Jeffrey Shaw

Year of birth, place

1944
Australia

Role at the ZKM

  • Artist of the Collection

Institute / Department

  • Institute for Visual Media

Biography

Jeffrey Shaw Melbourne (October 23, 1944) has been a leading figure in new media art since its emergence from the performance, expanded cinema and installation paradigms of the 1960s to today’s technology-informed and virtualized forms. In a prolific career of widely exhibited and critically acclaimed work he has pioneered the creative use of digital media technologies in the fields of expanded cinema, virtual and augmented reality, immersive visualization environments, navigable cinematic systems and interactive narrative. The work of Jeffrey Shaw occupies a central position in the art+tech electronic media movement: “…his works co-created, co–constructed the genre, gave it its initial contours.” (Prof. Peter Weibel, CEO, ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany).

Shaw’s artworks are milestones of technological and cultural innovation that have had seminal impact on the theory, design and application of digital media in art, society and industry, and his artistic achievements are amongst the most cited in new media literature.
These include include “Corpocinema“ (1969), “Viewpoint“ (1975), the laser and slide shows for the GENESIS world tours in the mid 70’s, “Points of View“ (1983), “Narrative Landscape“ (1985), “Inventer la Terre“ (1986), “Heavens Gate“ (1987), “Legible City“ (1989), “The Virtual Museum“ (1991), “EVE“ (1993), “Golden Calf“ (1995), “conFiguring the CAVE“ (1997), “The Web of Life“ (2000), “PLACE-Hampi“ (2006), “T_Visionarium“ (2008), “Pure Land“ (2012), “The Infinite Line“ (2014), “Recombinatory Poetry Wheel“ (2018) and “WYSIWYG“ (2019).

During his career his works have been presented at leading public galleries museums including the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Centre Georges Pompidou Paris, Kunsthalle Bern, Guggenheim Museum New York and Hayward Gallery London. Besides his personal artistic research, Shaw has been active in conceiving, curating and producing major international exhibitions, publications and conferences series during his tenure at respectively the ZKM Karlsruhe, UNSW Australia and City University Hong Kong.

Shaw was the co-founder of the Eventstructure Research Group Amsterdam (1969-1979), founding director of the ZKM Institute for Visual Media Karlsruhe, Germany (1991–2002), and an Australian Research Council Federation Fellow and founding director of the iCinema Research Center at UNSW Australia (2003–2008), Dean of the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong (2009–2015). Currently he is Chair Professor at the Academy of Visual Arts Hong Kong Baptist University, and Visiting Professor at the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China.

Besides his artistic research, Shaw has been active in conceiving, curating and producing major international exhibitions and publications.

Shaw’s many awards include Immagine Elettronica Prize, Ferrara, Italy, 1990; Oribe Award, Gifu, Japan 2005; Lifetime Achievement Award, Society of Art and Technology, Montreal, Canada, 2014; Ars Electronica Golden Nica for Visionary Pioneer of Media Art, Linz, Austria, 2015; ACM SIGGRAPH Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement in Digital Art, 2020

 

Chronology

1962–1964

Architecture and Art History, University of Melbourne

1964–1966

Sculpture, Brera Acadamy Milan and St Martin’s School of Art London.

1968

Foundation member of the Artist Placement Group (APG), London

1969–1982

Co-founder of the Eventstructure Research Group (ERG), Amsterdam

1988–1989

Visiting artist Rotterdam Academy of Art and Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam.

1990

Visiting artist University of Fine Arts New Media Institute, Frankfurt, Germany.

1991–2003

Founding Director of the Institute for Visual Media at the ZKM Centre for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany.

1995–2003

Professor of Media Art at the University of Art and Design, Karlsruhe, Germany.

2000–2002

Visiting Professor at the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, Sydney.

2003–2009

Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship; Founding Director of the Centre for Interactive Cinema Research (iCinema), UNSW Australia

2010–2016

Dean of the School of Creative Media, City University Hong Kong

2010–2018

Founding Director of the CityU Applied Laboratory for Interactive Visualization and Embodiment (ALIVE), Hong Kong Science Park

2010 –2021

Chair Professor of Media Art, School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong

2010–2021

Director of the CityU Center for Applied Computing and Interactive Media (ACIM)

2014–

Visiting Professor Central Academy of Fine Art (CAFA), Beijing

2014–2019

Visiting Professor Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College, London

2015–2021Yeung Kin Man Endowed Chair Professor of Media Art, City University of Hong Kong

2021–

Chair Professor Academy of Visual Art, Hong Kong Baptist University; Director of the HKBU Visualization Research Centre (VRC)

2023–

___________

Honorary Professor and Advisor, Hong Kong Metropolitan University

Selected Awards and Honours

2003

Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship

2005

The Oribe Award, Gifu, Japan

2009

Gold IDEA (International Design Excellence Awards), Industrial Designers of America

2012

Honorary Doctorate in Creative Media, Multimedia University, Malaysia

2014

Lifetime Achievement Award, Society of Art and Technology (SAT), Montreal,

2015

University Distinguished Professor, University of New South Wales Australia,

2015

Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica for Visionary Pioneer of Media Art, Linz, Austria,

2016

Honorary Professor, Danube University, Krems. Austria,

2019

American Alliance of Museums (AAM)

2019

Gold Muse Award 2020 ACM SIGGRAPH Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement in Digital Art

2021

Bronze Medal, Geneva International Salon of Inventions, Switzerland Exhibition

 

 

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