Christopher Dooks (born in 1971) is a Scotland-based artist, primarily working in the fields of photography, film and audio-art.

Education and television work

Dooks was born in 1971 in

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

. He studied sound design and film at the

Cleveland College of Art and Design The Northern School of Art is a further education, further and higher education Art school, art and design college, based in Middlesbrough and Hartlepool in the North East England, north-east of England. The college was called Cleveland Colle ...

from 1989–1991, and from 1991–1994 film and

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. ...

at the Edinburgh College of Art. In 1994 ITV screened his degree film ''The Sound of Taransay''. Between 1994-1998 he directed several works for broadcast television, including The South Bank Show. In 1998 while working on a program for PBS in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

Dooks became ill with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis which puts an end to his television career.

Idioholism

After a break, Dooks was able to continue creating his audio-visual art. Researching ways how to work while suffering from ''Chronic Fatigue Syndrome'' he began developing creative strategies, he labeled ''Idioholism'' (a combination of

holism Holism () is the idea that various systems (e.g. physical, biological, social) should be viewed as wholes, not merely as a collection of parts. The term "holism" was coined by Jan Smuts in his 1926 book '' Holism and Evolution''."holism, n." OED ...

and idiosyncrasy). His extensive research eventually lead to a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

at the

University of the West of Scotland The University of the West of Scotland ( gd, Oilthigh na h-Alba an Iar), formerly the University of Paisley, is a public university with four campuses in south-western Scotland, in the towns of Paisley, Renfrewshire, Paisley, Blantyre, South Lanar ...

. The central part of his work was a vinyl record trilogy.

Audio work

Dooks has released several

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to ...

and folktronica albums for record labels such as Bip-Hop, Highpoint Lowlife and Benbecula Records. He has co-operated with artists like Francis Cazal, Future Pilot, Hibernate, or Rutger Zuydervelt. Dooks also uses the moniker ''Bovine Life'' for audio works.

Visual art

Dooks has produced work for the Millennium Experience and created installations and art works, among other for Market Gallery Glasgow, Teesside University, Middlesbrough venue, Gallery Edinburgh, Isis Arts Newcastle, Sandberg Institute Amsterdam, or the Edinburgh College of Art. In 2003 for Stills Gallery Edinburgh, Dooks coined the term ''Polymash'' to describe his "chaotic multi-disciplinary practice" and in 2007, Dooks founded "Polymash Digital Art Projects" which creates bespoke

Psychogeography Psychogeography is the exploration of urban environments that emphasizes interpersonal connections to places and arbitrary routes. It was developed by members of the Letterist International and Situationist International, which were revolutio ...

tours, most notably 2009's ''Surreal Steyning''. Dooks had screenings and talks at art spaces like Another Roadside Attraction Gallery, London,

National Museum of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum (opened in ...

Furtherfield Furtherfield.org is an artist-led online community, arts organisation and online magazine. It creates and supports global participatory projects with networks of artists, theorists and activists. and offers "a chance for the public to present its ...

, London, or Image Movement, at festivals like

International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is the world's largest documentary film festival held annually since 1988 in Amsterdam. Over a period of twelve days, it has screened more than 300 films and sold more than 250,000 tic ...

, International Short Film Festival Oberhausen

Personal life

He lives with his wife and two children in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

References

External links

Artist Chris Dooks
Dooks' homepage
Chris Dooks
Dooks on

Vimeo Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software a ...

Seven Million Images
Photo Blog of Dooks on Tumblr.
Chris Dooks
Dooks on

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

Chris Dooks
on furtherfield.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Dooks, Chris 1971 births Living people 20th-century Scottish male artists 21st-century Scottish male artists Electronica musicians Folktronica musicians 20th-century Scottish male musicians 21st-century Scottish male musicians British techno musicians Alumni of the Edinburgh College of Art