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Rebecca Allen
* 1953, currently based: Los Angeles, USA
Affiliated institution: UCLA Department of Design
http://rebeccaallen.com/

Cite
X
Archive of Digital Art (ADA). “Rebecca Allen – artist profile”. https://www.digitalartarchive.at/database/artists/general/artist/allen.html. (retrieved 2024-11-10). @online{ADAartistprofile, author = {Archive of Digital Art (ADA)}, title = {Rebecca Allen artist profile}, url = {https://www.digitalartarchive.at/database/artists/general/artist/allen.html}, urldate = {retrieved 2024-11-10}
About
For over thirty years Rebecca Allen has investigated a variety of technological forms of expression including 3D computer animation films, music videos, large-scale performance works, interactive art installations, video games, artificial life systems and virtual reality. Allen is not interested in technology for its own sake, however. Rather, she is interested in a technoculture which humanizes technology even while maintaining a critical stance towards it. Or perhaps one can even say that it is her critical approach towards technology that helps humanize it. Allen demonstrates this critical approach with her concern with artistic quality and the conceptual integrity of her work—a conceptual integrity that stresses the effect on the mind of the viewer. Indeed her main concern appears to be the investigation of the perceptual and cognitive processes of the viewer. Thus she approaches technology from an almost expressionistic angle, where human feeling and emotional reaction predominate the art. (Text by Frank Popper)
CV

2024 Electric Dreams Curator: Valentina Ravaglia, Tate Modern, London, UK. November 28, 2024 - June 1, 2025.
2024 Radical Software: Women, Art & Computing 1960–1991 Curator: Michelle Cotton, MUDAM Museum, Luxembourg. September 20, 2024 - February 2, 2025.
2024 Digital Witness Curator: Britt Salvesen, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Los Angeles, CA. September 14 + November 24, 2024 - July 13, 2025.
2024 Digital Capture: Southern California and the Pixel-Based Image World Co-Curators: Nikolay Maslov and April Baca, California Museum of Photography and Culver Center of the Arts, Riverside, CA. September 21, 2024 - February 2, 2025.
2024 Rebecca Allen (solo exhibition) Curator: Wolf Lieser, DAM Projects, Berlin, DE. September 14 - November 2024.
2024 GLOW: Illuminating Innovation Curator: Sarah Atkinson, Bush House Gallery and Curiosity,
Cabinet, King’s College London, UK. March 8 - April 20, 2024.
2024 Body Constructs (Girl Lifts Skirt) Curator: Evangelos Kotsioris, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA),
NY, NY. January 5, 2024 - December 31, 2025.
2023 Worldbuilding: Gaming and Art in the Digital Age (The Bush Soul #3 and selected works)
Curator: Hans Ulrich Obrist, Centre Pompidou, Metz, FR. June 10, 2023 - January 15, 2024.
https://www.centrepompidou-metz.fr/en/programme/exposition/worldbuilding
2023 SPACE/S (Inside) Patch Lab, Kraków, PL. October 19-22, 2023.
2023 Retrospective of Female Digital Art Pioneers (Girl Lifts Skirt & STEPS) Curator: Yoon Chung Han,
Special Curated Show, SIGGRAPH Art Gallery, Los Angeles, US. August 6-10, 2023.
2023 Joy of Destruction (The Observer) Backlit Gallery, Nottingham, UK. April 21 - June 18, 2023.
2023 Rebecca Allen – A Tangle of Mind & Matter (Solo exhibition) Curator: Valentino Catricalà,
Modal Gallery, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK. March 2 - April 30, 2023.
2023 Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age 1952–1982. (Girl Lifts Skirt) Curator: Leslie Jones, Los
Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Los Angeles, US. February 12 - July 2, 2023.
2023 A Leap into the Void - Art Beyond Matter (Life Without Matter) Curators: Lorenzo Giusti and
Domenico Quaranta, Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo (GAMeC), Bergamo,
IT. February 3 - May 28, 2023. https://www.gamec.it/en/gamec-program-2022-2023/
https://www.gamec.it/en/a-leap-into-the-void/
2022 Never Alone (XO Laptop) Curator: Paola Antonelli, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), NY, NY,
Sept. 10, 2022- July 16, 2023.
