My work explores the ways in which technology modifies our experience of the world; how it acts as a mediating and transforming influence on our consciousness. I examine a world where experience requires validation through recording, editing, and sharing as digital content to achieve a social value. We now author our memories and engineer narratives required to compete for attention in a constant present tense, where histories become plastic and are constantly remoulded.
My work explores the ways in which technology modifies our experience of the world; how it acts as a mediating and transforming influence on our consciousness. I examine a world where experience requires validation through recording, editing, and sharing as digital content to achieve a social value. We now author our memories and engineer narratives required to compete for attention in a constant present tense, where histories become plastic and are constantly remoulded.
I have also been interested in the elasticity of historical narrative as manifested in the use of the recorded image. Working with video and digital media, my strategies are based on the reinterpretation of common mass media techniques. Methods are used that wrap fiction around materials recorded from life in reference to the increasing uniformity of the treatment of factual and fictional content in the mass media.
Education
1988-90 BTEC General Art & Design North East Wales Institute
1990-93 BA(Hons) Fine Art
School of Art & Design, University of Wolverhampton
1993-94 MA Time-Based Media and Electronic Imaging
Kent Institute of Art & Design
Selected Screenings and Exhibitions
2015
Alles bleibt anders – Eine Ausstellung zu Kulturtechniken im Digital, Tieranatomisches Theater, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
2014
Control, Museum für Kommunikation, Berlin
Lightcone, 60th International Short film Festival, Oberhausen
2013
Control, Museum für Kommunikation Frankfurt
Nuclear Culture on Film, The Arts Catalyst, London
2012
Impakt DEUS, Utrecht, Breda, Den Haag, Amersfoort and Eindhoven
Nordic: UK Contemporary Video Art Programme, Göteborg, SE
Rasterfahndung (Tracing the Grid), Kunstmuseum Stuttgart
MediaArtLab/Urban Screen, St. Petersburg
2011
Identità Virtuali / Virtual Identities, CCC Strozzina, Italy, 20/05/11 - 17/07/11
Zeit/Time, Landkreis Elbe-Elster, Germany
LUMEN ES 2011, University of Extremadura, Spain
2010
Bless’d Pile, Installation at the Summit of Moel Famau, North Wales
Zeit/Time, Märkischer Kreis
Rencontres Internationales 2010: Madrid, various venues, 12th-21st April
SCREENING 1, The Public, West Bromwich, UK 13th March-25th April
AV Festival 10, 5-14 March 2010, Newcastle
2009
Toward the Sentient City, Architectural League New York
Precarious Structures, Palinsesti, San Vito al Tagliamento, Italy September/October
X_Science: Cinema between Science and Science Fiction, Genoa, Italy, March
Grafika Soziala, San Sebastian, Spain
Virtual Worlds, Medialab Enschende, Netherlands
AGM_09 Under Ctrl, Quad Derby, January
2008
Nuclear: Art & Radioactivity, London, November 2008
Chris Oakley, Clapham Picture House, June
Chris Oakley: Retellings, Wrexham Arts Centre, UK April-June
Surveillance and Control, Centre of Art La Regenta, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Atlas of the Future, Centro di Cultura Contemporanea Strozzina, Florence, Italy,
2007
Act_Interact, MOCA Taipei, August-October 2007
Notions of Wilderness, Kasia Kay Art Projects, Chicago (June)
Bandits-Mages, Bourges, France, May
Bang Filmes, Brasilia, Brazil, May
Dutch Electronic Art Festival, Rotterdam, April
Videoformes, Clermont-Ferrand, France
PROJECTAR, Seven Seven Contemporary Art, London, February 2007
2006
Recontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Paris
XVIth Contemporary Art Festival (ARTist), Istanbul
Every One’s Home is their Castle, Woodhorn Project, Ashington, UK
Millennium Dialogues 2006, Beijing, China
Off the Map, Futuresonic, Manchester
Chris Oakley, OVADA Gallery, Oxford
Videoformes, Clermont-Ferrand, France (first prize)
2005
LOOP Video Art Festival, Barcelona
Recontre Internationales Paris/Berlin
Videobrasil, Sao Paulo
Dublin Electronic Arts Festival
EMARE Residency, Werkelitz Geschellschaft, Halle
Dispersed Moments of Concentration, Dortmund, curated by Hartware Medien Kunst Verein
Transmediale .05, Haus der Kultur der Welt, Berlin
2004
Hertzoscopio, Lisbon
6. Werkleitz Biennale, Halle, Germany
Moving Images, ICA, London
LA Freewaves, MoCA, Los Angeles
Selected Public and Participatory Projects
2009-2014 Lead Artist, Digital Lives
Digital Lives is a professional development programme for artists with a learning disability focused on digital media production, organised and managed by Film Oxford. Working with a core group of 8 members, they have succeed in forming an association with a written constitution, and members of the group have achieved success in exhibiting their work at film and arts festivals internationally. Some of the work produced was also included in a BFI touring programme during 2012.
2010 Bless’d Pile, Jubilee Tower 200
Created the multimedia installation Bless’d Pile at the summit of Moel Famau. Using lasers and lighting alongside high-definition video projection, the work was viewed by an audience of 4,000 at the celebration event held at the tower on the 24th October. The installation was visible from up to 20 miles and ran for a 2 week period. The project included a significant engagement element, with animation work created by students from four schools in the area contributing to a film, projected onto the tower at the 1,800 ft peak.
2008- Lead Artist, Explore
Explore was a temporary initiative to improve access to galleries by disabled and deaf people, involving eight galleries across the UK. Working with Oriel Davies in Newtown and Oriel Wrecsam as a lead artist, delivering workshops in video to a wide range of disabled people, from the ages of 16-75.
Distribution
Chris Oakley's single-channel works are now available for hire via Lightcone, Paris.
