Artist Biography
Keith Brown is one of the foremost digital sculptors currently working in Europe. He has made regular representations at an international level as a contributor to, and organiser of, symposia and exhibitions in electronic and digital art. Recently exhibiting in Japan, New Zealand, Turkey, USA, Africa, France, Czech Republic and the UK, he is gaining international acclaim as a pioneer and leader in his field. Recent venues have been as broad and diverse as the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition 2002 & 2003 London, and SIGGRAPH Art Gallery (San Diego and Los Angeles) 2003 & 2004.
He is Director of Art & Computing Technologies at the Manchester Institute for Research & Innovation in Art & Design (MIRIAD) at MMU. As Founder and President of Fast-uk (Fine Art Science & Technology in the UK) he has done much to encourage and support digital art at a national and international level with assistance from the Arts Council of England, Manchester City Council and MIRIAD.
A postgraduate student at the Royal College of Art 1972-75 for the past twenty years has directed his research and practice from within the digital arena. His work embraces a wide range of digital media, including, 2D, 3D, 4D, time-based installation and video animation.
Recent works are manifest as 3D solid images in a variety of rapid prototype materials including metals and as investment castings. Integral imaging, pioneered through Create-3D, has offered a unique new medium for the exploration and realisation of forms that in many instances could not be displayed in true 3D without the aid of this new technology. Current research is concentrated especially on how to best utilise the unique features of this technology and works have been realised as high resolution lenticular prints (spaceforms) and large screen integral projection installations.
Artist
Statement
The possibilities for computer generated sculpture are obviously immense. As the computer gradually takes its place in the tool chest of the contemporary practitioner, we are inevitably seeing changes that challenge our traditional views and preconceptions about how sculpture is conceived, produced, and experienced. The computer and related technologies, for many, including myself, have become much more than simply a new set of design and production tools. They have presented us with completely new media to explore and no doubt there will be many more to follow. If there is one single influence which will separate the art of this millennium from that of the past, and constitute a paradigm shift of aesthetic and conceptual advancement, of equivalent cultural significance to the first "hand paintings" made in the caves of Paleolithic man, then my calculated guess is that it's going to be, if it is not already, computer technology.
My work embraces a wide range of digital activities, both virtual and actual. The main concern is with "Real Virtuality" or "Cyberealism" rather than "Virtual Reality", reversing the order between the cyber and the real.
The transphysical aspect of the cyber environment provides new possibilities for sculpture and radically changes traditional modes of experience that were defined by gravity, scale, and other material limitations. Sculptors are now free to build forms that defy natural laws. Modeling in the cyber environment is akin to modeling light itself, or the light that is reflected from objects that don’t or can’t be seen to exist in actuality. The unique features of integral imaging and their application for the realisation, in true 3D, of topological entities that could otherwise not be made manifest due to the nature of their conception in the cyber-modeling environment, is a new and very exciting way to realize new forms of fine art sculpture. “Space forms” (integral sculptures) are objects that are perceived in true 3D and exist in real space. Recent works have been created especially to take advantage of this extraordinary new medium and are the first of their kind.
The bronze sculptures have been similarly conceived in the cyber-environment and output through solid imaging processes and then cast into metal using the lost wax technique.
Keith Brown