2022 Worldbuilding: Gaming and Art in the Digital Age (The Bush Soul #3 and selected works)
Curator: Hans Ulrich Obrist, Julia Stoschek Foundation, Dusseldorf, DE. June 5, 2022 - December
10, 2023.
2022 Among the Machines (The Bush Soul #3) Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK. March 24 - July
17. https://www.zabludowiczcollection.com/exhibitions/view/among-the-machines
2022 Rebecca Allen (The Bush Soul #3 and selected works) Solo exhibition. Arcade Gallery, Brussels,
BE. January 15 - March 3. https://thisisarcade.art/exhibition/rebecca-allen-landscape-enter-life/2021 K21 Collection (Swimmer (in the abyss)) Kanon Art Gallery - a collection of 21 NFT artworks.
April 21-ongoing. https://k21.kanon.art/gallery
2021 Synthetic Corpo-Reality (Figures in Motion series), Curator Julie Walsh, MEET Gallery (online), Milan, Italy. February 25 - May 28. https://www.meetcenter.it/en/synthetic-corpo-realityexhibition/
2020 ZELDA Presents: Rebecca Allen (Solo Exhibition) (The Bush Soul #3, The Observer, landscape/enter/life), Arcade Gallery, London, UK October 2020/January 2021.
2020 B3: Biennial of the Moving Image 2020 (The Observer, Life Without Matter, The Tangle of Mind and Matter, INSIDE, Musique Non Stop), Astor Filmlounge + Online, Frankfurt, Germany. October 8-18.
2020 Enter Through the Headset 5 Gazelli Art House, (various recent and historical works) London, UK. September.
2020 CADAF - Contemporary & Digital Art Fair. Represented by Gazelli Art House, June 25-28.
2019 you feel Me_ (The Observer), FACT Gallery, Liverpool, UK. November 1, 2019 - February 23, 2020. . https://www.fact.co.uk/event/you-feel-me
2019 Rebecca Allen (Life Without Matter), Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK. September 12 - October 20, 2019. https://www.zabludowiczcollection.com/exhibitions/view/360-rebecca-allen-1
2018 Rebecca Allen: Sync(Emerge(Consciousness)) Solo exhibition including premiere of commissioned VR installation "Life Without Matter" and retrospective of selected older works, QUAD Gallery, Derby, UK. November 9, 2018 - February 3, 2019.
2018 Digital Gods (Laberint), Weltkunstzimmer, Dusseldorf, Germany. November 9-25, 2018.
2018 Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, 1965 - 2018 (Fin de Siecle II collaboration with Nam June Paik) Whiteney Museum of Art, New York, NY. September 28, 2018-April 12, 2019.
2018 Very Real - Permanent Virtual Reality Exhibition (INSIDE and The Tangle of Mind and Matter), DAM Galley, Berlin, Germany. June 1-ongoing.
2018 The Conquest of Reality (INSIDE and The Tangle of Mind and Matter), Society for Arts and Technology (SAT), Montreal, Canada May 29-June 2.
2018 Kraftwerk - 3D. Video projections. - 27 performances throughout Europe. February, June, July, August, September.
2017 Field of View (INSIDE) Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA. October.
2017 Enter Through the Headset 2 (Premiere of VR Installation - The Tangle of Mind and Matter). Gazelli Art House, London, UK. September 4-30.
2017 Moving Image New York (INSIDE) Waterfront New York Tunnel, New York, NY. February.
2017 Toute Seule. (with Charlotte Colbert, Elizabeth Murray, Nancy Spero, Rachel Whiteread). (Figures in Motion series and premiere of VR Installation titled INSIDE.) Gazelli Art House, London, UK. January 12-February 26.
