Math Art Consulting International Fine Art Consulting • Sales • Installation
...integrating the mathematical and scientific with the creative and artistic.
Mike Holcomb

I became aware of the profound relationship of art and technology in the 1960’s, in the middle of the blossoming of the “technosphere” that followed World War Two. This included television, the integrated circuit, computers, lasers, robotics and the Internet, all of which have continued to shape and define our world. Some of my earliest work with arts technology had connections to the Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) initiatives, Ant Farm and the Artists Television Workshop.
Even though I’d been successful as a young painter, I put that behind me and worked for several years as an artist, designer and animator in television and video art where electronic imaging technology was most advanced and where digital tools were first accessible to me. By the late ‘70’s, small, cheap desktop computers had become available and WYSIWYG interfaces soon followed. Suddenly there were computers everywhere and I was able to take my work to a university setting where research in new methods and forms is the expectation.
The university world has provided many opportunities, allowing me to work in teams with engineers and programmers on large complex interactive “new media” projects and to continue making images with increasingly sophisticated tools. I’m currently Assistant Dean for Technology in the Arts at the University of Arizona and Director of Treistman Center for New Media in the College of Fine Arts.
I’ve been fortunate to have my work exhibited and published around the world and to see this kind of work accepted as part of the larger and more historical understanding of “Art”. I’ve never been more intrigued by or committed to my work than I am today.

ARTIST'S STATEMENT
My work with art/technology is well represented in these defining ideas:
“TECHNÉ is an epistemological term that Aristotle used to refer to the third form of knowledge in his classification of sciences. Now, commonly understood as mere skill belonging to craft, Techné has lost its original meaning which integrated beauty, art, expertise, technical knowledge, skill and industry: In Aristotle's time, artistic creativity and technology were not divided.” Victor Burgin
“’Poetic Logic’ is the sensuous apprehension of what we do not yet understand in the
presence of reality.” Frederick Sommer
“’Phase’ is a concept that helps us see the variable synchronicity of art and technology. Bach imagined music beyond what his instruments could play. Now we have instruments that can play beyond what can be imagined.” Gene Youngblood
“Nothing is positive about art except that it is a word.” Willem de Kooning
The confluence of technology, art and culture has been my central interest since the 1960’s. I am a humanist with much curiosity; interested in getting these very sophisticated computational tools to produce images they weren’t always intended to produce. I respond to the sensual surprises that result from setting up a number of formal and mathematical circumstances and revealing what was, heretofore, unknown. Then, like any other artist, it’s what I do with these discoveries that makes the work.

EDUCATION
1988 - M.F.A, University of Oregon, Visual Design/Computer Graphics
1972 - University of Washington, Graduate studies in Film and Television
1969 - B.A., Central Washington University, School of Art

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2001-Present - Assistant Dean for Digital Arts Technology, College of Fine Arts, University of Arizona
2000-Present - Director, Peter Treistman Fine Arts Center for New Media, College of Fine Arts, University of Arizona
2000-Present - Associate Professor of Visual Communications, School of Art, College of Fine Arts, University of Arizona
1995-2000 - Director, University of Oregon New Media Center, Riverfront Research Park, Eugene, OR
1989-2000 - Associate Professor of Art, Graphic Design, Computer Graphics, Motion Graphics, Illustration, Digital Multimedia; Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
1988-1989 - Assistant Professor of Art, Graphic Design, Computer Graphics; Department of Art, Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO
1980-1985 - Art Director and Design Department Head, Graphic Designer, Animator; Kelly Broadcasting, Inc., Seattle/Tacoma, WA, Sacramento, CA
1977-1980 - Art Director and Design Department Head, Graphic Designer, Animator; KCPQ-TV, Public Television, Seattle/Tacoma, WA
1971-1977 - Faculty Associate and Media Specialist, Animation, Video, Graphics and Photography; University of Washington, Seattle, WA

