Article:

Technology, Aura, and the Self in New Media Art: Interview with Simon Biggs

Simon Biggs began working as an artist in 1976. Since 1978, he has had numerous personal exhibitions in Australia, Germany, England, Holland, New Zealand, and Slovenia. In 1978 he developed a graphic computer system, and began working with digital animation in 1980. As of 1983, Biggs' work has focused its attention to interactive installation, animation, cd-rom, the Internet and related media. Biggs became a Professor of Digital Arts at the Art and Design Research Centre, School of Cultural Studies, at Sheffield Hallam University in 1999 and has been recently appointed as an Artist Fellow of Cambridge University, UK. Biggs has also published numerous essays on media art. His latest catalogue entitled "Immediate!" is at the Site Gallery in Sheffield. Among his digital artworks is "The Great Wall of China”, "Mozaic" and "Babel". Roberto Simanowski talked with him about new media art, about concepts of technology, about the 'trap of interactivity', about aura and symbolic value in artifacts, author's signature in "The Great Wall of China" and the self as illusion in "Babel."