Caroline Langill, Shifting Polarities

Interview with David Rokeby

Born in Tillsonburg (Ontario) in 1960, David Rokeby studied at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto under Norman White, graduating in experimental arts. Rokeby’s signature work Very Nervous System (1986-90) premiered at the Venice Biennale (Italy) in 1996.

In 2000 his work Watched and Measured (2000) was awarded the first BAFTA award for interactive art from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Rokeby has twice received Austria’s Prix Ars Electronica (1991 and 1997). In 2002 Rokeby was awarded a Governor General’s Award in Visual Arts by the Canada Council for the Arts. Permanent installations of his work can be found at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto, and at the Science Museum in London, England. His work has been been included in major exhibitions in Italy, Finland, Austria, Germany, and Brazil, among others.

In 2005 David Rokeby was commissioned by the Daniel Langlois Foundation to produce Machine for Taking Time (Boul. Saint-Laurent), 2006-2007. The work was exhibited at Ex-Centris from September 2007 to April 2009.

To mark the tenth anniversary of the Daniel Langlois Foundation in 2007, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts has presented from September to December 2007 works by ten artists from Canada and abroad who have received funding from the Foundation over the years. This exhibition entitled e-art: New Technologies and Contemporary Art featured three works by David Rokeby: The Giver of Names (1991-), n-cha(n)t (2001), and Seen (2002).