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Liam Birtles

  • 01202 965315
  • lbirtles at bournemouth dot ac dot uk
  • Senior Lecturer In Digital Media Design
  • Weymouth House W207, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, BH12 5BB
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Biography

An artist, designer, lecturer and researcher with over 20 years experience in creative practice with digital technologies.

Currently Program leader for BA Digital Media Design also lecturing on the BA's in Television and Media Production and MA Creative Media. A member of Emerge Research cluster and a key member of the very successful artist collective Squidsoup.

I studied furniture and jewellery design in the late 80’s at Northumbria University and 3D computer graphics at Teesside University in the 90's I am currently working on a practice based PhD at Bournemouth University with the working title “The Exploded Screen”.

Through the 90’s worked as a research assistant and research fellow at Coventry University supporting artist practice in low end virtual environments on the Networked Virtual Reality Resources Centre’s for Art and Design.

As a member of Squidsoup his work is regularly shown at festivals, galleries and events around the globe. Recent events include Oslo, and participation in Siggraph(USA), Mapping Festival (Switzerland), Cinekid (Netherlands), Sundance (USA), TIFF (Canada), Scopitone (France), Ars Electronica Festival and Museum (Austria), Glastonbury, The Kinetica Arts Fair (UK), The RoundHouse (UK), Kew Gardens (UK), The Sidney Opera House (AUS), FGC (Dubai) and more.

Journal Articles

  • Brucker-Cohen, J., Birtles, L. et al., 2016. Data materialities art gallery curator. Leonardo, 49 (4), 352-374.
  • Rowe, A. and Birtles, L., 2010. Glowing pathfinder bugs: A natural haptic 3D interface for interacting intuitively with virtual environments. Leonardo, 43 (4), 350-358.

Conferences

  • Ferguson, S., Rowe, A., Bown, O., Birtles, L. and Bennewith, C., 2017. Networked pixels: Strategies for building visual and auditory images with distributed independent devices. C and C 2017 - Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Creativity and Cognition, 299-308.
  • Rowe, A., Bushell, G., Birtles, L., Bennewith, C. and Bown, O., 2016. Submergence 2013. ACM SIGGRAPH 2016 Art Gallery, SIGGRAPH 2016, 356-357.
  • Rowe, A. and Birtles, L., 2010. Glowing Pathfinder Bugs: A natural haptic 3D interface for interacting intuitively with virtual environments. ACM SIGGRAPH 2010 Art Gallery, SIGGRAPH '10, 350-358.

