Digital Arts and New Media: MFA: Collaboration, Innovation, Social Impact

You are here

Elliot W. Anderson

Associate Professor
Art

Art Professor Elliot Anderson states, “During the 1980's I worked as a computer graphics engineer in the field of flight simulation. I use my abilities as a software engineer and the concepts of interactivity from flight simulation to create dynamic environments using computers, video and sound. In my work I investigate intertwining and interaction with the computer, constructing an environment from computer information and an unfolding of the work in time and through interaction with computer algorithms. Computer technology allows me to detect and incorporate the body's presence, movement and proximity in a dynamic negotiation with information and processes internal to the computer. “Currently I am exploring the idea of infection and contamination and concepts from evolutionary genetics as a mode of interaction with and within the computer. The movements, choices and/or presence of the viewer create a set of digital codes that are interpreted as 'genetic' information and are woven into the software running on the computer. In work that is interactive within the computer itself, I utilize genetic programming to create a dialog between software to evolve a cinematic scenario and effect. Sound and image are a result of software processes set in place by initial conditions that are evolved throughout the course of exhibition.”

Selected Exhibitions: 

February 2011— The State Department has commissioned Elliot Anderson to do a large-scale photographic work for the new embassy in Zambia, Africa. The piece will be the central artwork for the embassy.  The work — a large diptych on lightboxes with images of Niagara and Victoria Falls — is a continuation of Anderson's Average Landscape work exhibited at the de Young Museum.  The piece is similar to his piece, Average Niagara, that is now in the de Young collection.