Simon Penny

Birthyear: 1955
Website: http://ace.uci.edu/penny/

Last updated: 2015-05-21

About

Simon Penny is an Australian practitioner in the fields of Digital Cultural Practices, Embodied Interaction and Interactive Art. His practice has included artistic practice, technical research, theoretical writing, pedagogy and institution building. Over the last twenty-five years, he has made interactive and robotic installations which address critical issues arising at the intersection of culture and technology, informed by traditions of practice in the arts including sculpture, video-art, installation and performance; and by theoretical research in enactive and embodied cognition, ethology, neurology, phenomenology, human-computer interaction, ubiquitous computing, robotics, critical theory, cultural and media studies. Informed by these sources, he designs and builds artworks utilising custom sensor and effector technologies. He built the autonomous robotic artwork Petit Mal in the early 1990s. His machine vision based interactive digital video work Fugitive was exhibited at the opening of the ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany in 1997. Traces ( a 3D machine vision driven CAVE immersive interactive) was presented at Ars Electronica in 1998. Fugitive Two was commissioned by the Australian Center for the Moving Image (ACMI), Melbourne Australia, in 2000, and premiered there in 2004. He has received funding and/or residencies from the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Science and Art, ZKM, GMD, WDR, and other sources. (http://simonpenny.net/about/index.html)

CV

2009- Professor, Studio Art, University of California, Irvine
2008- guest professor, "Interdisciplinary Master in Cognitive Systems and Interactive Media", Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona
2005-2007 Co-director, ACE interdisciplinary graduate program, UCI
2003-2005 Director, ACE interdisciplinary graduate program, UCI
2001- Professor of Arts and Engineering, University of California Irvine
2000-2001 European Professor of Interactive Environments, University of Portsmouth UK and Merz Akademie Stuttgart, Germany. Establishing PhD program and research facilities
2002 Faculty Artist at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, University of California, Irvine / Digital Arts Faculty
1998 Cyberstar 98: Shared Visions / awarded by GMD and WDR
1997 - 1997 artist in residence at ZKM, Karlsruhe
1997 - 1997 lecturer at University Karlsruhe
1996 lecturer at the Centro Nacional Multimedia, Centro Nacional des las Artes, Mexico City
1994 - 1996 coordinator of the programm for electronic and timebased media, art institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh
1993 - 2001 associate professor, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh / for art and robotics
1990 - 1993 lecturer, University of Florida / art institute
1989 - 1993 associated member at Carnegie Mellon University,Pittsburgh / art institute
1984 - 1988 lecturer at the City Art Institute Sydney
1982 graduate diploma from the Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney / graduate diploma in sculpture
1979 diploma from the South Australian School of Art, Sydney / diploma in fine art
- 2001 European Professor of Interactive Environments at the University of Portsmouth, England and at the Merz Akademie, Stuttgart

