based. This research redefines the role of networks in contemporary art. It proposes that networks are not a specific technology that provides a means for art practice to occur but are a concept that transforms practice and enables a networked art.

Networked art is a continuation of twentieth century developments in art including cybernetic art, systems aesthetics, new media art and relational aesthetics. The research discusses these and considers how practice became systemised through strategies such as the dematerialization of art as object (Lippard, 1997) and the renouncement of objecthood (Fried, 1998). Equally important is the emergence of cybernetics and systems theory that explained concepts such as process and behaviour frequently employed in art practice. By defining a network as a type of system, networked art is foremost concerned with connections or links and considers the resulting behaviours that occur. Networked art is therefore not centred on networks as form. It can adapt as technologies evolve over time and as such is considered post specific technologies and the disciplines connected with them.

Emerging out of my ongoing art practice this practice-led research makes an original contribution to knowledge in the field of contemporary art in three ways. Firstly, it demonstrates how networks in contemporary art do not have a basis in a specific technology since they have been employed before current technologies. Secondly, the research explains networked art through the development of a framework and practice as research that informs each other. Thirdly, the research discusses emergent processes, themes and content and clarifies how networked art positions itself within current contemporary art discourse as a post-disciplinary practice.

Papers by Garrett Lynch

Metaverse Creativity, 2012

At a Distance #4, 2020

A Haunting of Haunts is a collection of media kits that allow artists to reenact or create new ne... more A Haunting of Haunts is a collection of media kits that allow artists to reenact or create new networked performance art based on landmark performances. It provides media in image and 3D formats that can be employed within a number of networked environments.

#exstrange : a curatorial intervention on ebay, 2017

Auction action – commission an artwork, listed on eBay as ART, LIMITED EDITION, PRINT | Auction a... more Auction action – commission an artwork, listed on eBay as ART, LIMITED EDITION, PRINT | Auction action – commission an artwork #exstrange, were transformative actions that occurred within the context of the networked performance Transformations: Actions to Matter / Matter to Actions. Transformative actions within Transformations attempt to source items for free online and then sell them online. Actions that are performed online are considered to occur within a 'virtual' or digital context. Items that are acquired as a result of actions are physically manifested in 'real' contexts. A transformation therefore occurs from 'virtual' to 'real' and then back to 'virtual' again. The internet is both a staging ground for initiating transformation as well as the final destination for the items acquired and the documentation produced.

REFF RomaEuropa FakeFactory, 2010

The software used in the performance (RE:corder) allows the performer to explore, select and use ... more The software used in the performance (RE:corder) allows the performer to explore, select and use radio frequencies creating a live composition made from noise, sounds, words, voices and far away songs, corroded by distortion. The trip across the space of frequencies becomes a voyage in physical and geographical spaces in search of those people, cultures and instruments; reusing them, creating those sounds and voices that we feel so distant, eaten by the lengths traversed by signals and by the disturbances between us and their places of origin.

Terminal, Information Technology, Culture & Society, 2008

In under a decade and a half, net.art has developed from an obscure to a hyped form, gaining acce... more In under a decade and a half, net.art has developed from an obscure to a hyped form, gaining acceptance in the institution and being absorbed into popular culture. Why net.art has become associated with the web and not networks in general is evident within the form itself. The advantages the web embodies as an arena to conceive, create and present art means the web is for artists all at once their message, medium and [web]site.

This paper will identify and trace the pre-web origins of net.art to evaluate what contribution they can make to net.art’s future development beyond the browser. Within this context, Web 2.0 and more particularly the Internet of Things will be discussed as a means to enable this. Examples of progressive net.art practice will illustrate the evolution of net.art into a networked art.

Previously published in French as Net Art : au-delà du navigateur… un monde d’objets in an issue of the academic journal Terminal, Technologie de L’information, culture & société (Terminal, Information Technology, Culture & Society) titled Net Art, Technologie ou Création? (Net Art, Technology or Creation) and available through Editions L’Harmattan.

Scene, 2020

This article discusses a selection from a series of performances created between 2008 and 2019 th... more This article discusses a selection from a series of performances created between 2008 and 2019 that as practice as research (PaR) explore ideas of identity, representation and place as they relate to the intersection of what are termed 'virtual' and 'real' spaces. These include I’m Garrett Lynch (IRL) (2010), I’m not Garrett Lynch (IRL) – Identity Badge Performance (2018–19), I’m Not Garrett Lynch (IRL) – Zazzle Store (2019), the three complementary performances Three Wearable Devices for Augmented Virtuality (2011) and As Yet Unnamed (2019). The performance series initially occurred online and later incorporated gallery spaces and sites in six countries. From the outset, my Irish identity formed a crucial background to my practice but remained an implied rather than directly discussed perspective. This article's purpose is to discuss practice from an Irish perspective and in so doing foreground and clarify how nationality and place were in fact essential to its development.