PROFESSIONAL HONORS
• National Academy of Television Arts and Science, Seattle Chapter, EMMY for Graphic Design,
• Introduced on the floor of the Oregon State House and Senate for contributions to Oregon through teaching, research and service in New Media
• Higher Education Program Award, Oregon Multimedia Alliance, Multimedia Educator of the Year
• Croche d’ or (Golden Web) award, INTERNOTES, France
• ID Magazine Interactive Design Distinction Award, National juried Design Annual
• National Science Foundation Recognition Award for the Integration of Research and Education
• Gold Medal, 31st Annual New York Exposition of Short Film, Video and Interactive Multimedia
• Print Magazine’s Certificate of Excellence, National juried Digital Art and Design Annual

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
• National Center for Design Smithsonian, group show, ID Magazine Interactive Design award-winners
• ”Ride the Byte”, Wired Worlds Gallery, group show, British National Museum of Photography, Film and Television
• New York Exposition of Short Film, Video and Interactive Media, group show
• Telesculpture 2005, exhibition of sculptural forms created with 3D modeling software, reverse engineering and rapid prototyping technologies, curated by Dan Collins, PRISM, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
• ”State of the Art”, group exhibition, University of Arizona Museum of Art
• “Art & Technology: A Marriage for a New Millenium”, group exhibit, Bush Art Center, Salem, OR
• Littman Gallery, Portland State University, group exhibition, Portland, OR
• Lane Community College. “Computer Art”, group exhibition, Eugene, OR
• Kearns Art Center, group exhibition, Eugene, OR
• Blue Sky Gallery 25th Anniversary invitational exhibition, Black Fish Gallery, Portland, OR
• “ART-I-FAX: an International Fax Art Show on the Subject of Global Pluralism”, currated by Terry Slade, Foreman Gallery, Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY
• Best of Show, “6th Annual Mt. Hood Festival of Computer Art”, juried invitational, Visual Arts Center Gallery, Mt. Hood Community College, Gresham, OR
• “Artists @Workplace” group show, Workplace Gallery, Portland, OR
• 4th International Symposium on Electronic Art”, Minneapolis College of Art & Design, Minneapolis, MN
• “Evidence of Treason/Foolology”, with Rick Austin, Gallery 114, Portland, OR
• “Digital Art and Photography”, with Craig Hickman, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR
• Best of show, “5th Annual Mt. Hood Festival of Computer Art”, juried invitational, Visual Arts Center Gallery, Mt. Hood Community College, Gresham, OR
• “But is it Art? Currents in Electronic Imaging”, invitational, Pacific Lutheran University, sponsored by Northwest Regional Society for Photographic Education, Tacoma,WA
• Computer Graphic Art, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Scotland, shown by Ken O’Connell
• “2nd Annual Santa Fe Computer Art Show”, national juried exhibit, Hand Graphics Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
• New Members Show”, group exhibition, Gallery 114, Portland, OR
• “5th National Computer Art Invitational”, Eastern Washington University, Gallery of Art, Cheney; Spokane Center Gallery, Spokane, WA. Two year National Traveling Exhibition
• “Volksgraphics: the Techno-primitive Image”, 19th Annual Bumbershoot Arts Festival, Seattle, WA
• “Post-Modem Facsimile”, a networked international fax, e-mail and postal exhibit, Gallery of Art, College of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, NY
• “Vanishing Boundaries: Digital Image Making”, national invitational show in conjunction with “Second Generation Original: Digital Photography in the 90’s” conference sponsored by the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
• “Modern Manipulations”, one person show, Metro Arts Gallery, Eugene, OR
• “4th National Computer Art Invitational”, Eastern Washington University, Gallery of Art, Cheney; Spokane Center Gallery, Spokane, WA. Two year National Traveling Exhibition.
• 1er Prix d’Estampe, “Salon de Peinture et d’Estampe de Montreal”, Fondation pour la Recherche en Realisation en Industrie Culturelle, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• “Art and Design Show”, 8th Annual Computer Graphics Conf., Center for the Performing Arts, Portland, OR
• “Northwest Juried Art ‘90”, Cheney Cowles Museum, Spokane, WA
• Inaugural exhibition, LaVerne Krause Gallery, University of Oregon
• “Computers and the Creative Process”, 2 year international traveling exhibit,mounted by University of Oregon Museum of Art, Department of Visual Arts Resources.
• Faculty Show, University Art Museum, Southeast Missouri University, Cape Girardeau, MO
• “2nd Annual McNeese National Works on Paper”, McNeese University, Lake Charles, LA
• Two person show, Abaci Gallery, Portland, OR
• Master of Fine Arts Exhibit, University Art Museum, University of Oregon
• Best of Show, “Photography Now”, Western U.S. juried, New Zone Gallery, Eugene, OR
• “Art and Design Show”, 6th Annual Northwest Computer Graphics Conference, Hult Center, Eugene, OR
• “Video Decade”,invitational, Norrie Sato currator, and/or gallery, Seattle, WA
• “Real Time”, manipulated fax transmissions, 3nd Annual Bumbershoot Festival, Seattle, WA
• “April Video”, Livingston College, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
• “Group C” video art installation, 2nd Annual Bumbershoot Festival, Seattle, WA
• ”Monitor”, video art/systems installation, Seattle, WA
• Group show, Everett Community College, Everett, WA
• One man show, Collectors Gallery, Bellevue, WA
• Northwest Arts and Crafts Show, Seattle, WA
• Two person show, State Capitol Museum, Olympia WA
• Best of Show, Port Townsend Summer Arts, Port Townsend, WA
• Best of Show, all-university art competition, Collectors Gallery, Bellevue, WA

