Roy Ascott is one of the most important artists and theorists in the field of cybernetics and telematics. His work focuses on the impact of digital and telecommunications networks on consciousness. Since the 1960s, he has been a practitioner of interactive computer art, electronic art, cybernetic and telematic art. Frank Popper assumed that Roy Ascott was among the first artists to launch an appeal for total spectator participation.
He studied Fine Art at King's College, University of Durham under Victor Pasmore and Richard Hamilton, and Art History under Lawrence Gowing and Quentin Bell in the 1950s. After graduation he thaught at Ealing Art College, Ontario College of Art and Design, San Francisco Art Institute, University of Applied Arts Vienna and University of Wales, Newport where he established the Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive Arts. He established the Planetary Collegium at Plymouth University in 2003 and has advised new media arts organisations in Brazil, Japan, Korea, Europe and North America, as well as UNESCO. Ascott was an International Commissioner for the XLII Venice Biennale of 1986 (Planetary Network and Laboratorio Ubiqua). He is the founding president of the Planetary Collegium an advanced research center which he set up in 2003 at the University of Plymouth, UK, where he is Professor of Technoetic Arts. In March 2012 he was appointed De Tao Master of Technoetic Arts with The Beijing DeTao Masters Academy (DTMA), a high-level, multi-disciplined, application-oriented higher education institution in Shanghai, China.