Examining the use of written and to a lesser extent spoken language in performances, discussion explores how language is a problematizing starting point but equally enables an extension of my identity by implying my Irish nationality and Ireland as place. Irish nationality is described in this article as comparable to what is defined as 'real' and forms a component in the territorialization of both 'virtual' space and places of the phenomenological Other. Methods of moving between 'virtual' and 'real' spaces, influenced by the philosophical theory of Gilles Deleuze, are described in detail and performances are employed to demonstrate how this occurs. Finally, the use of naming and how it has impacted my identity in 'real' space and ongoing life is explored through the discussion of a performance in 2019.

Virtual Creativity, 2018

This article presents and discusses a series of four networked artworks undertaken since 2013. Th... more This article presents and discusses a series of four networked artworks undertaken since 2013. The artworks are performative, created within the web over a duration of time, are visible to an audience throughout their creation and as such can be considered as durational networked performances. Different in subject matter they overlap considerably in themes, form and methods employed and constitute a body of research that explores the networked image in relation to a number of 'post' art practices. Specifically this includes the questioning of media and form through postmedia, post-photographic, post-digital, post-internet and post-screen practices as well as addressing the manner in which the artist creates through post-disciplinary and postproduction methods.

Metaverse Creativity, 2012

This article discusses the artist Garrett Lynch’s residency in Second Life® at Yoshikaze ‘Up-in-t... more This article discusses the artist Garrett Lynch’s residency in Second Life® at Yoshikaze ‘Up-in-the-air’, HUMLab, Umeå University in Sweden. The artist’s mixed-reality live performance and installation work in the ‘virtual’ world, part of a wider artistic practice on networks, focuses on the identity and role of the artist within an environment mediated by networked technology. The residency enabled the continuation of this practice and facilitated through the site of the residency the development of ideas of space and place as they relate to identity. Eleven works, predominantly performance based, were produced during the residency that explored the breadth of the Virtuality Continuum. Each investigated the boundary between the ‘virtual’ and the ‘real’ and how creative practice can be produced at their intersection. Techniques of juxtaposition, framing, layering, folding, combination and mixing were employed throughout. Works involved performance across multiple ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ spaces and used specifically built props and environments in-world, performance software for a number of computing and mobile devices and Web 2.0/Second Life mash-ups. A number of recurring themes emerged in the development of work, including liminality, new frontiers, augmented or mixed presence and vision, which formed thematic strands of research. It is these thematic strands, their development and use that form the structuring of this article.

Published in Volume 2, Issue 2 of Metaverse Creativity.

This special issue of Liminalities has been compiled from the outcomes of the conference Remote E... more This special issue of Liminalities has been compiled from the outcomes of the conference Remote Encounters: Connecting bodies, collapsing spaces and temporal ubiquity in networked performance held at the University of South Wales on the 11th and 12th of April 2013. By providing an overview of contributions to the issue this editorial aims to both introduce networked performance to a new readership and for those already practicing in the field assemble and present the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary practice that can be considered as networked performance. Contributor's research themes, practice issues and their creative solutions are identified revealing common threads of enquiry running throughout the issue. In addition notable papers and performances from the conference that have not been included in this issue are discussed briefly.

Liminalities, 2014

On the second and final day of the conference Remote Encounters: Connecting Bodies, Collapsing Sp... more On the second and final day of the conference Remote Encounters: Connecting Bodies, Collapsing Spaces and Temporal Ubiquity in Networked Performance proceedings closed with a roundtable discussion entitled Performance Systems: Making vs. Exploiting. The purpose of the roundtable was to explore performance systems used by artists and to compare/contrast strategies of making custom technologies vs. exploiting or hacking pre-existing technologies. The roundtable members were largely gathered from the second half of the conference which placed a thematic emphasis on systems in networked performance art. Members consisted of three speakers; Marc Garrett (MG), Erik Geelhoed (EG) and Ian Biscoe (IB), and two performers; Prof. Dr. Stahl Stenslie (SS) and Paula Crutchlow (PC) who each researched or worked with a number of diverse systems, techniques, media and approaches. The roundtable was chaired by Garrett Lynch (GL). Additional contributions were made by conference speakers or performers in attendance and members of the public. These included; Annie Abrahams (AA), Elena Perez (EP), Elif Ayitar (EA), Kate Genevieve (KG) and Matthew Jarvis (MJ).

