6:30 for 7:00 Wednesday 18 April 2007

Speaker: John Sharp

London Knowledge Lab
23-29 Emerald St
London
WC1N 3QS

Computer Arts Society - public meeting.

I read chemistry at Oxford and spent some time in Industry, mainly as an analytical chemist, but soon after I left University I went to the Cybernetic Serendipity exhibition at the ICA which changed what I felt I wanted to do. I had been using conventional media to produce similar work based on mathematics (mostly geometry) and would have really liked to move onto computers, but it was another 10 years with the Apple II before I was able to fulfil that dream. Previously the only contact I had had with computer art was as member 142 of the Computer Arts Society.

In learning computing from that point, I changed careers mostly writing computer documentation, initially setting up the document department at Epson UK. I also taught geometry and art part time. Since the CAS in its first life folded, apart from students, my main contact with other artists working in a similar area was sporadic until I became part of the Bridges Conferences on Mathematical Connections in Art Science and Music. In 2006 I was instrumental in bringing it to London and was one of the major organisers.

Through Bridges and the Internet I have worked with many other artists and this talk is the about the wide range of work I have produced using the computer both two and three dimensional, including the paper sculpture I am most widely known for: Sliceforms and how I have worked with other mathematical artists at Bridges.

• Bridges