This panel is a presentation and conversation with media artists, Professor Paul Sermon, UK and Sonia Cillari, NL.

Since the early nineteen-nineties Paul Sermon’s practice-based research in the field of contemporary media arts has centred on the creative use of telecommunication technologies. Through his unique use of videoconference techniques in artistic telepresence applications, he has developed a series of celebrated telematic art installations that have received international acclaim. With over twenty years of practice, Sermon has been cited on numerous occasions amongst his peers as ‘leading’ and ‘pioneering’ practitioner in his field.

Sonia Cillari’s work involves the creation of sensorial and perceptual mechanisms in immersive and augmented environments. Her artistic investigation examines how patterns of consciousness, perception and identity emerge in such settings. Over the last years she has been specifically interested in a field of research concerning the ‘Body as Interface’.
Sermon and Cillari have won numerous awards and recognition’s for their work. Although the forms, which their work takes differs, they both have been exploring the extension of the human body and our communicative process, emotions, gestures and movements, within the ‘digital’ age.

Within this panel session, Sermon and Cillari, will present an overview of their work, research and theoretical positions. The presentation and conversation will be chaired with UM director, Teresa Dillon, IRE/UK.

Bios
Paul Sermon
Born in Oxford, England, 1966. Studied BA Hon’s Fine Art degree under Professor Roy Ascott at The University of Wales, from September 1985 to June 1988. Studied a Post-graduate MFA degree at The University of Reading, England, from October 1989 to June 1991. Awarded the Prix Ars Electronica “Golden Nica”, in the category of interactive art, for the hyper media installation “Think about the People now”, in Linz, Austria, September 1991. Produced the ISDN videoconference installation “Telematic Vision” as an Artist in Residence at the Center for Art and Media Technology (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany, from February to November 1993. Received the “Sparkey Award” from the Interactive Media Festival in Los Angeles, for the telepresent video installation “Telematic Dreaming”, June 1994. From 1993 to 1999 employed as Dozent for Media Art at the HGB Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig, Germany. During this time continued to produced further interactive telematic installations including “Telamatic Encounter” in 1996 and “The Tables Turned” in 1997 for the Ars Electronica Centre in Linz, and the ZKM Media Museum in Karlsruhe. From 1997 to 2001 employed as Guest Professor for Performance and Environment at the University of Art and Industrial Design in Linz, Austria. Since June 2000 based at The University of Salford working primarily within the research field of immersive and expanded telematic environments.

URL: www.paulsermon.org

Sonia Cillari
Italian media artist and architect, lives and works in Amsterdam. Her work involves the creation of sensorial and perceptual mechanisms in immersive and augmented environments. Her artistic investigation examines how patterns of consciousness, perception and identity emerge in such settings. Over the last years she has been specifically interested in a field of research concerning the ‘Body as Interface’.
She was artist in residence at V2_, Institute for the Unstable Media (Rotterdam, the Netherlands 2004), Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten (Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2004-2005), STEIM: Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music and Netherlands Media Art Institute Montevideo/Time Based Arts (Amsterdam 2006).
Her interactive installations, that are at the intersection of architecture and performance art, have been exhibited and presented internationally. She received the Excellence Prize at Japan Media Arts Festival (Tokyo, Japan 2007) and the Honorable Mentions at Prix Ars Electronica: Interactive Art (Linz, Austria 2007) and VIDA 9.0: Art & Artificial Life International Competition (Madrid, Spain 2006). She has been a jury member for the Prix Ars Electronica: Interactive Art 2008.

URL: www.soniacillari.net/home.htm