Sermon | the Neural String Network: an Interactive Collaborative Drawing ‘Machine’

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425 Sermon | The Neural String Network: An interactive collaborative drawing ‘machine’ Biographical Data - - versity of Salford, School of Art & Design. Born in Oxford, Received an MFA from the Department of Fine Art at the University of Reading, England in 1991. Awarded the Prix - 1993 to 1999 employed as Dozent for Media Art at the HGB Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig, Germany. From 1997 to 2001 employed as Guest Professor for Performance and Environment at the University of Art & Design Linz, Austria. Since June 2000 based at the University of Salford working telematic environments. 426 427 Abstract network, allowing participants to experience a shared creative process, using the principles of open-source and social networked communication through an to introduce participants to the idea of collaborative-shared drawing practice, as (Barthes 1967) whereby each participant plays an equal role as both viewer and piece of Haiku poetry, the drawing participants contribute marks, signs and signi- space measuring eight by eight metres square. Each node is linked to the other four via pulleys and washing lines, making it possible to peg a sheet of A4 paper to a a pentagon neural network design. Representing the interconnected synapses and neurons of the brain, the role of each participant is that of cause and effect. A single instruction initiates a series of consequences that unfold in drawings, marks and patterns that are created whilst being hoisted simultaneously across the room communicated as a drawing by a collective consciousness.

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About the Contributors
254 About the Contributors Dew Harrison is a Professor of Digital Media Art and works as the Associate Dean for Research and Postgraduate Study at the University of Wolverhampton, School of Art and Design, where she is also the Director of CADRE, Centre for Art, Design, Research, and Experimentation. She is a research- er and practitioner with a BA in Fine Art, an MA in Contemporary Art Theory, an MSc in Computer Science, and a PhD from the Planetary Collegium, CAiiA, in Interactive Art. Her practice undertakes a critical exploration of conceptual art, semantic media, and intuitive interfaces where she often works collaboratively and considers virtual curation a form of art practice. She continues to show her work internationally; most recently, two of her Digital Action Painting series were exhibited at the Centre for Contemporary Art in Poland, and has over 50 publications to date spanning digital art, consciousness studies, interactive games, art history, and museology. * * * Rina Arya is the Reader in Visual Communication at the University of Wolverhampton. Her research interests are interdisciplinary and include art theory and cultural studies. Her most recent monograph is Francis Bacon: Painting in a Godless World (Farnham, 2012). Forthcoming publications include Chila Kumari Burman: A Celebration of Shakti (KT Press) and Abjection and Representation (Palgrave Macmillan). Judith Aston was a pioneer in the emergent multimedia industry of the mid-1980s, working on projects with Apple Computing, the BBC Interactive Television Unit, and Virgin Publishing. Holding an MA in Social Science from the University of Cambridge, she went on to study for a PhD in Visual Anthropology and Computer-Related Design at the Royal College of Art, which she completed in 2003.
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