2017 Kraftwerk - The Catalogue 12345678. Video projections. OGR, Turin, Italy. November. Bord Gais Energy Theatre, Dublin, Ireland. June. Royal Albert Hall, London, UK, June. Koningin Elisabethzaal, Antwerpen, Blegium. May.
2016 Femmebit (selection of work) Human Resources, Los Angeles, CA November.
2016 Kraftwerk - The Catalogue 12345678. Video projections. Museo Guggenheim, Bilbao, Spain. October. Den Norske Opera, Oslo, Norway. August.
2015 Kraftwerk - The Catalogue 12345678. Video projections. Lichtburg, Essen, Germany. November. DR Concert Hall, Copenhagen, Denmark. February. Paradiso, Amsterdam, Netherlands. January. Neue National Galerie, Berlin, Germany. January.
2014 One Night - (Steady State) ONE Archives Gallery & Museum, West Hollywood, CA May.
2014 Kraftwerk - The Catalogue 12345678. Video projections. Foundation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France. November. Burgtheater, Vienna, Austria. May. El Plaza Condesa, Mexico City, Mexico. March. Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles. March.
2014 Digital Promise Documentary. (interview/selection of work). Produced by TVE (Spain) aired throughout Europe.
2013 Roboter (Kraftwerk image exhibition). NRW Forum, Düsseldorf, Germany. January.
2013 Kraftwerk - The Catalogue 12345678. Includes video projections of Allen's work from 1986. Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia. May. Akasaka Blitz, Tokyo, Japan, May. Tate Modern, London, UK. February. Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany. January.
2013 Spectacle: The Music Video. Museum of the Moving Image, New York, NY. April 3-June 16.
2013 Momentum: Women/Art/Technology- (Liminal Identities) Mason Fross Gallery, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. June 8 - July 26. www.momentum-women-art-technology.com
2013 Kraftwerk 3D Video Installation 12345678. Includes video projections of Allen's work from 1986. SPRÜTH MAGERS, Berlin, Germany, July 5-Aug 31.
2013 Spectacle: The Music Video. Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne, Australia. Sept 26, 2013 - Feb 23, 2014.
2013 nonliteral. B3 Biennale of the Moving Image - (Figures in Motion) ATELIERFRANKFURT, Frankfurt, Germany. October-November.
2012 Spectacle: The Music Video. MIS - The Museum of Image and Sound in Sao Paulo, Brazil. December 11, 2012 - January 27, 2013.
2012 Spectacle: The Music Video. The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH. March 3 - Sept 3.
2012 Kraftwerk Retrospective 12345678. Includes video projections and print of Allen's work from 1986. Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY. April 10-17.
2011 Exchange and Evolution: Worldwide Video Long Beach 1974 - 1999 - (Steady State) Long Beach Museum, Long Beach, CA (part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A) October 2011.
2011 Kraftwerk 3D. 3D Video Installation. Kunstbau, Munich, Germany. October 15 - November 13.
2011 Kraftwerk 3D Concert. Video projections. Alte Kongresshalle, Munich, Germany. October 12-13.
2008 Design and the Elastic Mind - (OLPC XO Laptop) Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY.
2008 Brit Insurance Designs of the Year Exhibition - (OLPC XO Laptop) Design Museum, London, UK.
2007 Retrospective of Work by Rebecca Allen. Columbus School of Art and Design, Columbus, OH April.
2006 Second Natures - (The Bush Soul #3) Eli and Edythe Broad Art Center, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
2004 Liminal Identities – Interactive Art Installation. Art Futura, Mercat de Les Flors, Barcelona, Spain.
2004 eVolution:The Art of Living Systems, (The Bush Soul #3) Art Interactive Gallery, Cambridge, MA.
