Michael Bielický

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Born 1954 in Prague. In 1969 after the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia emigrated with his parents to Düsseldorf, West Germany. 1975–1978 studied medicine at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf. 1978–1979 visited United States for longer periods; traveling across the continent taking photographs. 1980 lived in New York; experimented with photography and worked part-time as a horse-cab driver. 1981 returned to Germany and worked as a part-time photographer for the magazine Monochrom (1981–1984). 1984 enrolled at the State Academy of Fine Arts (Staatliche Kunstakademie) in Düsseldorf, initially studying photography with Bernd Becher but soon changing disciplines to study under the video art pioneer Nam June Paik; after graduating with excellence (Meisterschüler) in 1988/89, he worked as Paik's assistant (1989-1990).

1991–2006 returned to Prague and established the New Media department at the Academy of Fine Arts (AVU). In addition to his position at AVU he has worked with the Prague Goethe Institute where at the beginning of the 1990s he organized symposia dedicated to the work of the Prague-born philosopher and theoretician of photography, Vilém Flusser, whom he also filmed in an experimental documentary (Flussers Fluss, 1990). Since 1991 an advisor to the Soros Center for Contemporary Art. 1995–96 an advisor in culture and technology at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. 1996 co-founder of the Institute of Unsteable Thoughts in Kiev, Ukraine. 1997 cooperation with the High Tech Center Babelsberg (Potsdam, Germany). Since the mid-1990s he has created interactive installations and performances. 1999–2000 research work at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie – ZKM (Karlsruhe, Germany) on the development of a prototype for an interactive virtual environment 360°. 1999–2001 development of Virtual Set Project at ZKM Karlsruhe. Since 2002 has worked as advisor for the establishment of the first New Media Department at Chiang Mai University, Northern Thailand. Since 2006 professor at the department of digital media at the University of Arts and Design (HfG) / ZKM Karlsruhe.

Over the past twentyfive years Michael Bielicky has participated in many international exhibitions, festivals and symposia, presenting projects that experiment with navigation, video-communication, virtual reality and data visualization technologies, often developed in collaboration with ZKM Karlsruhe, Ars Electronica Linz, High Tech Center Berlin-Babelsberg etc. Exhibited in Centre Pompidou, Paris, MOMA New York, National Gallery Prague, Kunsthaus Zurich, ZKM Karlsruhe, Ars Electronica Linz etc.

Writings
  • "Praha - nová média - Akademie výtvarných umění / Prague - New media - the Academy of Fine Arts", in Orbis Fictus: nová média v současném umění / New Media in Contemporary Arts, eds. Ludvík Hlaváček and Marta Smolíková, Prague: Sorosovo centrum současného umění, 1995, pp 157-160. (Czech)/(English)
  • "Prague: A Place of Illusionists", trans. Sarah Clift, in Future Cinema: The Cinematic Imaginary after Film, eds. Jeffrey Shaw and Peter Weibel, Karlsruhe: ZKM, and Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003, 96-101. (English)
Interviews
Literature
  • Marta Smoliková, "Michael Bielicky", Lanterna magika: New technologies in Czech art of the 20th century, Prague: KANT, 2002. (English)
Links