The Artist Pnoom

Artist Statement

I make audio-visual artworks for the internet and public display. This makes use of my broad skillset as a writer, visual artist, animator, musician, sound designer, installation artist and 3D designer.

I capture images, movement and sound using cameras and microphones. I weave this material together on a computer with words, animation, code and music. My work is usually interactive and non-linear, but with a strong sense of narrative. I love working in the fresh creative spaces opened up by new technologies.

Research is key to my practice; research into place, people, culture and nature. I believe that the past informs the present and the future. My work has empathy at its core. I respond to other peoples’ lived experience and the experiences of other creatures. My art is accessible and easy to understand. I believe that art is a communication; therefore, good art communicates well. I like to include playful elements alongside hard truths. My artistic concerns are climate chaos, inequality and what it feels like to be alive.

I believe that an artist’s job is to make work in response to the world that will move the viewer/listener/player into seeing, hearing or experiencing the world in a different way. I react badly to artworks called ‘untitled’.

What my work is

• I primarily make work using a computer.
• I capture images, movement and sound using cameras and microphones.
• I write words and play musical instruments.
• I make still images and moving images.
• I sculpt music and sound.
• I play with code, gameplay and interactivity.
• I make virtual spaces and objects.
• I combine these things in different ways into interactive, audio-visual artworks.

My art is currently shown to the world primarily using screens and projectors. The viewer currently interacts with my work using touch-screens, mice, keyboards, joysticks, location or their body in a space. So far, I have made work for the internet, private exploration and gallery display.

Why I make work

• I make work that embraces the fresh creative spaces opened up by new technology.
• Research is key to my practice; research into place, people, culture and nature.
• I believe that the past informs the present and the future.
• I believe that people build strong emotional connections to stories about other people and other creatures.
• I believe that art, at is core, is a communication; therefore any audience should understand good art, as it is good communication.
• My artistic concerns are climate chaos, inequality and what it feels like to be human.
• I believe that an artist’s job is to make work in response to the world that will move the viewer into seeing or experiencing the world in a different way.

Current work

Music

Artist C.V.

Name: Pnoom - also known as Simon Byford
Born: Birmingham, UK, 1968
Lives and works: Norwich, UK
Phone: 07816 358946
Email: simonb@uglystudios.com

Education

1998 - Dartington College of Arts, Totnes, Devon.
Qualification - First Class BA Honours Degree
in Performance Writing and Arts Management

Exhibitions

2002 – Group exhibition. Love Story. As part of Future Physical. Various locations, UK.

2001 – Group exhibition. Nativity of the Beasts. Working as part of Welfare State International, Ulverston, Cumbria, UK

2000 – Solo exhibition. Northern Soles. Lancaster Arts and Events, Morecambe Promenade, Morecambe, Lancashire, UK

2000 – Group exhibition. Darkmoor, Anibition and Electric Sand, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, Urban Futures 2000 International Conference. Collaboration with Nicholas Watton.

1999 – Group exhibition. Darkmoor, Cornell University, New York, USA, then touring, as part of Contact Zones: the art of CD ROM. Collaboration with Nicholas Watton.

1999 – Two-person exhibition. Darkmoor, Dartmoor Gallery, Devon, UK. Collaboration with Nicholas Watton.

1997 - Two-person exhibition. Anibition, In cyber cafes (when they were a thing) simultaneously on three continents. Collaboration with Nicholas Watton.

1996 – Group exhibition. The Three Authors, ICA, London, UK. As part of Young Exhibitionists. Collaboration with Peter J. Evans and Christie Fuller.

Commissions

2005 - Commissioned by Welfare State International, Ulverston, Cumbria.
Title – Bay Tales – web-based, interactive art piece.

2005 – Commissioned by Signals Media Arts, Colchester, Essex.
Title - Home – A computer game art piece distributed to families of disabled children in residential care in Essex and installed on computers in three residential care homes.

2004 - Commissioned by Pirate Utopia, Norwich, UK.
Title - Inside the Head of Doctor Felix Schaad – web-based, interactive, computer game, art piece produced to go alongside a theatre production of Bluebeard.

2003 - Commissioned by Pirate Utopia, Norwich, UK.
Title – Duncan Kong – web-based, interactive, computer game, art piece produced to go alongside a theatre production of Macbeth.

2002 – Commissioned by Future Physical, London, UK.
Title – Love Story – web-based, interactive art piece released as episodes, building into a final piece.

2002 – Commissioned by Norwich Arts Centre, Norwich, UK.
Title – Riverside – web-based, interactive art piece.

1999 – Commissioned by Welfare State International, John Fox Bursaries.
Title - Electric Sand – web-based, interactive art piece.

1998 – Commissioned by var.org, an online arts magazine in collaboration with Nicholas Watton. Title - 5 Story Building – web-based, interactive art piece.

Residencies

2005 – Choices - Commissioned by Signals Media Arts, Colchester, Essex.
A month-long residency based in two residential care homes for disabled children. I ran workshops with the children and produced a piece of artwork based on my experiences.

Publications

1999 - Darkmoor and Five Story Building included on the CD ROM 'Gravitational Intrigue an anthology of emergent hypermedia', The Little Magazine, University of Albany, New York, USA.

Music Releases

1992 - Lying Through Your Face E.P as part of Present from Margate – received national airplay

1992 – Dust E.P. as part of Present from Margate

2023 – Tudor Prince Theory album as The Artist Pnoom – all songs – words and music – written, recorded and released in July 2023 as part of the One Month Album project.

2023 – Tissue Paper Crown single as The Artist Pnoom

Professional Organisations

• Association of Heritage Interpreters – Corporate membership as part of Ugly Studios
• Museum and Heritage Association – Corporate membership as part of Ugly Studios
• A-N Member – As an individual artist

Software

• Adobe After Effects – highly competent
• Adobe Animate – highly competent
• Adobe Premier Pro – highly competent
• Adobe Photoshop – highly competent
• Adobe Illustrator – highly competent
• Sketchup and Layout – highly competent
• Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook – highly competent
• Apple Logic Pro – highly competent
• Audacity – competent
• Steinberg Cubase – competent
• Adobe InDesign – competent
• Adobe Acrobat – competent
• Adobe Dreamweaver – competent
• Adobe Character Animator -– basic skills
• Google Docs, Sheets, and Maps – basic skills
• Unity – Basic skills
• Blender – Basic skills

Coding and mark-up languages

• HTML - highly competent
• CSS - highly competent
• JavaScript - can copy, paste, amend and repurpose
• GSAP - can copy, paste, amend and repurpose
• ActionScript - can copy, paste, amend and repurpose

Hardware

• Smart phones – highly competent
• Computers – highly competent
• Microphones – highly competent
• Field recorders – highly competent
• Digital stills and video cameras – competent
• Lighting for location shoots and performance – competent
• Mixing desks for recording and for live sound – competent

Operating systems

• Mac – highly competent
• PC – highly competent
• IOS – highly competent
• Android – basic skills

Musical Instruments

• Guitar – highly competent
• Rhythm programming – highly competent
• Ukulele - highly competent
• Vocals and backing vocals – competent
• Bass – competent
• Keyboards and synthesisers – competent
• Percussion – competent
• Banjo – basic skills
• Drum kit – basic skills