2004 Hacking the Timeline: a History of Digital Art – CyberSpace Gallery, Santa Monica, CA.
2003 - 2005 Senior Research Scientist at MIT Media Lab Europe, Dublin / Director Liminal Device Research Group
2002 First Prize - rhein.tanzmedia.web, Cologne/Düsseldorf / for The Brain Stripped Bare
2001 - 2003 Study about Virtual Reality and Pediatric Pain Distraction / cooperation with Dr. Skip Rezzo from the Integrated Media System Center at the University of Southern California and the Los Angeles Childrens Hospital
2001 - 2002 Principal Investigator of the UCLA project Mixed Reality and the Aesthetics of Coexistence
2001 - 2002 Principal Investigator of the UCLA project E-motion and Emergent Behavior / Continuation of the Emergence Project
2001 - 2002 Awarded research grant of the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, Italy / commission Coexistence
2001 - 2002 Awarded research grant from Intel Corporation / for Mixed Reality and the Aesthetics of Coexistence
2000 Visiting Artist and Visiting Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA
2000 Deployed Application Award of theAmerican Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) / for the Emergence Project
2000 Awarded research grant from Intel Corporation / for E-motion and Emergent Behavior
1997 - 1998 Awarded research grant from Intel Corporation / for the Emergence Project
1996 - 2002 Emergence Project / six-year Intel Corporation funded research project
1996 - 2000 Principal Investigator of the UCLA project Emergence Project: Aesthetic Issues in the Design of Virtual Environments
1996 - 1999 Founding Chair, UCLA Department of Design | Media Arts
1996 - 1997 Founding Co-Director of the UCLA Center for the Digital Arts (CDA), School of Arts and Architecture
1996 Professor at the University of California Los Angeles Los Angeles / Department of Design | Media Arts
1996 Awarded research grant from Intel Corporation / for Aesthetic Issues in the Design of
Virtual Environments
1993 - 1995 Creative Director of Virgin Interactive Entertainment Irvine, CA
1992 - 1992 Jury member Prix Ars Electronica 1992 / Computer Graphics and Animation
1991 - 1991 Jurymitglied Prix Ars Electronica 1991 / Computer Graphics and Animation
1991 National Endowment for the Arts Award (NEA)
1990 - 1991 Hochschule fur Angewandte Kunst Vienna, Austria / Director of Visual Media Department / Guest Professor
1990 Honorable Mention Ars Electronica, Linz / in the category Computer Animation for Steady State
1986 - 1993 Lecturer and Visiting Associate Professor at the UCLA Department of Design
1980 - 1986 Computer Graphics Laboratory Old Westbury, NY / Research Scientist/ Designer/ Director/ Producer
1980 M.S. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA / Architecture Machine Group (predecessor to MIT Media Lab)
Master of Science in Computer Graphics / Interactive Media / Interface Design
1980 Computer Corporation of America Cambridge, MA
1978 - 1980 Research assistant to the Machine Group/ MIT Cambridge, MA
1975 B.F.A. at the Rhode Island School of Design Providence, RI / Film / Animation / Graphic Design


News
09.10.2024

Rebecca Allen is this year’s recipient of the DAM Digital Art Award

Rebecca Allen is this year’s recipient of the DAM Digital Art Award. The international jury, consisting of Douglas Dodds (senior curator for Digital Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2003-2021), Leslie Jones (curator at LACMA, Los Angeles, 2001-2023), Melanie Lenz (curator for Digital Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London), Tina Ryan (curator at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo) and Wolf Lieser as moderator, decided following a detailed and intensive debate that Rebecca Allen (born 1953) would be the recipient of this year’s award.

Exhibitions & Events
Publications & References
Paul, Christiane. Digital Art. World of Art Series, New York: Thames and Hudson Ltd., 2008.
Camerino, Andrea Andypop. »L´avanguardismo elettronico dei Kraftwerk.« Stile.it (Online Journal) (2006).
Flür, Wolfgang. Kraftwerk: I Was a Robot. London: Sancturay Pub Limited, 2003.
Domingues, Diana. Criacao e interatividade na ciberarte. São Paulo, BR: Experimento, 2002.
Duguet, Anne-Marie. Déjouer L´image: Creations elecroniques et numériques. Paris: Jaqueline Chambon, 2002.
