Matt Adams

Blast Theory

Matt Adams makes performances, installations, games and interactive artworks. He co-founded Blast Theory in 1991, a group renowned for its multidisciplinary approach pioneering the use of new technologies within performance contexts. The group has used interactive pressure pad systems triggered by audience members, video and audio streaming, and more recently, the convergence of collaborative virtual environments and mobile devices.

Since 1997, the group has collaborated with the Mixed Reality Laboratory at the University of Nottingham. Works such as Desert Rain, Can You See Me Now? and Uncle Roy All Around You h ave been nominated for four Interactive Arts BAFTA Awards. Can You See Me Now? won the Golden Nica for Interactive Art at Prix Ars Electronica 2003.

More recently Uncle Roy All Around You in London and I Like Frank have broken new ground as complex mixed reality projects combining game play and narrative using GPRS and 3G. Blast Theory is a partner in the 3 year Integrated Project on Pervasive Gaming (IPerG) alongside partners such as Sony, Nokia and the Swedish Institute of Computer Science. From 2005-08 the group is a partner in Participate, a mass participation science project with the BBC, British Telecom and four others.

Blast Theory has also shown interactive and screen based works in galleries such as Tate online, Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Wood St Galleries in Pittsburgh, Museum of Installation in London and National Fine Art Museum in Taiwan. Blast Theory has been awarded residencies at Kunstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, the Banff New Media Centre in Canada, the ICA in London and Arnolfini in Bristol. The group were the South Australian Government's Thinkers In Residence in Adelaide in 2004.

Since 2000, Blast Theory has developed cross platform works for BBC Fictionlab, Channel 4 and BBC Interactive. Matt co-curated the Screen series of video works for Live Culture at Tate Modern in 2003 and curated the Games and War season at the ICA in London in 2003.

Matt has participated in conferences such as Hot Docs documentary film festival in Toronto; Banff Television Conference; Cairo International Festival of Experimental Theatre; The Future of War: Aesthetics, Politics, Technologies in New York; Dutch Electronic Art Festival in Rotterdam; dLux Media Arts festival in Sydney. He has been a consultant for a variety of commercial and cultural organisations such as adera+ in Stockholm and the Royal Opera House in London. He has co-authored over a dozen papers with colleagues at the University of Nottingham and has a Honorary Fellowship at the University of Exeter.

www.blasttheory.co.uk

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