Audiences are experiencing a growing apprehension and distrust of interaction in art and a reluct... more Audiences are experiencing a growing apprehension and distrust of interaction in art and a reluctance to engage with art that employs it. Interactive art can be categorised in broadly two ways: works that are highly technological or works that are highly social. While apprehension of interaction in art has always existed it is proposed that rather than originating from fear of technology or social embarrassment, it now originates in an understanding of what technology can do (e.g. surveillance, data harvesting etc.) and a hyper-awareness of the self in the public sphere.

This paper introduces a proposed term, Bahaviour [bah, as in bah humbug, and behaviour], as a means for articulating and discussing negative audience attitudes in participative and interactive forms. The paper was presented at InDialogue 2016 and followed by a open lunchtime discussion on the topic; specifically artist’s experiences with negative audience attitudes, strategies to address these and issues of institutions and platforms.

Slides are available below or on Google Docs:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1pfuBJCYVsB3-fU3Xdy7rihqbuqYq7qxisWqr1hCYsNg/edit?usp=sharing

This paper for the Journal of Media Practice / MeCCSA Practice Network Symposium titled Post-Scre... more This paper for the Journal of Media Practice / MeCCSA Practice Network Symposium titled Post-Screen Cultures/Practices on the 10/06/2016, presented four networked art practice works undertaken since 2014. The works included:

- This is Real Virtuality (2014), a networked photographic and text-based performance in weblog form consisting of a first person narrative that recounts the experiences of an unnamed individual noticing colliding virtu/re-alities, that is the merging of ‘virtual’ and ‘real’ spaces, in their daily life.
- We Entomb Memoir (2015), a series of process-based actions performed online with appropriated image macro generators.
- Transformations: Actions to Matter / Matter to Actions (2015 – ongoing), a series of performative actions employing what is colloquial termed as the ‘free stuff’ online community. Actions are documented through screenshots and digital photographs.
- Tran$actions (2015 – ongoing), a series of performative actions which employ the introductory or bonus offers provided by gambling websites as a means to create networked performance documented as screencasts.

While different in subject matter, the works form a series that engages with the networked image. They can be understood as post-photographic practice and touch on post-digital and post-internet art practices. The presentation discussed strategies employed in the works that relate to image production including, reframing photography within networked contexts and image creation, manipulation and appropriation within networks. In addition the presentation explored how an image forms a key component of each work including contributing to a narrative, being the artefact produced, documenting the work in progress and/or being the only trace of the work on completion.

Slides are available below or on Google Docs:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jbMSJlPOdsZ-aPwZIOdPgUUF88paxgA2TDoTTGbfuzo/edit?usp=sharing

The Art of Networks and Networks as Art is the title of a performance/presentation given at the 1... more The Art of Networks and Networks as Art is the title of a performance/presentation given at the 12th Annual Subtle Technologies Festival on the theme of Networks. The performance/presentation focused on the development of my work over the last five years and the role of networks within artistic practice. This was detailed in its most obvious sense of works ‘online’ but also explored ideas of interactive models within new media as networks in themselves between artist, artwork and user.

The audience were each given postcards with Datamatrix codes (specifically QR Codes) and short instructions on how to begin. These linked them to a webpage to download a 2D Code Reader. QR Codes were displayed on screen throughout the performance / presentation within slides which were online and accessible. The audience could view and interact with the performance / presentation in a variety of ways:

- simply watch the presentation;
- connect its contents with online media by photographing it though the 2D Code Reader on their web-enabled mobile phone with built-in camera;
- or view all of the materials on the artists site and on Google Docs.

The intention was to not alone present works which focus on ideas of the network, connecting, augmenting, being distributed and multiple but to emphasise these ideas through the presentation format.

Slides are available below or on Google Docs:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vjzvDY3zCB89KBADdr-vHSA0IjcyY5nmpcm1aaIPaCY/edit?usp=sharing

Liminalities, 2014

The journal of performance studies, Liminalities issue 10.1, is a special issue guest edited by G... more The journal of performance studies, Liminalities issue 10.1, is a special issue guest edited by Garrett Lynch (University of South Wales) and Rea Dennis (Deakin University). The contributions to this issue have been compiled from the outcomes of the international conference Remote Encounters: Connecting Bodies, Collapsing Spaces and Temporal Ubiquity in Networked Performance held at the University of South Wales on the 11th and 12th of April 2013.

