Artist Statement
Neil Jenkins is an artist whose practice is heavily engaged with electronic media, language, programming and networked communication. He is particularly interested in the use of real-time data and networks (both real and virtual) toward creating hybrid interactive installation pieces.
Neil began creating interactive pieces and games in the early 1980s, as a self-taught assembly language programmer on the Commodore 64. Progressing onto 16-bit computers in the 1990s, he started developing interactive audio visual toys and interfaces, with early work being distributed on Floppy Disk, CD-ROM and finally the Internet on his website devoid.co.uk in 1999.
Alongside his personal practice, curation and collaborations with other artists, Neil works as a commercial interactive/web designer and developer and in recent years has developed a series of bespoke content management systems for clients including Fonterra Food Services (Australia), Knowle West Media Centre and The School of Creative Arts, University of the West of England He also has a wealth of experience consulting for arts based organisation in the area of new media.
Neil also teaches and has worked as a Senior Lecturer in interactive design and new media at Bath Spa University, Visiting Lecturer at The University of the West of England and Researcher Cardiff School of Art and Design
He has worked extensively with several artists collectives including ...here nor there..., an international artists collective seeking to draw connections and collaboration between cultures via the internet and shared media resources and Furtherfield, a London/net based artists collective, using the internet and networked technology as a focal point for creative discourse, events and production.
Born in the UK, Neil now lives and works in Australia and currently sits on the Board of Directors for d/Lux/MediaArts.
Exhibitions
Entrance
Exhibited at Intimate, Loop Space, Newcastle, NSW
Manipulated live video camera feed
(February 2009)
Exquisite Copse
On Display at Pine Street Gallery, Sydney and The Art Gallery of New South Wales Research Library, Sydney in the show Without Boundaries - an exhibition of artists' books.
(November-December 2008)
Month of Sundays
Series of live online A/V Performances by international artists using Visitors Studio. Screened at the Watershed (Bristol), The Point CDC Theatre (New York) and E:vent (London). (June 2006)
Archive of performance by Neil Jenkins and Roger Mills
Tag Navigator
An alternative interface to the Soundtoys web site, commisioned by Soundtoys, funded by Arts Council England and supported by Watershed.
(April 2006)
Exquisite Copse
A play on the surrealist game, Exquisite Corpse, Exquisite Copse visually rewrites existing works of literature into a forest of word trees, based on seed words entered by visitors. Each branch grows with words that might follow in the original text. Commissioned for Net:Reality - A UK touring exhibition of installed net art.
(July 2005, toured UK in 2005/2006, various international exhibitions 2007/2008)
where r u ?
Group event, performance + net project with ...here nor there...
Internet + Bristol, UK (2003)
T-deus
Online group exhibition
Internet (2003)
Serendipity
solo net project, software for psychogeographers
Internet (2003)
spirograp[d]h
visual module for PANSE (Public Access Network Sound Engine) by Pall Thayer
Internet (2003)
Guernica [cover up]
Image/ASCII collage
Internet & various print publications (2003)
wartime [calculated $817,800,000,000]
for the >wartime< project
Online group exhibition
Internet + various international venues (2003)
Kniga [za misel] - Book [for thought]
Installation and Internet
Kibla Multimedia Center, Maribor, Slovenia (2003)
Bin
for The Cyber-Kitchen
Online group exhibition
Internet (2002)
orbital
generative net project created in collaboration with Mac Dunlop
Internet (2002)
Trumpet and Traffic
video project with musician Roger Mills
Video (2002)
Electric December
online group project
Watershed, Bristol, UK
Internet (2002)
Walls Have Ears
live a/v performance with musician Roger Mills
various venues, UK (2002)
12-12
group exhibition and live performance broadcast
Internet + University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, UK (2001)
...here nor there... at Medi@terra 2000
new media festival & exhibition
Internet + Athens, Greece (2000)
Reface Deface
solo exhibition and installation
The Old Gaol, Bristol, UK (1998)
Ajar
group exhibition
Konikus Gallery, Bristol, UK (1996)
Observation
group performance and installation with No Room For Manoeuvre
Prema Arts Centre, Gloucestershire, UK (1996)
Invisible and Indivisible
installation and artist book created in collaboration with writer Alyson Hallett
Bristol, UK (1996)
Words & Pictures
Artists multiples box set publication (Issue 4)
(1995)
All over the shop
group exhibition
Clifton Arcade, Bristol, UK (1995)
Curation
The Garden of Forking Paths
An exhibition of historic and contemporary artists computer games, curated by Neil Jenkins and featuring work by Laurie Anderson with Hsin-Chien Huang, Tale of Tales, Jaron Lanier, Michael Nyman, Nina Pope & Karen Guthrie, Andy Deck, Anita Fontaine & Mike Pelletier. Presented by d/Lux/MediaArts
The show premiered at Loop Space (Newcastle, NSW, Australia) as part of Electrofringe, October 3rd - 24th 2009, National Tour (Australia) 2010-2011
12-12
A live 12 hour show and webcast, featuring national and international performers, sonic and video artists. (2001)
Commissions & Residencies
Web artist in residence for Year of the Artist
South West Arts, UK (2000)
Web artist for DA2 (Digital Arts Development Agency)
UK (1997)
Publications
The Orbital Poetry Engine
LEONARDO (Vol. 36, No. 4)
MIT Press (2003)
The Art of War
Image Feature
Decode Magazine (Issue 7)
UK (2003)
Poems That Go (Spring/Summer 2003)
Internet
www.poemsthatgo.com
Low-Fi guest list
'click here to skip intro'
Internet
www.low-fi.org.uk (2002)
365 (Year of the Artist in the South West)
CD ROM to accompany published book
UK (2001)
Collective Projects
Visitors Studio
Live multi user A/V mixing environment
www.visitorsstudio.org
Furthernoise.org
Technical support and some programming
www.furthernoise.org
FurtherStudio
virtual artist in residence environment with furtherfield.org
www.furtherstudio.org
Skin/Strip Online
interactive online installation with Furhterfield.org and Completely Naked
www.skinstrip.net (2003)
Informer
Part of Mute-Dialogue a multimedia projected initiated by Yasser Rashid
www.mute-dialogue.com (2002)
herenorthere.org
International Artists Collaboration
www.herenorthere.org (1999-2003)
Critical Reviews
low-fi list
referencing other spaces (Helen Sloan)
www.low-fi.org.uk (2003)
Shaken Identity
Decode Magazine (Issue 5)
UK (2002)
The Four Dimensional Monument
Fuse Magazine (Volume 25, Number 4)
Canada (2002)
Review of orbital
Neural
www.neural.it (2002)