Catherine Mason | |
|---|---|
 Catherine Mason apeaking at Event Two , Royal College of Art (2019) | |
| Born | Australia |
| Occupation | Art historian |
| Residence | London, England |
| Alma mater | Birkbeck College; City University |
| Period | Late 20th century |
| Genre | Computer art, digital art |
| Spouse | Keith Morris |
| Website | |
| www.catherinemason.co.uk | |
Catherine Mason (born in Australia) is an art historian and author [1] who specialises in digital art, especially computer art. [2]
Mason was born in Australia, brought up in the United States, and educated in the United Kingdom. [3]
In the late 1980s, Mason worked for an art dealer in Mayfair, London. In 1993, she received an undergraduate degree in the History of Art from Birkbeck College, University of London, followed by a master's degree in Museums & Gallery Management from City University, also in London. In the 1990s, Mason taught art appreciation courses in the Faculty for Continuing Education of Birkbeck College, the Workers Educational Association, and The Arts Society.
Mason's special interest is the history of computer art and digital art, beginning in 2002 when she joined an Arts & Humanities Research Council research project, CACHe (Computer Arts, Contexts, Histories, etc.), at Birkbeck College, This resulted in a co-edited book, White Heat Cold Logic , published in 2009. [4]
Mason also assisted in the re-formation of the BCS Computer Arts Society. [3] She also negotiated with the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London concerning donating an American collection of international computer art, the Patric Prince archive. This helped to develop the computer art collection at the V&A. [5]
In 2006, Mason organized a screening and panel discussion of early British computer animation, Bits in Motion, at the National Film Theatre. [3] In 2008, she authored A Computer in the Art Room, [6] based on four years of research and interviews. [7] During 2011–2014, she produced a monthly column concerning digital art for the BCS. In 2012, she discussed computer arts with John Wilson on the BBC Radio 4 programme Front Row . In 2017, she spoke about painting in the digital age on the TRT World television programme Showcase. She has advised on digital arts to organisations including The Art Fund, the BCS, Leonardo, SIGGRAPH, and a number of museums and galleries.
She married Keith Morris, a trustee of the Contemporary Art Society. [8]
Computer art is any art in which computers play a role in production or display of the artwork. Such art can be an image, sound, animation, video, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, video game, website, algorithm, performance or gallery installation. Many traditional disciplines are now integrating digital technologies and, as a result, the lines between traditional works of art and new media works created using computers has been blurred. For instance, an artist may combine traditional painting with algorithm art and other digital techniques. As a result, defining computer art by its end product can thus be difficult. Computer art is bound to change over time since changes in technology and software directly affect what is possible.
Electronic art is a form of art that makes use of electronic media. More broadly, it refers to technology and/or electronic media. It is related to information art, new media art, video art, digital art, interactive art, internet art, and electronic music. It is considered an outgrowth of conceptual art and systems art.
The British Computer Society (BCS) is a professional body and a learned society that represents those working in information technology (IT) and computer science, both in the United Kingdom and internationally. Founded in 1956, BCS has played an important role in educating and nurturing IT professionals, computer scientists, computer engineers, upholding the profession, accrediting chartered IT professional status, and creating a global community active in promoting and furthering the field and practice of computing.
Birkbeck, University of London is a public research university located in Bloomsbury, London, England, and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Established in 1823 as the London Mechanics' Institute by its founder, Sir George Birkbeck, and its supporters, Jeremy Bentham, J. C. Hobhouse and Henry Brougham, Birkbeck is one of the few universities to specialise in evening higher education in the United Kingdom.
The Electronic Visualisation and the Arts conferences are a series of international interdisciplinary conferences mainly in Europe, but also elsewhere in the world, for people interested in the application of information technology to the cultural and especially the visual arts field, including art galleries and museums.
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Robert John Lansdown was a British computer graphics pioneer, polymath and Professor Emeritus at Middlesex University Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts, which was renamed in his honour in 2000.
The Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts was a research centre at Middlesex University in North London, England. It played a significant role in the early development of computer graphics and continued to innovate in interactive media, sonic arts and moving image. It also provided postgraduate and undergraduate teaching.
Brian Reffin Smith is an artist, writer, teacher and musician born in Sudbury, Suffolk, in the United Kingdom, who won the first-ever Prix Ars Electronica, the Golden Nica, in Linz, Austria, 1987. He lives in Berlin, Germany. Brought up in Sileby, Leicestershire, he attended what was then an early comprehensive school, Humphrey Perkins School, at Barrow-upon-Soar.
The Computer Arts Society (CAS) was founded in 1968, in order to encourage the creative use of computers in the arts.
System Simulation (SSL) is a software engineering company now specialising in text and multimedia information systems, based in Covent Garden, central London, England, and founded in 1970.
Charlie Gere is a British academic who is professor of media theory and history at The Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts, The University of Lancaster and previously, director of research at the Institute for Cultural Research at The University of Lancaster. He is author of several books and articles on new media art, art and technology, continental philosophy and technology. His main research interest is in the cultural effects and meanings of technology and media, particularly in relation to post-conceptual art and philosophy.
Doron Swade MBE is a museum curator and author, specialising in the history of computing. He is especially known for his work on the computer pioneer Charles Babbage and his Difference Engine.
Kathleen Booth wrote the first assembly language and designed the assembler and autocode for the first computer systems at Birkbeck College, University of London. She helped design three different machines including the ARC, SEC, and APE(X)C.
Geoffrey Joel Crossick PhD FRHistS is a professor of the Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, a postgraduate school of the University of London. He was formerly Vice-Chancellor of London University from 2010 to 2012.
Ernest Edmonds is a British artist, a pioneer in the field of computer art and its variants, algorithmic art, generative art, interactive art, from the late 1960s to the present. His work is represented in the Victoria and Albert Museum, as part of the National Archive of Computer-Based Art and Design.
V&A Digital Futures is a series of events organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in the area of digital art.
Rachel Ara is a London-based contemporary British conceptual and data artist.
Event One was an early digital art exhibition held at the Royal College of Art (RCA), London, England, in 1969.
White Heat Cold Logic (2008), edited by Paul Brown, Charlie Gere, Nicholas Lambert, and Catherine Mason, is a book about the history of British computer art during 1960–1980.