Talk by Anthony Rowe 7.30 pm at the Sussex Arts Club, Brighton.

Anthony Rowe's work involves moulding interactivity, sound and virtual space into emotive immersive experiences. His talk, entitled Interfacing Physical and Virtual Spaces, focused on how he uses physical space as an intuitive interface to virtual space, using webcams, ultrasonic position detection and other locative technology. He discussed the aesthetics of virtual space and how it functions as a parallel reality in his work. In particular he discussed issues in using spatial and interactive sound in virtual space and the problems of enabling multiple interactants to share audiovisual experiences. He mainly focused on four projects: altzero (an immersive, navigable virtual sound space); Come Closer (interactive text-based installation); Ghosts (interactive sound installation); and fREQ (an interactive 'drawn sound' installation that is currently a work-in-progress).

Anthony is a founder and leading member of squidsoup. He has an MA in Design for Interactive Media from Middlesex University (1997) and a BSc in Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics from Reading University (1985). Anthony was also on the art gallery selection jury for SIGGRAPH 2004 and was a keynote speaker at CADE 2003. He has worked as an as an engineer, teacher, illustrator, travel photographer, flamenco guitarist and long distance single-handed sailor (he holds an obscure world record for crossing the Atlantic alone).

Squidsoup's work focuses on using interactivity, sound and space (virtual and real) in unexpected yet intuitive ways on the web, as installations, in games and in software applications. The organisation was formed in 1997 with the aims of pushing at the boundaries of interactive design, and exploiting the immersive and emotional potential of digital media.

Their work has been shown in festivals, seminars and galleries around the world including ISEA (Nagoya, Japan, 2002), SONAR (Barcelona, 2001) and SIGGRAPH (LA, 2001), as well as several online exhibitions. Recognition includes an EMMA (Best On-line Art 2000) and a BAFTA nomination (Interactive Arts 2002). Collaborators include NESTA Futurelab, Surrey Institute of Art and Design, Mobile Bristol, Watershed, Bristol Old Vic and the ICA.