About Furtherfield
Special Projects | Learning and Participation | The Crew | Contact

Furtherfield.org was founded in London in 1996 and is the collaborative work of artists, programmers, writers, activists, musicians and thinkers who explore beyond traditional remits; dedicated to the creation, promotion, and criticism of adventurous digital/networked media art work for public viewing, experience and interaction. Developing imaginative strategies in a range of digital & terrestrial media contexts, Furtherfield develops global, contributory projects that facilitate art activity simultaneously on the Internet, the streets and public venues.

Twelve years on, the Furtherfield neighbourhood of sister-sites and projects such as VisitorsStudio, Rosalind-Upstart New Media Lexicon, HTTP [House of Technologically Termed Practice], Furthernoise, 5+5=5 NetArtFilm, Do-It-With-Others (DIWO), has morphed and expanded with over 600 active and regular contributors and a regular readership/audience of approximately 26,000 people around the world. Its activities and projects have steadily grown in scope and ambition and Furtherfield.org is currently listed second in Dazed and Confused's Digital 50, favorite sites for global creativity.

Behaviour Statement

An artist-led group that utilizes networked media to create, explore, nurture and promote the art that happens when connections are made and knowledge is shared - across the boundaries of established art-world institutions and their markets, grass-roots artistic and activist projects and communities of socially-engaged software developers. This is a spectrum that engages from the maverick media-art-makers and small collectives of cross-specialist practitioners, to projects that critique and change dominant hierarchical structures as part of their art process.

Furtherfield.org's core activities of review, criticism and discussion have been directed, sustained and driven by the research, skills and energy of the Furtherfield team, and its diverse international group of users, on a mainly voluntary basis. Specific projects that facilitate in-depth collaboration between programmers, artists, and artist-programmers have received some public funding. Since 2004 Furtherfield has run a gallery for networked media art in North London called HTTP and has received regular core funding from the Arts Council of England to help to consolidate and develop the sustainability of its activities.

As an artist-led group, Furtherfield.org has always been interested in the cultural value of collaboratively developed visions as opposed to the supremacy of the vision of the individual artistic genius. This interest has led Furtherfield to develop artware (software platforms for generating art) that relies on the creative and collaborative engagement of its users (formally known as artists and their audiences) to make meaning. Through projects such as VisitorsStudio it explores the extent to which those who view and interact with work, including those from under-represented groups, become co-producers in a network for collaboratively authored and variegated visions.We can make our own World . . .

More info about Furtherfield Projects here.
For other information about Furtherfield.org email with questions.email

The Furtherfield Crew
Furtherfield Artists and Reviewers >>

Core Crew - Current Grafters
email - Ruth Catlow - Co Founder & Codirector
Ruth is an artist. She initiated Furtherfield.org with Marc Garrett in 1996 and works with him and the Furtherfield community to devise platforms that facilitate artistic collaboration across networks and to initiate and manage projects online and for physical and social spaces including HTTP Gallery. She is mainly responsible for org development, planning, fundraising, curation, artistic and technical project management, maintaining team-fitness and discipline.
email -Marc Garrett - Co Founder & Codirector
Marc is an artist, writer and musician. He initiated Furtherfield with Ruth Catlow in 1996 and works with her to initiate and manage Furtherfield projects and to initiate and manage projects online and for physical and social spaces including HTTP Gallery. He is responsible for keeping up the team's spirits by playing extreme music/sounds, asking when its lunch time and who fancies a cup of tea? He is one of Furtherfield's principal researchers into net art and cultural context on the Internet and co-curates featured works. He is also responsible for development, fundraising, curatorship and marketing.
email -Neil Jenkins -Technical Director for Projects
Neil is an artist/programmer whose responsibilities include calming everyone's nerves in the face of techno-terror and developing networked technology as a focus point for [live] creative discourse, production and events. Neil has ongoing input into the development, design and programming of key Furtherfield projects such as Visitorsstudio and Rosalind. He also works closely with Roger Mills of Furthernoise.org developing the artistic programme for VisitorsStudio.
email -Giles Pender- Technical, Network and Logistic's guru
Giles is yet to be beaten by the most obscure computer instruction manuals. He is happiest dismantling and cross-breeding machines and messing with the with the mind & matter of computer operating systems. His specialities are everything. His responsibilities include pre-empting the technical needs of the Furtherfield office, computer networking and live events.
email - Michael Szpakowski - Outreach and Education
Michael is an artist, composer and film-maker who devises and facilitates many of our Learning and Participation projects with young people. With dvcam in hand he finds poetry in the everyday, music in a London pavement and if called upon could find a way to inspire the imaginations of curbstones with his enthusiasm, experience and skill-sharing abilities.
email -Lauren Wright - Co-producer and Coordinator
Lauren is a researcher, curator, writer, cultural consultant and closet accounts whiz. Her responsibilities at Furtherfield include establishing partnerships, researching and preparing funding applications, overseeing touring commissions, organising things, and maintaining the health of Furtherfield's accounts-in a word, generally making things run more smoothly. Lauren is developing her role as co-curator for Furtherfield projects.

