Steve Gibson is Associate Professor in Innovative Digital Media at Northumbria University, Newcastle. He is primarily interested in transdisciplinary collaborations between art, design and computing, and has concentrated his research work on tactile and physical interfaces and applications that enable a healthier relationship with technology. He works as lead-beta tester of the Gesture and Media System motion-tracking system, and has produced a number of significant body-based pieces using this technology. His current research and practice also explore the formal, theoretical and practical implications of Live and Real-time Visuals. Steve has also had immediately publicly facing roles as Curator and Director for the Media Art event Interactive Futures (2002-07), and as Co-owner and Creative Director of a media company Limbic Media Corporation (2007-14).

Over the course of his 25-year career he has presented at many world-leading venues including Ars Electronica, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Banff Centre for the Arts, Digital Art Weeks, the European Media Arts Festival, ISEA, the National Museum of Scotland and Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich. His publishing career is also very active, with papers appearing in high profile books, journals and volumes including Leonardo Electronic Almanac, Springer, St. Martin’s Press, MIT Press, New World Perspectives, Urra Apogeo, and Passagen Verlag. His co-authored book Live Visuals: History, Theory, Practice will be published by Routledge in 2022. He is currently working with Northern Dance in Newcastle on a large-scale movement-based audio-visual project, Ephemera.

1. Real-Time and Live Visuals – I am interested in the varied uses of Visuals in a real-time context, including performance, live cinema, gaming, projection mapping and information systems. Both my theoretical and practical research has been primarily concerned with this topic. I ran an AHRC-sponsored research network on Real-time Visuals in 2013-14 that culminated in a publication on Live Visuals for Leonardo Electronic Almanac. I am currently completing a co-authored book on Live Visuals to be publshed by Routledge on 29 July, 2022. https://www.routledge.com/Live-Visuals-History-Theory-Practice/Gibson-Arisona-Leishman-Tanaka/p/book/9781032252681#

2. Motion-tracking – I have worked on motion-tracking technologies for the past twenty-years plus. I have been lead beta-tester for the Gesture and Media System tracking environment for the past twenty years. My work with these systems has included creating behaviours for controlling mixed media with user-motion, and design of 3D spaces for multi-user interaction with immersive environments. I have worked on a project in this area with Northern Dance, funded through Creativity Works/European Regional Diversification Fund (ERDF), and am currently working on a funded ERDF Funded project with them.

3. Intelligent gaming – Between 2007 and 2016 I completed a project called Grand Theft Bicycle in which the user interaction is achieved by outfitting a stationary bicycle with sensors. This is part of my on-going interest in physical computing, and more particularly forms the core of a long-term research goal to create a series of interfaces that encourage users to physically interact with technologically based environments.

4. Transdisciplinarity, as evidenced by a new generation of researchers who work across different disciplines. These researchers work not just collaboratively but employ the skill-set from one discipline and apply it to another becoming transliterate individuals. I co-edited a Springer volume entitled Transdisciplinary Digital Art.