Works

News

Exhibitions & Events

Bibliography

Penny, Simon. »Prefiguring Cyberculture, an intellectual history.« In Traces, edited by Darren Tofts and Annemarie Jonson and Alessio CavallaroCambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004.
Grau, Oliver. Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003.
Penny, Simon and Bill Vorn. »Bedlam and Other Robotic Art Projects.« In Subtle Technologies 03, edited by Jim Ruxton and Tania ThompsonUniversity of Toronto, Toronto: 2003.
Sengers, Phoebe. »Schizophrenia and Narrative in Artificial Agents.« Leonardo 36, no. 4 (2002): 427-431.
Penny, Simon and Bernhardt et. al. Schulte. »Traces: Embodied Immersive Interaction with Semi-Autonomous Avatars.« Convergence (Summer 2001).
Kac, Eduardo. »Robotic Art Chronology.« Convergence 7, no. 1 (Spring 2001): 87-111.
Martin, James. »Welcome to Bill Vorn´s Apocalyptic World of Bedlam.« .
Grau, Oliver. »The History of Telepresence: Automata, Illusion, and The Rejection of the Body.« In The Robot in the Garden: Telerobotics and Telepistemology on the Internet, edited by Ken Goldberg, 226-243. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000.
Penny, Simon. »Agents as Artworks and Agent Design as Artistic Practice.« In Human Cognition and Social Agent Technology, edited by Kerstin DautenhahnAmsterdam, NL: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1999.
Penny, Simon. »Systems Aesthetics and Cyborg Art: The Legacy of Jack Burnham.« Sculpture Magazine (January 1999).
Penny, Simon and Jeffrey Smith and Andre Bernhardt. »Traces: Wireless Full Body Tracking in the CAVE.« In ICAT 9th International Conference on Artificial Reality and Tele-Existence Conference Proceedings, Tokyo, Japan: 1999.
Penny, Simon. »John Heartfield, Where Are You When We Need You Most?.« Nokia Online Journal (September 1998).
Penny, Simon and M. Fernandez. »Jeffrey Shaw, a Users manual.« Sculpture Magazine (November 1998).
Mandelbaum, Audrey. »Paradoxes of Progress: Art at the Eighth International Symposium on Electronic Art.« New Art Examiner 25, no. 5 (February 1998).
Morse, Margaret and Christoph Blase. »Fugitive.« In Hardware Software Artware, Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz, 1998.
Penny, Simon. »The Virtualisation of Artistic Practice: Body Knowledge and the Engineering World View.« CAA Art Journal (Fall 1997).
Penny, Simon. »Embodied Cultural Agents: at the Intersection of Art, Robotics and Cognitive Science.« In AAAI Socially Intelligent Agents Symposium, , 103-105. : AAAI Press, 1997.
Penny, Simon. »TechnoUtopian Rhetorics and the Ossification of Interfaces.« ArtLink 16, no. 2+3 (1997).
Drucker, Johanna. »Simon Penny.« Art Journal 56, no. 3 (Fall 1997).
Kac, Eduardo. »Origin and Development of Robotic Art.« Art Journal 56, no. 3 (1997): 60-67.
Penny, Simon. »From A to D and Back Again: The Emerging Aesthetics of Interactive Art.« Leonardo Electronic Almanac 4, no. 4 (April 1996).
Penny, Simon. »The Darwin Machine: Artificial Life and Interactive Art.« New Formations 29 (1996): 65.
Penny, Simon. »Realitäten des Virtuellen.« In Perspektiven der Medienkunst. Museumspraxis und Kunstwissenschaft. Antworten auf die digitale Herausforderung, edited by ZKM Karlsruhe, 16-24. Karlsruhe, DE: ZKM Karlsruhe, 1996.
Penny, Simon. »From A to D and Back Again: The Emerging Aesthetics of Interactive Art.« In Next Wave Festival/ Perception and Perspective, edited by Australia National Gallery of VictoriaMelbourne, Australia: 1996.
Penny, Simon. »Darwinin kone: keinoelämä ja taide (Excerpts from the Darwine Machine: Artificial Life and Art).« In Johdatus uuteen mediaan (Introduction to New Media), edited by Minna Tarkka and Kari A. Hintikka and Asko Mäkelä, 183-194. Helsinki: Edita, 1996.
Penny, Simon. »The Colonisation of Cyberspace.« In Media Art Perspectives, edited by Hans-Peter Schwarz and Jeffrey ShawKarlsruhe, Ostfildern-Ruit: ZKM and Hatje Cantz, 1996.
Penny, Simon. »Twenty Centuries of Virtual Reality.« Magazyn Sztuki 9, no. 1 (1996).
Penny, Simon. »Kunst, Körperbewusstsein und das Technische Weltbild.« In Ars Electronica 1996: Memesis. Die Zukunft der Evolution, edited by Gerfried Stocker and Christine Schöpf, Wien and New York. : Springer Verlag, 1996.
Davis, K. D. and Simon Penny. »Dystopic Topics.« World Art 1 (1996): 30-33.
Malvido, Adriana. »Computadora, instrumento de un nuevo lenguaje al finazar el siglo XX.« La Jornada (May 20th 1996).
Penny, Simon. »Why Do We Want Our Machines to Seem Alive?.« Scientific American, 150th anniversary issue (September 1995).
Penny, Simon, ed. Critical Issues in Electronic Media. Albany, NY: Suny Press, 1995.
Penny, Simon. »Twenty Centuries of Virtual Reality.« InterCommunication 14 (1995).
Penny, Simon. »Consumer Culture and the Technological Imperative: The Artist in Dataspace.« In Critical Issues in Electronic Media, edited by Simon PennyAlbany, NY: Suny Press, 1995.
Penny, Simon. »Consumer Culture and the Technological Imperative: The Artist in Dataspace.« In Critical Issues in Electronic Media, edited by Simon Penny, 47-74. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1995.