Neighbourhood Crew


People in the neighbourhood with specialist input into projects and sister-sites.
email -Atty (Andy Forbes) - Programmer/ Head Gardener
Atty has been responsible for knocking the Furtherfield site into neat rows in the French ornamental style (well, actually putting everything into a database). Hopefully this will also mean Furthernoise will be able to increase the involvement of its guest reviewers and atty has long history of involvement with digital and networked art as founder of http://www.net-art.ws, as a member of the 'net.art' hell collective and organizer of open_digi events in South London.Artist
email -Roger Mills - Director and editor of Furthernoise.org
Roger is a musician and sound artist. He is the resident curator and editor at Furthernoise. Furthernoise has its own crew of musicians, reviewers and grafters and Roger coordinates their activities. He has written and produced albums, designed sound for performance, dance and video. He has also contributed to locative media research projects in GPS, ultra sound and spatialised audio for multi-screen cinema at Bristol University. Visit his site at http://www.eartrumpet.org
email -Charlotte Frost - Digital Critic & Editor of Furthertxt Writer
Charlotte is the Editor for Furthertxt, a sister-site to Furtherfield. This online platform for text based discussion, critique and creativity continues the eternal search for the many ways of achieving great text. Charlotte is a critic and private view attendee whose other responsibilities include scoping out the digital art scene and spreading the love of Furtherfield. She is also known for freelance art marketing, selling women's clothes to suburbanites and her Virgonian organisational qualities.

Now-Sleeping Furtherfielders


People who, through their grafting, have at some time and in some way contributed to Furtherfield's current condition.
email -Adrian Eaton - Computer Programmer/ Application Developer
The programming for the Furtherfield web site 2004-7 was developed by Adrian using PHP & MYSQL. It comprised a dynamic content management system, ensuring that curators, artists and editors were able to update content and converse through the site. It introduced a new level of interactivity for all visitors to the site through the 'Public Broadcast' and 'comments' facility.
email -Matt Catlow - Web Designer 2001-3
Matt is a musician and web designer and was responsible for instigating many a Furtherfield fry-up at the local greasy spoon (we just can't give ourselves permission now!). He ensured the smooth running of all associated sites within the bosom of the Furtherfield Neighbourhood as well as designing sites for Furtherfield artists. As well as continuing to make and perform music he now delivers creative tech projects at St Mungo's Bridge Training centre.
Stephanie Delcroix - PR and publicity
Stephanie, worked with furtherfield on the PR and publicity for online and HTTP Gallery events. Developing mailing lists and working with designers on preview cards, publicity materials and press releases and generally overseeing a marked step-up in the press coverage for our activities. She has now gone on to develop the digital archive at ArtAngel.
email -Zara Hughes - Web Admin and Technical developer 2005-7
Zara was web administrator and technical developer for Furtherfield. Responsible for maintaining, updating and developing web-based Furtherfield and their neighbourhood of projects. Zara could usually be found blissfully working away, purring behind her laptop along with Bela and Bobby the Furtherfield resident cats.
Jade King- Administrator 2004-5
Jade created reassuring order in the sea of Furtherfield office chaos. She is developing her skills as a web designer and digital artist and has a great knack of sourcing gems of human and technical resource.
email -MEZ [Mary-Anne Breeze] - FurtherCritic
Mez is a writer and code poet; the third FurtherCritic in residence. She offers regular and informative articles about varied explorative projects & artworks featured and hosted by furtherfield. She is an international net.wurker and avataristic author of the networked "mezangelle" system. She has exhibited extensively since the early 90s and is an online journalist, co-moderator of the _arc.hive_ experimental mailing list and online curator and lecturer in Net/Codeworking. http://www.hotkey.net.au/~netwurker
email - Graziano Milano - Project Developer for VisitorsStudio
Graziano Milano is an artist and creative producer with extensive experience in participatory and collaborative projects. He is involved in the production of creative social-cultural experiments and pilots through innovative use of live streaming broadcast technologies. Graziano is a recent member of Furtherfield with the responsibility for the development and management of the VisitorsStudio Network.
email -U-Sun Web Admin Sysop 2005
U-Sun was the Sysop for Furtherfield and Netbehaviour. She continues to traverse the fields of performance, interactivity, and audio-visual composition. She creates instruments, objects and operations in producing opensource 3d generations and micro glitch assemblages from feedback systems.
email -Chris Webb - Technical Director & Designer 2004-5
Chris, artist and website designer worked with Adrian Eaton as lead designer on the Furtherfield web site (and sister-sites) to ensure their general sparkle and usability. He tended to Furtherfield's digital gardens, landscaping selected artists, providing vital nutrients to helping plants grow, keeping an eye on the weeds, mowing the lawn and making sure that the gardening tools are given back to the neighbours. He and Adrian now run their own company - Paperheads.