Elliot Anderson is an artist working with interactive technologies, curator, educator and software engineer. He has been involved professionally in the field of computer technology since the early 1980's. Working as an engineer he developed interactive computer graphics for flight simulation, medical technology, cartography and industrial use. As an undergraduate he studied computer engineering at Northeastern University in Boston. He received a Bachelors of Arts in Art in the Conceptual Design program and a Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies focusing on technology art practice and 20th century continental philosophy from San Francisco State University. He is currently an Associate Professor of Art and directs the Electronic Media program at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Anderson has organized numerous events and exhibitions focusing on technology and its application and effect on the arts. He curated and produced exhibitions of electronic media at the Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies, the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery and a special exhibit of interactive art at the 1993 Seybold Conference. As the technology arts editor for the magazine OnLine Design, Anderson wrote about technology arts in the Bay Area and throughout the United States. In 1993 Anderson produced and organized a conference on electronic media art entitled Art in the Age of Electronic Media at the San Francisco Art Institute. He has lectured and been a visiting artist in institutions including UC Davis, the San Francisco Arts Institute and the California Institute for the Arts. Anderson has participated as a speaker numerous conferences such as SIGRAPH, The Society for Photographic Educators and The Culture of Interactivity.
Anderson's work incorporates a wide range of media including video, sound, interaction with the computer, installation and computer generated text and image. The focus of his art making is an examination of human and biological systems as means to create an ongoing negotiation and interaction with the computer and its software. He is currently developing a project entitled Networked Nomadic Artforms for which he received funding from the University of California’s Inter-Campus Arts grant. The project uses artificial life algorithms and the Internet to create artworks that evolve through interaction on the Internet. Anderson created interactive sets for an opera by composer Daniel Rothman that premiered in Graz Austria in 1996 and was preformed at the LA County Museum of Art in April 1998. He developed in collaboration with the artist Jim Campbell the first computer based interactive public art installation owned by the City of San Francisco for the San Francisco State University MUNI station. His work is exhibited locally, in the U.S., Canada and Europe.
