Richard is Co host of the TECHnique podcast series where he and Sam Fry talk to arts people about their practice and tech.
Richard is an artist, enterprise technologist/architect, educator & thinker. An emerging technology transformation specialist and polymath, he has managed parallel careers in education & enterprise tech whilst continuing to make computational and digital fine art, as well as writing and producing electronic chamber music. It was around 1988 that he started actively working with technology for creative purposes while exhibiting art occasionally.
Brought up in a South Yorkshire pit village, Richard went on to study art at four different art schools. Starting out doing kitchen sink landscapes, he had an epiphany and pursued high abstraction and conceptual art, which led him to come across the potential of the computer. From the era of the ZX Spectrum he became fascinated by the artistic potential of computing and became a pioneering computer artist and award-winning teacher of art and music and latterly a successful emerging technology architect. He has had parallel careers during the day in education and emerging technology.
Working in tech since the early 90s, after completing John Lansdowne’s pioneering MA in computing and art at Middlesex university (where he finally learned that actually COULD do maths). Subsequently he was part of a team pioneering interactive TV, after which he has applied his art and creativity to solving tech problems for large businesses. His recent work, ANTISELFIES, has explored therapy and relief from PTSD following his numerous heart procedures and watching himself die. Using drawings and code and software he has created fake digital paintings showing what we curate out of our selfies. Remove the good we show the world in our curated feeds, and what we are left with. This work is not only highly personal therapy but is also a coruscating take down of selfie culture.
He has been a pioneer in interactive TV in the 90s, made games, worked as a programmer, creative director, head of digital and highly successful independent enterprise consultant at many companies including Microsoft XBox, BBC, BSkyB, Aviva and The Royal Shakespeare Company. He became senior management and partner in digital agencies (entertainment, games & marketing); he has produced dozens of interactive TV progs. & games over many years, often on exploratory platforms
He is currently a Head of Digital Architecture, working in ML and other emerging technologies.
In education he was a school head of dept, founded a uni. digital arts dept, creating 2 under & 2 post graduate degrees in computer arts including the word’s first MMus Composing for New Media and Games at the London College of Music. He has also taught at the London College of Fashion & Birkbeck College and has been an external examiner at a number of universities. He held a Visiting Professorship at the Uni. of Salford & is currently a Senior Fellow at the Uni. of Lincoln. He worked with Marc Lewis to get the School of Communication Arts off the ground, a radical work-focussed college of creativity in London and now the UK’s most successful new advertising school. He has taught at & designed curriculum for every phase of education from 7 to 70 years of age.
Utterly committed to lifelong learning, he currently is Chair of Trustees at Professors Without Borders www.prowibo.com and charity that believes in development through education.
AntiSelfies – paintings by any other name
Recently he has returned to be an exhibiting artist (current computer art exploring trauma; Instagram richardfadams) but over the years he has been a published author, spoken at many conferences around the world and is a member of the Society of Authors, FRSA & BAFTA member. He co-presents the TECHnique podcasts (on itunes), which are conversations about technology and practice with working computer artists, and arts people.
Find out more at www.richardfadams.com/antiselfies
Computational Simulacra, copies of works that never existed.
He has recently shown this new anti selfie work for the first time, where the exhibition was the final step in the creation of the simulacra. The false images of self, the creation of artefacts that weren’t real and the exhibition of the simulacra was the whole project.
Modern Beauty, Photography
His photography looks at fleeting moments that we see out of the corner of our eyes. Fragmentary moments of Modern Beauty where the natural intersects with the man made often in unexpected and funny ways.
Music
He writes and records electronic chamber music and has completed a number of albums.
Publishing
He has spoken at dozens of conferences, has written and published books/contributed chapters in digital advertising and media, and has written in many magazines. he is a cited author.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but too often the beholder needs glasses. That’s the role of the artist.