Brian Reffen Smith

Brian Reffin Smith, born in 1946 in Sudbury, UK, is an artist, writer, and educator based in Berlin, Germany. A pioneer of computer-based conceptual art, he won the first-ever Golden Nica at Ars Electronica in 1987. Smith studied metallurgy and metal physics at Brunel University before earning a master’s degree in the interdisciplinary Department of Design Research at the Royal College of Art, where he was later appointed Research Fellow and College Lecturer. 

Since the late 1960s, Smith has explored how technology can be used to make art that resists easy categorization. His work often sits at the edge of logic, code, and absurdity, drawing from fields like artificial intelligence, philosophy, and pataphysics. He wrote one of the earliest digital painting programs (Jackson, 1979), published art software for the BBC Micro, and contributed to early UK computer literacy efforts on national television.

From 1986 to 2011, he served as Professor of Art and Computing at the École nationale supérieure d’art in Bourges, while also teaching in London, Paris, and across Europe. He’s a member of the OuPeinPo collective and a Regent of the Collège de ’Pataphysique, where he holds the Chair of Catachemistry and Speculative Metallurgy. His practice includes installation, performance, and text-based works that invite critique and participation. In Artist/Critic (1988), two Amiga computers impersonated both roles, only able to communicate through audience mediation, revealing the scripts to be identical.

Smith’s exhibitions span decades and continents, including shows at Whitechapel Gallery, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, SIGGRAPH, and the Digital Art Museum in Berlin. He has written extensively on art and technology, contributed to journals like Leonardo, and presented at conferences around the world. Known for his dry wit and sharp critical insight, his writing continues to challenge and provoke, encouraging deeper reflection on the history and direction of computer art.