Casey Edwin Barker Reas (born 1972), also known as C. E. B. Reas or Casey Reas, is an American artist whose conceptual, procedural and minimal artworks explore ideas through the contemporary lens of software. Reas is perhaps best known for having created, with

Ben Fry Benjamin Fry is an American designer who has expertise in data visualization. Early life and education Fry was born in 1975 in Ann Arbor, Michigan (born 1975)."Inside design now: National Design Triennial", by Ellen Lupton, Cooper-Hewitt Museu ...

, the

Processing Processing is a free graphical library and integrated development environment (IDE) built for the electronic arts, new media art, and visual design communities with the purpose of teaching non-programmers the fundamentals of computer programming ...

programming language.

Education and early work

Reas was born Casey Edwin Barker Reas in 1972 in Troy, Ohio. He studied design at the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,00 ...

and then spent the next two years developing software and electronics as an artistic exploration. While studying design in Cincinnati, Reas was a member of a band called 'nancy' with

Scott Devendorf Scott Devendorf is an American multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the bass guitarist for the American indie rock band The National, with whom he has recorded eight studio albums. Devendorf is also a member of the indie rock project LNZNDR ...

and

Matt Berninger Matthew Donald Berninger (, born February 13, 1971) is an American singer-songwriter, primarily known as the frontman and lyricist of indie rock band The National. In 2014, he also formed the EL VY project with Brent Knopf of Ramona Falls and ...

, who went on to become members of The National. Reas went on to direct four music videos for the band's 2017 album, ''

Sleep Well Beast Sleep is a sedentary state of mind and body. It is characterized by altered consciousness, relatively inhibited sensory activity, reduced muscle activity and reduced interactions with surroundings. It is distinguished from wakefulness by a de ...

''. In 2001, Reas earned a Master of Science in Media Arts and Sciences as a part of the Aesthetics and Computation Group at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

MIT Media Lab The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws from ...

Art career

After graduating, Reas began to exhibit his software and installations internationally in galleries and festivals. Reas's software generated images derive from short software-based instructions that visual create processes. The instructions are expressed in different media including natural language, machine code, and computer simulations, resulting in both dynamic and static images. Each translation reveals a different perspective on the process and combines with the others to produce continually evolving visual traces. Since 2012, Reas has incorporated broadcast images into his work, algorithmically distorting them to create abstractions that retain traces of their original, representational function. In 2003, Reas moved to Los Angeles where he is currently a Professor in the Department of Design Media Arts at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

Processing

In 2001, together with MIT PhD candidate

, Reas created the

programming language. Processing is widely used by thousands of artists and designers worldwide, and by educators teaching the fundamentals of programing in art and design schools.

Exhibitions

He has shown his work at: * the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

's artport, *

Ars Electronica Ars Electronica Linz GmbH is an Austrian cultural, educational and scientific institute active in the field of new media art, founded in Linz in 1979. It is based at the Ars Electronica Center (AEC), which houses the Museum of the Future, in th ...

in Austria, * ZKM in Germany, *

Transmediale Transmediale, stylised as transmediale is an annual festival for art and digital culture in Berlin, usually held over five days at the end of January and the beginning of February. Transmediale takes the form of a conference (sometimes calle ...

in Berlin, * GAFFTA in San Francisco, *Uijeongbu International Digital Art Festival in Korea, *the Danish Film Institute, *

bitforms gallery bitforms gallery is a gallery in New York City devoted to new media art practices. It was founded in 2001 by Steven Sacks, and represents established, mid-career, and emerging artists critically engaged with new technologies. In September 2014, b ...

in New York and Seoul, * IAMAS and ICC in Japan, *the Microwave International Media Art Festival in Hong Kong, and *the

Sónar Sónar is a festival dedicated to music, creativity and technology, founded in Barcelona in 1994 by Ricard Robles, Enric Palau, and Sergi Caballero. The festival has been divided into two parts since its inception: Sónar by Day and Sónar b ...

Festival in Barcelona.

Public collections

Reas' work is held in the following collections: *the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and ...

*the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 196 ...

, *the

Carl and Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation The Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation is an American art foundation located in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Chicago, Illinois. The foundation exhibits work in its Santa Fe ''Art House'', lends work for touring exhibitions from its permanent colle ...

, *the

Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art The Block Museum of Art is a free public art museum located on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The Block Museum was established in 1980 when Chicago art collectors Mary (daughter of Albert Lasker) and Leigh B. Block (f ...

, and *the

Pompidou Centre The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

Paris.

Books

* Casey Reas and

Benjamin Fry Benjamin Fry is an American designer who has expertise in data visualization. Early life and education Fry was born in 1975 in Ann Arbor, Michigan (born 1975)."Inside design now: National Design Triennial", by Ellen Lupton, Cooper-Hewitt Museu ...

, ''Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists'', MIT Press, 2007. * Casey Reas, ''Process compendium 2004-2010'', REAS Studio, 2010.

References

External links

*
List of works held by the Victoria and Albert Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reas, Casey American artists Living people 1972 births People from Troy, Ohio University of Cincinnati alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture faculty MIT Media Lab people