This website has been archived at cuttlefish.org.
See
www.seanclark.org and www.interactdigitalarts.uk for information about Sean Clark's current artwork and projects.

Sean Clark's Blog

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Sun, 23 Sep 2018
CAS50 Exhibition in Brighton

Between the 13th and 23rd September 2018, the Computer Arts Society's CAS50 Exhibition was on display at Phoenix in Brighton. The opening of the exhibition took place on Thursday night at the same time as the Lumen Prize exhibition in the same venue, and both were part of the launch of the annual Brighton Digital Festival. It was a very well-attended launch, with lots of people expressing interest in the combination of historical work on show as part of CAS50 and the contemporary work in the Lumen show.

Amongst the earliest work on display in the CAS50 show was a collection of computer printouts from Roger Saunders, who began studying in Brighton almost exactly 50 years ago this month. His work, plus all the others in the show, can be seen on the CAS50 website at http://www.computer-arts-society.com/cas50.

The CAS50 collection is still growing, and we have several possible exhibitions lined-up for 2019. Keep an eye on the Computer Arts Society Facebook Group for the latest news. Pictures from the previous shows can also be seen on the CAS50 website.

Mon, 02 Jul 2018
27 Exhibition @ Gallery Without Walls

My latest collection of computer-generated artworks, called "27", was premiered at the LCB Depot as part of the Gallery Without Walls project on Saturday. This represents the coming together of two projects.

Firstly, the exhibition itself is the completion of a work cycle that started with two works that were part of the Resonance exhibition with Esther Rolinson in Leicester last December, then became part of the East Meets West exhibition in Guangzhou, China in April and is now a stand-alone exhibition in its own right.

27 is based around my self-organising visual systems. The main building blocks of the piece are groups of three connected grids that grow together by exchanging colours and sorting them according to pre-defined rules. After the grids have been running for a while, I capture an image and then combine the images to form larger images. These larger images are then arranged according to additional rules.

The result is a system of patterns-within-patterns where the "parts" make "wholes" that then become parts in larger wholes and so on. In the case of this exhibition, nine locations around Leicester each have three images, which are each composed of three connected grids, which are each composed of 25 colours.

The locations selected to show the work are part of Gallery Without Walls. This is a project I've been working on with Graff.io Arts for over a year now. We have been building a network of venues around Leicester where we can show artists' work as part of "distributed exhibitions". 27 is the third show we've put together, hence my exhibition is also known as GWW03.

It's great when two projects meet like this. It's also very satisfying for me to complete this creative project in this way. Graff.io Arts are expert printers, and the work looks excellent. It will be popping up at the various venues around Leicester shortly.

For more information, visit http://gallerywithoutwalls.uk/gww03.

The work will be on display until the end of August when GWW04 will take over. More details on this to follow.

Sun, 27 May 2018
Pixel Art Workshop

Today I ran a PixelArt workshop as part of the Spark Festival at Phoenix in Leicester. The primary purpose of the workshop was to have some fun, but it is also part of a project I have been working on. The idea is to create a system for creating and exchanging 16 x 16-pixel images via an app and have them displayed on LED panels. You can see the results of today's workshop here, but also keep an eye out for future developments.

Fri, 25 May 2018
CAS50 Exhibition Opening

Wednesday night was the opening of the CAS50: Fifty Years of the Computer Arts Society exhibition at the LCB Lightbox Gallery in Leicester. The exhibition features work by 12 internationally recognised computer artists who have been associated with the society over the years.

Eight of the exhibitors attended the exhibition, together with many other CAS members and interested people. The Guest of Honour was George Mallen, one of the three original founders of the Computer Arts Society in 1968.

The exhibition is on until the 15th June. Opening times can be found on the exhibition web site at /interact2020/cas50.html. Photographs from the opening can be found on Flickr here.

For more information about the Computer Arts Society visit http://computer-arts-society.com/.

Mon, 23 Apr 2018
Creative Connections Exhibition in China

Tonight is the opening of the Creative Connections: East meets West exhibition at Guangdong University in southern China. It represents the first major public output of my activities at the University since I began teaching at GDUT in April 2017.

The exhibition takes place at the 729 Art Cafe on the Dongfeng Road campus of GDUT in Guangzhou. It features work by artists from De Montfort University in Leicester, UK with further contributions from artists and designers from Guangzhou. Importantly, it also has work by some of the students involved in my teaching.

Working in China can be a bit confusing and chaotic at times. But I have found it ultimately very rewarding. I think that this exhibition illustrates this. The work from both the UK and Chinese sides is of high-quality and I think bringing it together will ultimately lead to new collaborations between the exhibitors.

