We are looking for an artist in the area of software art [1,2], to join the re|thread collective at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The candidate will explore various media technology (motion picture, sound, light) in order to embody the beauty of software execution into pieces of art. While software is everywhere around us in our daily activities, it is completely invisible. The goal of this work is to reveal the different technical and social strata involved in the construction and exeuction of software. Artisitic representations shall help reveal these invisible mechanisms to the public. The works of early generative artists as Sol Le Witt, and new media artists as Ryoji Ikeda and Lev Manovitch are strong inspirations for our work.
This work will take place in the software research group of Prof. Benoit Baudry, at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The group investigates technology to observe and transform software execution in order to build more robust software applications. We have also investigated software art in collaboration with media and music students. Since Oct 2019, the re|thread collective has developed software art, as part of this research group. re|thread collective has developed different art pieces in museums and in the public space, in particular for the Nobel Week Lights and for Tekniska Museet.
The candidate is expected to develop pieces of software art that can be distributed as web or mobile applications or that involves physical embodiment such as light, sound or other forms of sculpture. Applicants should have strong programming skills and experience with media and art installations. The candidate will work physically at KTH, in Stockholm. The contract’s duration can vary between 6 and 12 months, and can be full-time or part-time (at least 50%). These exact terms will be discussed as part of the interview process
Contact: Benoit Baudry, baudry@kth.se.
[1] Software art
[2] The web stalker
[3] re|thread collective
[4] Ryoji Ikeda
[5] Sol Le Witt
[6] Lev Manovitch