Exhibitions

  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Bennewith, C. and Bushell, G., 2017. Submergence at Southhampton Festival Light. LED, Software, Electronics, Sound. Southhampton Westquay FESTIVAL OF LIGHT. Southhampton Westquay. 10-19 February 2017.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Bennewith, C., Bown, O. and Ferguson, S., 2017. Bloom show at Canary Wharf Winter Lights. Electronic, IoT, LED's. Canary Wharf Winter Lights. Canary Wharf. 16-27 January 2017.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Bennewith, C. and Bown, O.. Bloom shown at Kew Gardens in London UK as part of Christmas at Kew curated by Culture Creative. 1000 IoT devices each able to sense movement and position and emit light and sound. Christmas at Kew curated by Culture Creative. Kew Gardens. 22 November 2016-2 January 2017.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Bennewith, C., Bushell, G. and Birtles, L.. Submergence 2016 version shown at Usina del Arts as part of Visual Arts Week and Ciudad Emergente in Buenos Aires. Bespoke LED volume and Software. Submergence 2016 Visual Arts Week. Usina del Arts, Argentina. 21 September-20 November 2016.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Bennewith, C. and Bushell, G.. Phoenix presents Ocean of Light at Diwali a site specific light art work for the celebrations.. Bespoke LED volume and Software. Ocean of Light at Diwali. Leicester’s 2016 Diwali. 16-17 October 2016.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Bennewith, C. and Bushell, G.. Light Water Dark Sky a new work choreographed to Four Tets Unicorn. Bespoke LED volume and Software. Light Water Dark Sky at Leeds Dock. Leeds Dock, Leeds. 6-8 October 2016.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Bennewith, C. and Bushell, G.. Aether a new work commissioned for Enchanted Forest. Bespoke LED volume and Software. Enchanted Forest. Faskally Woods in Perthshire, Scotland. 29 September-30 October 2016.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Bennewith, C., Bushell, G. and Bown, O.. Submergence 2016 premiered at Siggraph 2016 at part of the Digital Materialities Exhibiton. Bespoke LED volume and Software. Siggraph 2016 Digital Materialities. Anaheim Convention Centre, Anaheim, California USA. 24-27 July 2016.
  • Birtles, L., Bennewith, C. and Rowe, A.. Field new work commissioned by the Welsh National Opera. Bespoke LED lights plus stands and electronics. Field for WNO. Welsh National Opera shown at the Welsh Millennium Centre in Cardiff. 13 May-22 June 2016.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Bown, O. and Bushell, G.. Tectonic with Amsterdam Design Agency Lava. Bespoke LED volume and Software. Tectonic at Lava. Lava, Amsterdam. 15 December 2015-23 January 2016.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Bennewith, C. and Bushell, G.. Feast of Lights for Christmas at Kew. Bespoke LED volume and Software. Christmas at Kew. Kew Gardens London. 25 November 2015-3 January 2016.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Bushell, G. and Bennewith, C.. Living Walls at Watermans. Software, projector and computer. Living Walls at Watermans. Watermans. 22-30 April 2016.
  • Birtles, L., Bushell, G. and Rowe, A.. Create Studios and Steam show Ocean of Light. Bespoke LED volume and Software. Create Studios and Steam show Ocean of Light. Steam, Swindon. 11 February-18 April 2016.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Bennewith, C. and Bushell, G.. Submergence shown Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. LED, electronics. Submergence. Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. 6 May-24 June 2018.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A. and Bennewith, C.. Bloom at Lumina Festival. LED, IoT. Bloom at Lumina Festival. Cascais, Portrugal. 22-24 September 2017.
  • Birtles, L. and Rowe, A.. Flow at Enchanted Forest. LED strings, software. Flow at Enchanted Forest. Forestry Commission Scotland’s Faskally Wood in Highland Perthshire. 28 September-29 October 2017.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Bushell, G. and Bennewith, C.. Submergence at Signal Festival. Prague. 12-15 October 2017.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A. and Wilkie, A.. On the Tide at Irvine Harbour Festival of Light. Leds and software. On the Tide at Irvine Harbour Festival of Light. Irvine Harbour. 30 November-3 December 2017.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Bennewith, C. and Bushell, G.. Submergence Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. 24 November 2017-1 January 2018.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A. and Wilkie, A.. Flow Sudeley Castle Spectacle of Light. Mulberry Lawn, Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Bushell, G. and Bennewith, C.. Submergence at Future of Government conference. Future of Government conference Dubai. 6-18 February 2018.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Bushell, G., Bown, O. and Bennewith, C.. Submergence at Lumen Festival. Submergence at Lumen Festival, The Mound, Edinburgh. 8 February-10 March 2018.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Bennewith, C. and Bushell, G.. Submergence at Light Touch, Tauranga Art Gallery. Tauranga Art Gallery.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Bennewith, C. and Bushell, G.. Submergence at Light Touch, Tauranga Art Gallery. Tauranga Art Gallery. 30 March 2018-17 June 2019.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Bushell, G. and Bennewith, C.. Submergence at Wonderspaces. Touring.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Wilkie, A. and Pearson, D.. Flow at WaterLight Festival. Flow at WaterLight Festival. Brixen.

Performances

  • Birtles, Rowe, A., Bennewith, C. and Bushell, G.. Light art performance with the electronic musician Fourtet at the Round House. Bespoke LED volume and Software. Round House, London. 13 February 2016.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Bennewith, C., Bushell, G. and Bown, O.. Light art performance with the electronic musician Fourtet at the Sidney Opera House. Bespoke LED volume and Software. Sidney Opera House, Sidney. 6 January 2016.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Bennewith, C., Bushell, G. and Birtles, L.. Light art performance for Princes Trust Anniversary at Billingsgate with Kylie Minogue. Bespoke LED volume and Software. Billingsgate Market. 4 February 2016.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A. and Bennewith, C.. Light art performance for Keeble College Ball. Bespoke LED volume and Software. Oxford University. 7 May 2016.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Pearson, D. and Bennewith, C.. Monolith at Motion. LED Strings, Software, Sound. Motion Bristol. 26 August 2017.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Pearson, D., Bennewith, C. and Wilkie, A.. Village Underground with Four Tet. Village Underground. 19-22 February 2018.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Pearson, D. and Wilkie, A.. Lighting for Random House/Penguin. London Palladium. 1 March 2018.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Pearson, D., Bennewith, C. and Bushell, G.. Hollywood Forever w. Four Tet. Los Angeles. 14 March 2018.
  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Pearson, D., Bennewith, C. and Bushell, G.. National Sawdust w. Four Tet. National Sawdust New York City. 19-23 March 2018.

Artefacts

  • Birtles, L., Rowe, A., Wilkie, A. and Mahey, D., 2018. Wave at from Darkness to Light Salisbury Cathedral. Salisbury Cathedral.

Memberships

  • MeCCA, Member (2017-),