Blast Theory
A Lecture by the renowned British art collective on their "interactive, guerilla" art tactics.
Blast Theory is renowned internationally as one of the most adventurous artists' groups using interactive media. Lead by Matt Adams, Ju Row Farr and Nick Tandavanitj the group has a team of six and is based in London. The group's work explores interactivity and the relationship between real and virtual space with a particular focus on the social and political aspects of technology. It confronts a media saturated world in which popular culture rules, using video, computers, performance, installation, mobile and online technologies to ask questions about the ideologies present in the information that envelops us.
Early works such as Gunmen Kill Three, Chemical Wedding and Stampede drew on club culture to create multimedia performances that invited participation. From 1997, the group's work further diversified into online, installation and interactive works such as Kidnap and Desert Rain. For the past three years, Blast Theory has been exploring the convergence of online and mobile technologies in collaboration with the Mixed Reality Lab, University of Nottingham, to create groundbreaking new forms of performance and interactive art mixing audiences across the internet, live performance and digital broadcasting. Projects include the award-winning Can You See Me Now?, Uncle Roy All Around You and I Like Frank in Adelaide - the world's first 3G mixed reality game. The group works with partners such as BBC Interactive, The Science Museum in London and BT. Masterclasses, mentoring, internships, seminars and lectures are central to the group's dissemination of its research around the world.
Following two BAFTA nominations and an Honorary Mention at the Transmediale Awards, Blast Theory won the much coveted Prix Ars Electronica for Interactive Art in 2003.
Internationally, the group has been represented at art fairs and festivals including Festival Escena Contemporanea, Madrid, the Dutch Electronic Arts Festival, Biennale of Sydney, Palestine International Video Festival and Basel Art Fair.