Quintero, Fernando. »Digital Arts: The Evolution of A Discipline.« University of California Teaching Learning and Technology Center News and Events (March 2002).
Paik, Nam June and Gottlieb Leinz and Christoph Brockhaus. Das Fremde und das Eigene - Globalisierung der Kulturen : Nam June Paik: Fluxus und Video-Skulptur. Duisburg, DE: Stiftung Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, 2002.
Watts, Judy. »Experimental Design and Testing of Visualization in Data Mining.« Profiles in Research, UCSB (2002).
Shedroff, Nathan. Experience Design 1. Vol.1. San Francisco, CA: New Riders Press, 2001.
Somajni, Chiara. »Ivrea, nuova fucina per i giovani.« Il Sole 24 Ore (Domenica) (September 30th 2001).
Candeira, Javier. »Rebecca Allen: El arte interactivo tiene mucho que aprender de los videojuegos.« El Mundo - Diario del navegante: Especial Art Futura 2000 (2000).
Mendelowitz, Eitan. »The Emergence Engine: A Behavior Based Agent Development Environment for Artists.« In Proceedings of the Twelfth Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI), edited by Los Angeles University of California. Los Angeles, CA: Computer Science Department, UCLA, 2000.
Dietz, Steve. »Telling Stories: Procedural Authorship and Extracting Meaning from Museum Databases.« Museums and the Web (online publication) (March, 12th 1999).
Stroud, Michael. »Pictures at a Virtual Exhibition.« Wired (November 8th 1999).
Basting, Barbara. »Alice im Pixelpark.« http://www.xcult.org/texte/basting/ae.html.
Popper, Frank. Art of the Electronic Age. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997.
Ascott, Roy, ed. Consciousness Reframed: Art and Consciousness in the Post-biological era. Newport: University of Wales, 1997.
Shedroff, Nathan and Ken Fromm, ed. Multimedia Demystified/ Demystifying Multimedia. New York: Random House/ Newmedia Series, 1994.
Dery, Mark. »Fast forward: Art Goes High Tech.« ArtNews Associates 92, no. 2 (February 1993): 74.
Saltzgaver, Harry. »Sugar´n´ Spice More Than Just Nice.« Grunion Gazette (March 4th 1993).
Frank, Peter. »Intriguing Works by New Generation of Women Artists.« Long Beach Press-Telegram (March 1993): 14.
Curtis, Cathy. »Hjce´n´Subversive.« Los Angeles Times (Orange County edition) (March 1993).
Gamblin, Noriko and Carole Ann Klonarides, ed. Sugar´n Spice. Santa Monica: Long Beach Museum of Arts, 1993.
Willis, Holly. »Sweet´N`Sour.« Afterimage 20, no. 10 (May 1993).
Curtis, Cathy. »Sugar ´n´Spice: Sensory Overload in Long Beach.« Los Angeles Times (April 1993): fl4.
Anderson, Michael. »Sugar and Spice.« Art Issues (May/June 1993).
Alanen, Antti and Ilppo Pohjola. Sähköiset unet - Musiikkivideot: miten taiteesta tuli pop. Helsinki: VAPK-Kustannus, 1992.
Grimes, John and Gray Lorig, ed. ACM SIGGRAPH´92 Visual Proceedings. New York: ACM USA, 1992.
Bódy, Veruschka and Peter Weibel. Clip, Klapp, Bum. Von der visuellen Musik zum Musikvideo. Köln: DuMont, 1991.
Ornia, José Ramón Péreg. El arte del vídeo: Introducción a la historia del video experimental. Madrid, ES: RTVE. Serbal. Colleción Viajes, países, culturas, 1991.
Institut National de l'Audiovisuel, ed. Le Livre Imagina: 10 ans d'images de synthese. : INA-Publications, 1990.
Meijer, Jola and Ernie Tee, ed. What a Wonderful World: Music Videos in Architecture. Groningen, NL: Groninger Museum, 1990.