Penny, Simon. »Twenty Centuries of Virtual Reality.« In Virtuaalisuuen Arkeologia, edited by Erkki HuhtamoRovaniemi: Lapin Yliopisto, University of Lapland, 1995.
Penny, Simon. »Körperwissen, digitale Prothesen und kognitive Diversität.« Kunstforum International 132 (1995): 151-157.
Penny, Simon. »Living Machines.« Scientific American (September 1995).
Slaven, Michael. »Report about Simon Penny.« Afterimage (March/April 1995).
Albertini, Rosanna. »Un art fait de mémoire.« Esthétique des Arts Médiatiques 2 (1995).
Penny, Simon. »Virtual Reality as the End of the Enlightment Project.« In Virtual Reality Casebook, edited by Carl Eugene Loeffler and Tim AndersonHoboken, New Jersey: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1994.
Penny, Simon. »Electronic Arts Practice: Experiences in Australia and the USA.« Continuum - Electronic Arts in Australia 8, no. 1 (1994).
Penny, Simon. »Electronic Arts Practice: Experiences in Australia and the USA.« Continuum 8, no. 1 (1994).
Penny, Simon. »Mobile Robots: Inspiration to Implementation (Review).« Leonardo 27, no. 4 (1994): 361-362.
Penny, Simon. »Virtual Reality as the End of the Enlightenment Project.« In Culture on the Brink: Ideologies of Technology, edited by Gretchen Bender and Timothy Druckrey and NY Dia Center for the ArtsSeattle: Bay Press, 1994.
Sommer, Lucia. »Simon Penny´s Electronic Critique: Notes on the Politicization of Art Against the Aestheticization of Politics.« Cultronix 1, no. 1 (Summer 1994).
Kissick, John. »Simon Penny.« New Art Examiner (May 1994).
Massumi, Brian. »Brian Massumi´s Technotes.« Artforum Bookforum supplement (November 1994): 28-29.
Penny, Simon. »Machine Culture.« In Siggraph 1993 Proceedings, edited by Simon PennyAnaheim, LA: 1993.
Penny, Simon. »2000 Years of Virtual Reality.« In Through the Looking Glass, edited by Janine Cirincione and Brian D´AmatoNew York: Jack Tilton Gallery, NY, 1993.
Penny, Simon. »Machine Culture: The Virtual Frontier.« In SIGGRAPH ´93 Proceedings, edited by Simon PennyAnaheim, CAL: 1993.
Penny, Simon. »Disentangling Utopian Dreams.« In The Computer is not Sorry, Boston: 1993.
Morse, Margaret. »Art in Cyberspace: Interacting with Machines as Art at Siggraph´s "Machine Culture - The Virtual Frontier".« Video Networks 17, no. 5 (Oct/Nov 1993).
Spitz, Rejane. »Qualitative, Dialectical and Experiential Domains of Electronic Art.« In Fourth International Symposium on Electronic Art (FISEA 93), Minneapolis, Minnesota: 1993.
Fifield, George and Brian Wallace, ed. The Computer is not Sorry. : The Space, 1993.
Penny, Simon. »The Intelligent Machine as Anti-Christ.« In SISEA 1990 Proceedings, Groningen: 1992.
Penny, Simon. »Smart Bombs, Foolish Strategies.« Afterimage 19, no. 9 (April 1992).
Penny, Simon. »Virtual Bodybuilding.« In Virtual Zone Anthology, edited by Tapio Mäkelä and Minna VaisanenTurku: Turun yliopiston ylioppilaskunta, 1992.
Penny, Simon. »Fred Truck: Art Engine II.« Art Papers 16, no. 2 (March/April 1992).
Harley, Ross, ed. Cultural Diversity in the Global Village: The Third International Symposium on Electronic Art. Sydney: TISEA, 1992.
Penny, Simon. »Training Computer Artists for the 21st Century.« Computer Graphics 25, no. 3 (1991).
Penny, Simon. »Computer Art: Critical Issues in Pedagogy.« Artlink (September 1991).
Penny, Simon. »Fred Truck´s Art Engine, a Case Study in the Problematics of Software Art.« Mediamatic Holland 5, no. 3 (1990).
Penny, Simon. »Video Installation by Bill Viola.« Artlink (March 1989).
Penny, Simon. »Art Practice in the Age of the Thinking Machine.« Performance Magazine 56, no. 7 (1989).
Penny, Simon. »Charlie Chaplin, Stelarc and the Future of Humanity.« Artlink 9, no. 1 (1989).
Penny, Simon. »Meta Combat, an Analysis of Randellis War Story.« Praxis M Magazine 22 (1989).
Penny, Simon. »New Territory: Art Practice in the Digital Environment.« Artlink (March 1989).
Penny, Simon. »Moores Law, Systems Theory and the Aesthetics of Interactive Art.« Astrolabe Online Journal (1988).
Penny, Simon. »Simulation: Digitization, Interaction: The Impact of Computing Arts.« Artlink 7, no. 3/4 (1987).
Penny, Simon. »Performance Art, "What the...".« Performance Magazine (1986).
Penny, Simon. »Pittura Culta: Current Italian Neoclassicism.« Art Network (1985).
Penny, Simon. »Critique-New York, The Terminal.« Art Network (1984).
Penny, Simon. »Death of the New (Venice Biennale 1984).« Artlink (1984).
Penny, Simon. »Terminal New York.« Artviews Magazine (1983).
Penny, Simon, ed. Navigator. A Posthumous Biography of Geoffrey Lloyd. Adelaide, AUS: Experimental Art Foundation, 1982.
Penny, Simon. A History of the Bossa Nova. Sydney, AUS: Institute for Oblique Studies, 1981.
Penny, Simon. »La Trobe, an Overview.« Artlink (1980).

78 publications

Simon Penny

About

CV

Works

Designing Embodied Interaction: Aesthetic, Technical and Theoretical Issues

Petit Mal

Bedlam

Traces

Fugitive

Sympathetic Sentience

Big father

Pride of our young nation

Chronic Rebus Generator

Ceci n'est pas un oiseau

Petit Mal

Lo Yo Yo

Stupid Robot

News

Exhibitions & Events

Bibliography

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