Blast Theory is an artists' group that specializes in work that mixes

interactive media Interactive media refers to digital experiences that dynamically respond to user input, delivering content such as Text (literary theory), text, images, animations, video, Sound, audio, and even Artificial intelligence, AI-driven interactions. O ...

digital broadcasting Digital broadcasting is the practice of using digital signals rather than analogue signals for broadcasting over radio frequency bands (radio broadcasting). Digital television broadcasting (especially satellite television) is widespread. Digital ...

and live performance.

Biography

The group was founded in 1991 by Matt Adams, Niki Jewett, Will Kittow and Ju Row Farr. The group is currently led by Matt Adams and Nick Tandavanitj. Ju Row Farr left her leadership role in 2023. Other members include the film maker, John Hardwick, and the late performer Jamie Iddon. Over its history, Blast Theory's work has explored interactivity and the social and political aspects of technology through a multitude of forms – using performance, installation, video, mobile and online technologies. Currently based at their studios in

Portslade Portslade is a western suburb of the city of Brighton and Hove in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century. The arrival of the railwa ...

, Blast Theory shows work nationally and internationally, working with a number of Associate Artists on different projects. The group has collaborated with The

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

's Mixed Reality Lab since 1998. Works created collaboratively with the MRL include Desert Rain (1999), Can You See Me Now? (2001) and Rider Spoke (2007). Blast Theory's work has been shown at

NTT InterCommunication Center NTT InterCommunication Center (ICC) is a media art gallery in Tokyo Opera City Tower in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Jap ...

(ICC) in Tokyo, the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art,

Sydney Biennale The Biennale of Sydney is an international festival of contemporary art, held every two years in Sydney, Australia. It is a large and well-attended contemporary visual arts event in the country. Alongside the Venice Biennale, Venice and São Pa ...

, National Museum in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

Hebbel Theater The Hebbel-Theater (Hebbel Theatre) is a historic theatre building for plays in Berlin-Kreuzberg, Germany. It has been a venue of the company Hebbel am Ufer (HAU) from 2003. The theatre, with approximately 800 seats, was built by Oskar Kaufmann ...

in Berlin,

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

Art Fair, Dutch Electronic Arts Festival,

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 Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, and Palestine International Video Festival. Commissions include You Get Me (2008) at the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...

;

Ulrike and Eamon Compliant ''Ulrike and Eamon Compliant'' is a work by Blast Theory that premiered at the 53rd Venice Biennale in June 2009, commissioned by the De La Warr Pavilion and supported by Arts Council England. The work is based on the lives of Ulrike Meinhof (Re ...

(2009) for the De La Warr Pavilion at the 53rd

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

Spit Spreads Death: The Parade
(2019) for the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia an
We Cut Through Dust
(2023) for the Manchester International Festival. In 2015 the group launched Karen, an app that psychologically profiles the user.

Approach

Blast Theory's artists describe their work as collaborative and interdisciplinary. Their practice mixes games design, interaction design, installation and performance. Early works such as Gunmen Kill Three (1991) and Chemical Wedding (1994) fitted more in the category of live and

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

. Kidnap (1998) was a lottery inspired by the Spanner Trial in which participants paid for a chance to be kidnapped by the group. It was presented via video streaming. Desert Rain (1999) was a large scale virtual reality game that saw a shift towards work that questions performativity, site and presence. Blast Theory were pioneers in location based art and mixed reality with works such as Can You See Me Now? (2001) and

Uncle Roy All Around You Uncle Roy All Around You (URAY) is a pervasive game made by Blast Theory. URAY was built in the Equator project on the EQUIP architecture. "The defining characteristic of this game is the way it mixes preprogrammed game content with live performa ...

(2003).

Reception

Blast Theory's work has been influential in the fields of theatre, indie games, ARGs and mobile design. Desert Rain was described as ""one of the most complex and powerful responses to the first Gulf War to be produced within the sphere of theatrical practice" and "possibly the most technologically ambitious art installation ever made" in The Times. In 2023 We Cut Through Dust was selected as one of the best works at the Manchester International Festival by Frieze. In an article in The Guardian on artists using AI to "reclaim AI from Big Tech" Gabrielle Schwarz highlighted Cat Royale's exploration of trust in AI. Blast Theory's work has been featured in over 13
books and journals

Notable works

2023 *
We Cut Through Dust
' *''Cat Royale'' 2021 *''A Cluster of 17 Cases: Online'' 2019 *''Spit Spreads Death: The Parade'' 2018 *''A Cluster of 17 Cases: Installation'' *''Bloodyminded'' 2017 *''Gift'' *''My Point Forward'' *''2097: We Made Ourselves Over'' 2016 *''Operation Black Antler'' 2015 *''My One Demand'' *''Karen'' 2009 *''Urike and Eamon Compliant'' *''Flypad'' 2008 *''You Get Me'' 2007 *'' Rider Spoke'' 2006 *''Soft Message'' *'' Day of the Figurines'' 2005 *''Single Story Building'', Tate Online 2004 *''Energy Gallery'', The Science Museum *''Light Square'' *''I Like Frank'' 2003 *''

