Geoff Cox has recently joined the DUL project as a Postdoc Researcher in Digital Aesthetics, on secondment from University of Plymouth (UK) where he is a Reader in Art and Technology and part of KURATOR/Art and Social Technologies Research group. He also contributes to Transart Institute, Berlin/New York (DE/US), and works as Associate Curator of Online Projects, Arnolfini (a contemporary art centre in Bristol, UK). At Arnolfini, he organizes their online commissions (in particular, exploring critical approaches to participatory media); co-edits their bi-annual journal 'Concept Store' and sometimes co-curates exhibitions (such as 'Supertoys' on object relations, play and affective machines, in 2008-09; and currently 'Craftivism' that addresses activist tendencies in participatory craft processes, that ends this weekend). Drawing on an eclectic mixture of Frankfurt School and Autonomist criticism, he is one of the editors for the DATA Browser book series (published by Autonomedia, New York), and co-edited 'Economising Culture' (2004), 'Engineering Culture' (2005) and 'Creating Insecurity' (2009). His research interests lie in software (art) studies and network culture, expressed in various texts and projects (such as the co-curated touring exhibition 'Generator', 2002/03), and the co-curated public art project 'Social Hacking', 2007). He is currently working on a book project that investigates the performative and transformative action of code exemplified in the speech-like qualities of 'live-coding' performances. The concerns of the book resonate well with DUL in drawing attention to how new cultural forms emerge from coding cultures and allow for a reappraisal of the concept of the 'public', making it open for further modification and reuse.

Tags: digital aesthetics | people