20 March 2014 – Creative Professions & Digital Arts – Prof Gregory Sporton
Gregory Sporton, Professor of Digital Creativity,
Head of the Creative Professions & Digital Arts Department
Gregory’s research focuses on the application and development of new technologies in the visual and performing arts. Having been attracted to the potential of new technologies for creative practice, and spending some time exploring and repurposing them for use in an arts context, Gregory advocated the importance for artists to be more involved with the development of technology and to have more to say about how it is used. This includes working with technologists and developing bespoke technologies that draw out or extend the possibilities of creativity in an arts/technology context.
His work also places emphasis on what artists need to do in order to create properly in this space, seeing tech skills as part of their craft. It also challenges conventional notions about the applications of technology, especially the prejudice towards the visual found in most technological applications in the arts. However these investigations turn out, Gregory believes that we currently are only scratching the surface of where this relationship between creativity and technology might take us.