'' 2002 *''Stay Home Read'' *''Single Story Building'' *''TRUCOLD'' 2001 *''Viewfinder'' *''Can You See Me Now?'' *''An Explicit Volume'' 2000 *''Choreographic Cops in a Complicated World'' *''Sidetracks : Light Sleeper & Body Chemistry IV'' 1999 *''Desert Rain'' *''10 Backwards'' *''Route 12:36'' 1998 *''Kidnap'' *''Architecture Foundation'' *''Atomic Installation'' 1997 *''Safehouse'' *''Invisible Bullets'' (video) *''Atomic Performance'' *''Blipvert'' *''C'mon Baby, Fight! Fight! Fight!'' *''Ultrapure'' 1996 *''Something American'' *''Internal Ammunition'' 1995 *''The Gilt Remake'' 1994 *''Invisible Bullets'' *''Stampede'' 1992 *''Chemical Wedding'' 1991 *''Gunmen Kill Three''

Selected awards

*2021 – Winner of The People's Choice Award, The Lovie Awards (UK) in Weird & Experimental for A Cluster of 17 Cases (UK) *2020 – Gold Winner, Video, Film, Animation & Live Media or Digital Performance, MUSE (American Alliance of Museums) for Spit Spreads Death: The Parade (USA) *2019 – Nomination, David and Yuko Art Foundation Grant (UK) *2019 – Winner of the 2019 Trailblazer Award, IndieCade (UK) for contributions to the field of games *2018 – Silver Winner, The Lovie Awards (UK) in Best Use of Interactive Video for 2097: We Made Ourselves Over *2016 – Nam June Paik Art Center Prize *2015 – Winner, British Interactive Media Association (UK) in Data Category, Best of British Digital for Karen *2015 – Winner, Festival du nouveau cinéma (CAN) Innovation Award for Karen *2015 – Bronze Winner, The Lovie Awards (UK) in Experimental & Innovation for Karen *2013 – The BIMA Awards (UK) – Nomination in Games category, I'd Hide You *2013 – The People's Lovie Awards (UK) – Winner in Events and Live Broadcast category for The Lovie Award and The People's Lovie Award, I'd Hide You *2012 – MUSE Awards (US) – Honourable Mention in the Applications & APIs category for Ghostwriter *2011 – Sheffield Doc/Fest Innovation Award (UK) – Nomination, Ulrike and Eamon Compliant *2010 – International Mobile Gaming Awards (Spain) – Winner Best Real World Game, Ulrike and Eamon Compliant *2009 – Brighton and Hove Business Awards (UK) – Winner of Most Awesome Use of Digital Media *2009 – 14th Annual Webby Awards (USA) – Nomination in NetArt category, You Get Me *2009 – IndieCade Festival of Independent Games (USA) – Finalist, You Get Me *2009 – Total Theatre Awards, Edinburgh Festival Fringe (UK) – Nomination in Innovation/Interaction/Immersion category, Rider Spoke *2008 – Winner of The Digital Collaboration Award at DiMA:S *2007 – Honorary Mention, Prix Ars Electronica for ''Day of the Figurines'' *2006 – Winner of The Hospital Award for Interactive Media *2005 – Winner of the Maverick Award, Game Developers Choice Awards, USA *2005 – Interactive Arts BAFTA Award, nominated for ''

'' in two categories: Interactive Arts and Technical & Social Innovation *2004 – Net Art Award, the Webby Awards, nominated for ''

'' *2003 – Winner of the Prix Ars Electronica 'Golden Nica' for Interactive Art for '' Can You See Me Now?'' *2003 – VIPER Basel International Award, nominated for '' Can You See Me Now?'' *2002 – Interactive Arts BAFTA Award, nominated for '' Can You See Me Now?'' *2002 – International Fellowship Award, Arts Council England *2002 – Innovation Award, Arts and Humanities Research Board, awarded for ''

'' *2001 – International Media Art Award, ZKM Centre for Arts and Media, Karlsruhe, nominated for ''Kidnap'' *2001 – Transmediale Awards, Berlin, Honorary Mention for ''Desert Rain'' *2000 – Interactive Arts BAFTA Award, nominated for ''Desert Rain'' *2000 – Breakthrough Award for Innovation, nominated, Arts Council England *1999 – The 18 Creative Freedom Awards, nominated for ''Kidnap'' *1996 – Winner of the Barclays New Stages Award, for ''Something American''

Key reading

Performing Mixed Reality by Steve Benford and Gabriella Giannachi, MIT Press 2011
* Steve Benford, Rob Anastasi, Martin Flintham, Adam Drozd, Andy Crabtree, Chris Greenhalgh, Nick Tandavanitj, Matt Adams, Ju Row-Farr, 'Can You See Me Now?', Pervasive Computing, No.3, Volume 2, July/September 2003, pp. 49–51
Blast Theory, Desert Rain (A Virtual Reality Game/Installation), 2002, pp. 1–36 (Blast Theory, London)

Dixon, Steve 'Digital Performance, A history of new media in theatre, dance, performance art, and installation', 2007, pp. 616–621 (The MIT Press, Cambridge, UK)

Giannachi, Gabriella 'About War and Inaction: Blast Theory's Desert Rain', Virtual Theatres: An Introduction, 2004, pp. 115–122 (Routledge, London)

Emma Govan, Helen Nicholson and Katie Normington 'Making a Performance, Devising Histories and Contemporary Practices', 2008, pp. 179–187 (Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, London)

References

External links

*
Arts Council England
* *
IPerG – Integrated Project of Pervasive Games

Mixed Reality Lab, Nottingham
{{Authority control British digital artists British postmodern artists English contemporary artists English artist groups and collectives Culture in Brighton and Hove Pervasive games British electronic literature writers Electronic literature organizations