Matt Adams is a co-founder of Blast Theory, an artists’ group making interactive work based in Brighton in the UK. Blast Theory makes games, performances and installations online, on the street and on mobile. Drawing on popular culture, their work often blurs the boundaries between the real and the fictional and audiences are invited to participate in radical ways. In some of their previous work such as A Machine To See With participants are guided by mobile phone through the city to rob a real bank, whilst in Ulrike and Eamon Compliant you take the role of a terrorist and arrive at a hidden location for an interrogation.

In this talk Matt will be introducing their latest project Karen, a smartphone app that uses psychological profiling in the background as you interact. Karen is a life coach who is happy to help you work through a few things in your life. However, as you chat with her, it becomes clear that Karen is slightly chaotic with few boundaries between her personal and professional lives. She contacts you late at night from her bedroom and has a tendancy to overshare and in return is very nosy about you.

Blast Theory has shown work at the Venice Biennale, Sundance Film Festival and at Tate Britain. Commissioners include Channel 4, the BBC and the Royal Opera House. The group has been nominated for four BAFTAs and won the Golden Nica at Prix Ars Electronica. Matt has curated at Tate Modern and at the ICA. He has lectured at Stanford University and the Sorbonne. He is a winner of the Maverick Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards.

Following the talk, Matt will be joined for Q&A by Mandy Rose – Director of UWE Bristol’s Digital Cultures Research Centre and Co-Convenor of the i-Docs Symposium.

Presented in association with Watershed by i-Docs and the Digital Cultures Research Centre, UWE Bristol

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