October 15, 2012

Don Foresta (FR)

Don Foresta is a research artist and theoretician in art using new technologies as creative tools. He is a specialist in art and science whose principal work in the field, “Mondes Multiples” was published in French in 1991. A second edition in English is currently being prepared. He is completeing a Visiting Research Associate position at the London School of Economics and was formerly professor at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts – Paris/Cergy.

He has been working for over 25 years developing the network as an artistic tool and is presently coordinating a permanent high band-width network, MARCEL, for artistic, educational and cultural experimentation. He began the network while invited artist/professor at the National Studio of Contemporary Art, Le Fresnoy, Lille, France and completed it under a UK Arts & Humanities Research Council fellowship at the Wimbledon School of Art in London. MARCEL now has 150 confirmed members in 22 countries, 40 of whom are connected permanently over a multicasting platform.

His first on-line exchange in 1981 was between the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT where he was a fellow and the American Center in Paris where he was director of the Media Art program. He was a commissioner to the 42nd Venice Biennial in 1986 where he built one of the first computer networks between artists, an effort he has expanded as the technology has grown.

Foresta is a graduate of the University of Buffalo, the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and holds a doctorate degree from the Sorbonne in Information Science. He has both US and French nationalities and was named “Chevalier” of the Order of Arts and Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.