Katsui, Mitsuo and Toshifumi Kawahara, ed. World Graphic Design Now 6 - Computer Graphics. Tokyo, Japan: Kodansha, 1989.
Riviere, Daniele. Paysages Virtuels. Paris: Editions Dis Voir, 1988.
Couchot, Edmond. Images. De l´optique au numerique. Paris: Hermes, 1988.
Goodman, Cynthia. Digital Visions: Computers and Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987.
Weibel, Peter and Oswald Oberhuber. »Vom Symbol zum Logo: Zeichen des Realen.« In Im Bauch des Biestes: Logokultur, Arbeiten des WS 1986/87 der Meisterklassen für Gestaltungslehre and der Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst Wien, edited by Wien Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst, 4-25. Wien: 1987.
Wilson, Stephen. Using Computers to Create Art. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1986.
Queau, Philippe. Eloge de la simulation. Paris: Diffusion, Presses Universitaires de France, 1986.
Jankel, Annabel and Rocky Morton. Creative Computer Graphics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
Allen, Rebecca and G. M. Reger and A. A. et. al. Rizzo. »Effectivness of Virtual Reality for Attentional Control to Reduce Children's Pain During Venipuncture.« In 2nd International Workshop on Virtual Rehabilitation, edited by G.C. Burdea and D. Thalmann and J.A. Lewis. : 2004.
Malloy, Judy. Women, Art, and Technology. Leonardo, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003.
Allen, Rebecca and Erkki Huhtamo. »I Always Like to Go Where I Am Not Supposed to Be.« In Women, Art, and Technology, edited by Judy Malloy, 224-241. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2003.
Allen, Rebecca and Eitan Mendelowitz. »Coexistence.« In CAST01 // Living in Mixed Realities, edited by Monika Fleischmann and Wolfgang Strauss. Schloss Birlinghove: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, 2001.
Allen, Rebecca. »The Bush Soul: Artist Statement.« In Ars Electronica 99: Life Science, edited by Gerfried Stocker and Christine Schopf. Vienna, New York: Springer, 1999.
Allen, Rebecca. »The Bush Soul: Traveling Consciousness in an Unreal World.« In Digital Creativity, edited by Colin BeardonVol.9. . : 1998.
Allen, Rebecca. »Emergence and The Bush Soul.« In Computer Graphics: ACM SIGGRAPH, edited by Gordon Cameron and Scott Fisher and Glen FraserVol.32. . : SIGGRAPH, 1998.
Allen, Rebecca. »Demolition Man: The Making of an Interactive Action Movie and the Future of Games.« In Imagina '95, edited by . Monte Carlo: 1995.
Allen, Rebecca and Bill Brown and Kit Galloway and Ruth E. Iskin and Sherrie Rabinowitz and Alex Singer. »Design and Entertainment in the Electronic Age.« Leonardo 4, no. 4 (1994): 347-351.
Allen, Rebecca. »'Fire and Air', 'Laberint'.« In Visual Proceedings, edited by John Grimes and Gray Lorig. Chigaco: 1992.
Allen, Rebecca. »Memory Palace.« In The Global Mind - Art Futura 92, edited by Algora Montxo. Barcelona: 1992.
Allen, Rebecca. »Fleeting Words.« In Cybermedia - Art Futura 91, edited by . Barcelona: 1991.
Allen, Rebecca. »Virtual Reality.« In Art Futura 90, edited by . Barcelona: 1990.
Allen, Rebecca. »Realidad Virtual.« El Pais (January 1990).
Allen, Rebecca. »New Techniques for the Creation of Artificial Realities.« In Computer Images and Hi-Vision - CG '88, edited by . Tokyo: 1987.
Allen, Rebecca. »Computer Animation: A New Aesthetic Approach.« In Proceedings of l'Imaginaire Numerique, edited by . Paris: Hermes, 1986.
Allen, Rebecca and Jane Nisselson. »Computers Who Dance.« Digital Deli (1984).
Allen, Rebecca. »The Bionic Dancer.« Journal of PERD 54, no. 9 (1983).