See the exhibition web page (/interact2020/creativeconnections) for more details, the exhibition catalogue and photographs.

Wed, 03 Jan 2018
Archive Update

I've been hosting my own websites since October 1993 - that'll be for an astonishing 25 years this year. Over this time I've built up a pretty extensive on-line archive of my creative activities that includes copies of websites, pictures, videos, software and so on.

My plan for the future is to turn this archive in to something of an annotated record of early "digital culture" (from my personal perspective). Perhaps with reflections and eventually interviews with the people I have worked with over the years. I've been making some progress towards this, with the Cyberculture exhibition in summer 2017 being the first public outing.

You might think that "preserving" digital materials is easy. After all, unlike physical objects you don't need much space to store them, and you can make as many copies as you like. However, this is not necessarily the case.

Websites can stop working due to changes in how the web works. Plug-ins change, older video formats no longer work and links break. Also, old software may not run on modern computers and CD-ROMs, videos and other physical media my no-longer be readable. For this reason I regularly check through my on-line archive and have build up a collection of old computers to run early software.

For artists in particular there's also a very practical consideration. If (like me) you think that reflection is a vital part of the creative process and you don't document your activities (and update your archive regularly) you will end up not updating it at all. Forgetting to document is a perpetual problem, and just taking a few pictures on your phone is rarely enough.

I've just finished this year's review. Pictures have been uploaded to Flickr and sorted, web pages have been updated and I've run through old sites looking for broken links. Everything seems in good shape. I just wish I could say the same for those shelves of non-digital things currently taking up shelf space in my studio!

If you want to have a look at my web archive then visit /interact2020/archive.html. Oh, and not forgetting http://theartofcrass.uk, http://seanclark.me.uk and http://nemeton.com..

Wed, 06 Dec 2017
Resonance Exhibition Opening

The Resonance exhibition of work by myself and Esther Rolinson is now open at the LCB Depot in Leicester. It runs until Friday 22nd December, with the last night coinciding with the famous Canteen street food event at LCB.

I'm very pleased with the exhibition. I think it is a coherent presentation of work by two artists who work in very different ways, but have shared underlying interests. Both Esther and myself are interested in "systems" and you can see this interest expressed throughout the work in the exhibition.

I am particularly happy with my new digital pieces. Both the larger and smaller framed LCD screens look really smart and build on the work I have done before on hiding the technology I use as much as possible. These new frames are down to local woodworker Steve Lynch who laser cut, assembled and painted the screen mounts.

Expect to see the framing of my work to develop more over the coming year.

You can find photographs from the exhibition opening at /interact2020/resonance.html.

Thu, 30 Nov 2017
Resonance: Esther Rolinson and Sean Clark Exhibition

On the 6th December at the LCB Depot in Leicester atwe will be opening an exhibition of new work by Esther Rolinson and myself. This exhibition will be an opportunity for both of us to show some of our new individual work, as well as the collaborative pieces we are currently working on.

It will be the first time that we have exhibited together in this way and is the first time we have shown joint work in my creative hometown of Leicester. The exhibition will open around 6pm and continue until 9pm, with talks between 7pm and 8pm. There will, of course, be drinks.

If you want to come along, it is free, then see the details on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/events/350194088739601/) or the exhibition web page at /interact2020/resonance.html.

Sun, 27 Aug 2017
The KLF Welcome Us To The Dark Ages

After a 23 year absence Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond aka The KLF, The JAMs, K Foundation etc. returned with a three day event in Liverpool called Welcome to the Dark Ages. The 400 of us with tickets reflected on the past (why did they burn a million quid?), explored the present (we were all given pages of their new book to look after. I am custodian of page 281) and were introduced to the future (the KLF are now funeral directors).

It was an amazing spectacle to be involved in. It was also one that will take a while to sink in. So, rather than write about it in detail I am simply sharing the media I captured during the event - video and photographs. At some point I will write a post about it on my blog. I've also added links to press articles and web pages about the event.

I could see that lots of people were recording things over the three days. I think we should collate it and make a film to document the event. Maybe after a suitable break to allow reflection? If you like the idea please get in touch.

You can find my video and pictures of the event all in one place here, or on YouTube and Flickr.

Sun, 18 Jun 2017
REND386 World

As part of the Cyberculture exhibition in Leicester I've launched my first Google Cardboard Virtual Reality app. REND386 World takes classic VR "worlds" from the 1990s and presents them for Cardboard v2. Currently it is only on Android, but iOS, Oculus and Vive versions will be coming soon. Download it for free now from the Google Play Store. Search for "REND386 World" or follow the link to /interact2020/rend386.html.

Displaying 21 to 30 of 262


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