Since the Internet entered the public domain in the early 90’s there has been an explosion in its artistic application as a means, site and context for creative practice. In many respects, much of this practice is performative in nature and as a result has attracted artists from performance backgrounds to what can be considered as a new ‘site’ for performance. The Internet is however only one of many network technologies that have enabled networked performance and as such the conference and now this issue of Liminalities set out to explore the use of any form of network as a means to enhance or create a wide variety of performance arts.

Remote Encounters: Connecting bodies, collapsing spaces and temporal ubiquity in networked perfor... more Remote Encounters: Connecting bodies, collapsing spaces and temporal ubiquity in networked performance was a two-day international conference with performance evening organised and chaired by myself at the University of South Wales on the 11th and 12th of April 2013. Its purpose was to explore the use of networks as a means to enhance or create a wide variety of performance arts. How do networks as a site for performance provide opportunities for us as artists and performers? In particular how can we remotely collaborate, merge geographically separate places and times, reconfigure the space of performance and the relationship between artist and audience?

The conference was initiated as part of my research and practice on networked art and with a view to revealing performative aspects within that practice. A mixture of delegates with differing research, practice, means and economic situations, attended representing a wide variety of performance arts. Artists performing at the conference in Wales performed with others (artists and audience) in England, France, Belgium, Italy, Singapore and the United States confirming that visual forms enabled a multitude of possibilities for artists to see, synchronise, collaborate and create at distance. Papers discussed issues concerning remoteness, artist’s performance methods and technological techniques were explored in depth and the network was considered in a number of ways as an enabling or limiting technology.

A short article titled Remote Encounters: a report about networking practitioners on the Remote E... more A short article titled Remote Encounters: a report about networking practitioners on the Remote Encounters conference and Liminalities journal special issue published on Digicult.it. The report specifically addresses my own objectives as both organiser of the conference and journal issue and artist/researcher.

Why is it important to know about the developments of Google and its influences on society? What ... more Why is it important to know about the developments of Google and its influences on society? What bearing has this on new media art? To date new media art has been an information based art form, but not necessarily an informed one. Information has been used in various ways, background noise, continuously flowing content, as a trigger to indicate a change from one state to another yet rarely has the information been used successfully as simply the information it is due to the complexity of presentation within the tools that access it and the difficulty to separate content from presentation other than how intended.

Google and Art: A commercial / cultural new media art economy? is a short article for Isea’s regular newsletter which discusses the influence Google has had on culture and how this has manifested itself in new media art, particularly net.art, in what have commonly become known as mashups. Use of content providers such as Google in this way contribute to a long running trend in contemporary art which questions the role of the artist and their relation to their audience.

Since the introduction of the World Wide Web in 1991, it has had a significant impact on contempo... more Since the introduction of the World Wide Web in 1991, it has had a significant impact on contemporary art. As a consequence, however, networks are almost exclusively considered as technologically determined, art produced is digital, refers to the internet and is more often than not specifically web-based. This research redefines the role of networks in contemporary art. It proposes that networks are not a specific technology that provides a means for art practice to occur but are a concept that transforms practice and enables a networked art.

Networked art is a continuation of twentieth century developments in art including cybernetic art, systems aesthetics, new media art and relational aesthetics. The research discusses these and considers how practice became systemised through strategies such as the dematerialization of art as object (Lippard, 1997) and the renouncement of objecthood (Fried, 1998). Equally important is the emergence of cybernetics and systems theory that explained concepts such as process and behaviour frequently employed in art practice. By defining a network as a type of system, networked art is foremost concerned with connections or links and considers the resulting behaviours that occur. Networked art is therefore not centred on networks as form. It can adapt as technologies evolve over time and as such is considered post specific technologies and the disciplines connected with them.

Emerging out of my ongoing art practice this practice-led research makes an original contribution to knowledge in the field of contemporary art in three ways. Firstly, it demonstrates how networks in contemporary art do not have a basis in a specific technology since they have been employed before current technologies. Secondly, the research explains networked art through the development of a framework and practice as research that informs each other. Thirdly, the research discusses emergent processes, themes and content and clarifies how networked art positions itself within current contemporary art discourse as a post-disciplinary practice.