Currently on view at the BCS London offices in Moorgate is a show by printmaker Sue Gollifer, organised by the Computer Arts Society, a special interest group of BCS.
Sue Gollifer has enjoyed a 60 year career as an influential expert in the world of digital arts, taking on the roles of an artist, curator, administrator, researcher and academic.
She has sat on numerous advisory boards including the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA) and BCS’ Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH), part of the Association for Computing Machinery in the United States) at a time — the 1980s — when women tended to be underrepresented in such organisations.
Although Sue initially studied painting at the University of Coventry, her interest in abstraction and systems art soon led her to printmaking, searching for what she calls ‘mechanised perfection.’ She explained, ‘I was working systematically, but on paper with numbers. I would plot the coordinates, and then I screen-printed. I liked the idea of the screen print because it was so flat, and you can’t distinguish layers; it is without expression.’ Sensing that computers were a natural next step for her, she was able to utilise her skills from the screen-printing process, as images created with software are similarly constructed in layers — just as in traditional printmaking. These interests can be seen in the work on view in the exhibition.
Since the late 1970s Gollifer has been a tour de force at the University of Brighton, over the years helping to put Brighton — and more largely, the UK — on the digital art map. In 1989 she joined the Rediffusion Simulation Research Centre, a fully funded lab at the university where she was employed to research the impact of new technologies on printmaking. She became instrumental in developing networks and connections, growing this lab to encompass the first CADE conference (Computers in Art and Design Education). As part of this she curated ArCade in 1995, the first UK open international biennale exhibition of digital fine art prints. This was met with great enthusiasm and toured museums and universities in the UK. She subsequently went on to curate further editions that over the years toured to Europe, Russia and Australia.
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Sue also set up one of the first MA postgraduate programmes in digital media arts, linked with Lighthouse, Brighton, as well as an MA in Printmaking at the London Print Studio. Also in the 1990s she successfully bid for Brighton to host the Computers Teaching Initiative Centre in Art Design and Technologies, an initiative of the Higher Education Funding Council for England. As a direct result of her interest, they specialised in computers in art. With Sue as the centre manager, this unit gave advice on the computer revolution to art and design academics across the UK.
As a result of Sue’s expertise, Brighton also bid for and won the contract to house the international headquarters of the International Symposium on Electronic/Emerging Art (ISEA). Sue ran this for about 15 years, working with the board and present and past symposiums as well as travelling internationally to recruit new hosts for future symposiums and exhibitions. Conferences like ISEA allowed for early networking and artistic exchange — highly valuable during a time when it was difficult to get information in this bourgeoning field.
In 2006 she was awarded an International Digital Media Arts Award for exceptional services to the international new media community. Sue is still involved with SIGGRAPH in the digital arts community and on the jury of SIGGRAPH Asia. She also works closely with the College Art Association in the United States, having previously been vice chair for their annual conference.
Next time you are visiting the BCS London headquarters, be sure to check out the exhibition of digital prints by Sue Gollifer. A free PDF of the catalogue is available from https://www.computer-arts-society.com/.
