How long have you been working in this area?

About 4 years

Were you an artist/ musician first who got into using computers/the net or did you respond to the net in an artistic way?

I began using a computer as a tool to make work immediately. I grasped the enormous potential for an extension of both my art practice and music. I was a member of a band called Sofa here in montreal which is still living on constellation records home to Godspeed you Black emperor! et al and we were using a computer many years ago in the studio whenever it came time to record and just seeing the visual organiztion of the tracks of sound in a multitrack document made so much sense as a visual artist to me that every program since from premiere to after effects and flash has seemed like second nature.

What/who has influenced you in your work? (themes, other artists etc)

Joseph Cornell, Sylvia Plath, Charles Baudelaire, Joy Division, Walter Benjamin, Elias Canetti, Ross Bleckner, Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon, Nick Drake, Will Oldham, Scott Walker, Jaques Brel, Nick Cave, Billie Holiday, King Ludwig II, Alan Dunning (Einstein's Brain Project), Andrei Tarkovsky, Wim Wenders, Michael Stipe, Fellini, Stephane Mallarme, Diane Arbus, Eugen Atget, Berenice Abbott, Symbolism, Surrealism (especially the films and photos), outsider art, Swans, Aubrey Beardsley, Italo Calvino, Roland Barthes, Bruno Shulz, the Brothers Quay, Jean Cocteau, Louise Bourgoise, arte povera, architecture, landscape, Werner Herzog, Alain Resnais, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Douglas Sirk, Umberto de Sica, starn twins, Christian Boltanski, Rainer Werner fassbinder, Iggy Pop, hoolywood stills, early cartoons, animation, Loie Fuller, Marcel Duchamp...ad infinitum

Are there any other artists covering the same field as you?

I certainly hope so.

With regard to 'soundtoys' especially, why do you think the audio visual metaphor is so key to the net?

Because we respond to it like the other chattering screens and boxes in our life -T.V., Cinema, camcorder viewfinders, surveillance monitors...

Could you come up with a definition of "soundtoys"

an ineffable jouet which uses sound as it's lure and any manner of ingenious triggers for it's deployment.

Does the net promotes visual awareness that is unique to it?

Definitely, only on the net do we interact with such sophisticated interfaces of moving images and blends of media...for now.

How novel do you feel generative music is?

i think indirectly we have been setting up systems for music to occur and grow/mutate since the first choral round.

Would you describe yourself as a multimedia artist, a net.artist, programmer, or none of the above?

all of the above.

What software do you use most?

Cubase, Flash, GoLive, Phototshop, Media Cleaner, Premiere, Final Cut, QuickTime, VRWorx, NodeMedia, Poser, Carrara, Image Ready, various and sundry QTVR and VR apps.

BRAD TODD

Born:
19 April, 1968
Lethbridge, AB. Canada

Exhibitions:
Group shows
2000 Circus Deviations
La Panaderia, Mexico City, Mexico
1999 Canadian Currents (German/Canadian-Current Media Art)
Goethe-Institut, Toronto, ON.
1999 Group Exhibition
Cit? des arts, Paris, France
1998 Group Exhibition

Solo
1998 Aviary
Pari Nadimi, Toronto, ON.
1993 Esperanto
Stride Gallery, Calgary, AB.
1992 Doppler
Bourget Gallery, Montreal, PQ.


bt@mobilegaze.com
http://www.mobilegaze.com

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