Network as Material: An Interview with Julian Oliver

An Interview with Julian Oliver By Taina Bucher. "I met the Berlin-based media artist and programmer Julian Oliver in Toronto as part of the Subtle Technologies festival, where he taught a workshop on the Network as Material. The aim of the workshop reflects Oliver’s artistic and pedagogical philosophy nicely; to not only make people aware of the hidden technical infrastructures of everyday life but to also provide people with tools to interrogate these constructed and governed public spaces.

Julian Oliver, born in New Zealand (anyone who has seen him give a talk will know not to mistake him for an Australian) is not only an extremely well versed programmer but is increasingly as equally knowledgeable with computer hardware. His background is as diverse as the places he has lived and the journeys it has taken him on. Julian started out with architecture, moved on to Australia to work in the field of virtual reality and as Stelarc’s assistant. He continued on to Gotland to work on the artistic game-development collective Select Parks before moving to Madrid and finally to Berlin, a city he continuously speaks enthusiastically about. Julian is also an outspoken advocate of free software and thinks of his artistic practice not so much as art but more in terms of being a ‘critical engineer’, a term that he applies particularly to his collaborations with his studio partner Danja Vasiliev."

Read the full interview here (via Furtherfield)...