PUBLISHED
• ”Cutting Edge Technology Enhances Art & Science”, article and pictures, Research: Journal of Creative Activity, University of Arizona
• “Arizona Net Gain: Internet Technology, Commerce & Design Institute”, article, Research: Journal of Creative Activity, University of Arizona
• Digital images, The Computer and the Visual Arts, Anne Morgan Spalter, Addison Wesley Professional, pub
• Digital images, Blue Sky Gallery 25th Anniversary CDROM, Portland, OR
• Video at Bumbershoot’73, video documentary, published by Richie’s Video Catalog, Seattle, WA
• Digital images, computer graphic drawing, Drawing: Space, Form and Expression, 2nd edition, Wayne Enstice and Melody Peters, Prentice Hall, New York
• Cover illustration, In Town Magazine, William White, Publisher, Eugene,OR
• “Volksgraphics, Zines and Networks” and “Volksgraphics: the Assimilation of Demotic Forms”, Abstracts and Program Statements, 81st Annual Conference of the College Art Association, NY
• Digital images, “Driven to Abstraction”, article by Gary Phitzer, Computer Graphics World magazine, Pennwell Publishing Co., Westford, MA
• Digital images, “Composing by the Numbers”, article by Debra Woodruff, Old Oregon, the Quarterly Magazine of Ideas, University of Oregon
• Blue Sky #4, front and back cover images, 4 interior page images, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland
• Metropolitan Arts Commission, Oregon Arts Commission and National Endowment for the Arts
• Computer Typographic Design, slides and statement, Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Graphics, `92 SIGGRAPH Chicago Conference, published materials
• Compact disk cover design, Concerto for Orchestra, Chainsaw and Cow: the Computer Music of Jeffrey Stolet, Newport Classic Records, Providence, RI
• Computer Art and Design Annual, Illustration category, Print Magazine, international juried competition co-sponsored by the International Design by Electronics Association (IDEA), Jurors: Guy Billout, John Hersey, Louis Fishauf, et al., RC Publications, New York
• Post-Modem Facsimile, catalog illustration for networked international fax, e-mail and postal exhibit, Gallery of Art, College of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, NY
• “Volksgraphic: the Techno-primitive Image”, article and photograph, VISAGE, Bumbershoot’91
• Exhibit Catalog, Bumbershoot Festival Commission, City of Seattle
• Computers and the Creative Process, catalog image for the international traveling exhibition, Visual Arts Resources, University of Oregon Museum of Art
• Digital images, computer graphic drawing, companion slide set to text, Drawing: Space, Form and Expression, 1st edition, Wayne Enstice, Prentice Hall, New York
• Cover illustration, “The Electronic Paintbrush: New Horizons in Computer Art”, Michael Hofferber, Northwest Magazine, Portland Oregonian
• 4 illustrations for article, “Computer Art”, ReVision: Graphic Communications Magazine, Castlegar, British Columbia, Canada