Interest: My main areas of interest/expertise are wide ranging, but principally the practice, theory, history and context of digital and electronic communications media; contemporary art utilising internet, interactivity, video, sound, and performance; process-based art making use of collaboration, networks, open source; historical avant-gardes such as Futurism, Constructivism, Dada, Lettrism, Situationism, Fluxus, Neoism; Pop art and pop/high art crossovers; certain popular media including film, television, electronic music and comics.
I have long practical experience in the field of media arts as a curator, producer and artist. My main practice as a curator and researcher over the past 5 years has been focused on Internet art, networked art practices, performance, and more recently mobile and locative media arts. I have also continued my long standing interest in moving image media, in particular video art and digital film-making.
I have managed, mentored and produced numerous creative internet works, most notably the HOST online project space for artists from 2000-2004. See www.mediascot.org/host for details. My other experience has involved enabling artists to create site specific or location centred work, net.radio and streaming media, and encouraging artworks which cross boundaries between performance and new technologies. My knowledge of current developments in mobile and locative media has been developed though research in this area over several years, including writing and presenting on the subject.
Bio: Chris Byrne has engaged with digital and moving image culture for over 15 years as an artist, producer, arts manager, and educator. Chris is Co-director with Iliyana Nedkova of Art Research Communication, an Edinburgh based company working nationally and internationally with artists, exhibitions, projects and critical context. He also lectures in Contemporary Media Theory at the University of Dundee. Previously, Chris Byrne was Director of New Media Scotland, where he curated and organised numerous projects, exhibitions, commissions, performances, and residencies with artists across Scotland. Chris has worked for a number of organisations in the media and arts field and writes occasional critical perspectives on the media arts. As an artist, Chris has shown in galleries, festivals, on broadcast television, and via the Internet.
Examples of current and recent projects can be found at the following urls: