Wikipedia: Brian Reffin Smith (born 1946) is a writer, artist and teacher born in Sudbury in the United Kingdom. He lives in Berlin, Germany. Working with computers since the middle 1960s, he was a pioneer of computer-based conceptual art, with the aim of trying to resist technological determinism and "state of the art" technology which might merely produce "state of the technology" art. After showing interactive artworks at the Musée d'art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1983 he was invited by the French Ministry of Culture to intervene in art education, and was later appointed to a teaching post in the École nationale supérieure d'art (national art school) in Bourges. In the UK in 1979, Smith wrote 'Jackson', one of the first digital painting programs, for the Research Machines 380Z computer, software which was distributed by the Ministry of Education and widely used in schools and elsewhere. The BBC published his art software for the BBC Micro. He has been cited as one of the most prolific letter-writers to the UK newspaper The Guardian, along with the celebrated Keith Flett. Smith is a member of the OuPeinPogroup of artists, Paris, France; Regent of the College of 'Pataphysics, Paris, France, holding the Chair of Catachemistry and Speculative Metallurgy. Until 2011 he was Professeur, École nationale supérieure d'art, Bourges, France. Smith won the first-ever Prix Ars Electronica, the Golden Nica, in Linz, Austria, 1987. Areas of work, research, teaching and performance include ideas of Zombie and 'Pataphysics in art and elsewhere, and the détournement or "hijacking" of systems, mechanisms, programs etc. from computing and other areas of science and technology, to make conceptual art. Smith claims to have become a Zombie, and hence to have a deeper insight into problems of existence, artificial intelligence and art, after a botched heart operation in a Paris hospital when, instead of the more usual latex balloon being used to inflate a blocked artery during angioplasty, the team had recourse to a puffer fish (or fugu). Brian reffin smith lives and works in Berlin and France. Internet: Since 1986 he has been a French civil servant, working for the Ministry of Culture and teaching at the the Ecole Nationale Superieure d'Art in Bourges, france, where he runs the Atelier Art + Info and teaches computer-based conceptual art. He is a regent of the College de Pataphysique, Paris, holding the chair of catachemistry and computational metallurgy. He was educated at the Brunel university and later at the Royal college of art in London, where he was apponted to a research fellowship in 1979 and served as the college tutor in computing in art and design from 1980 to 1984. He also taught, in the 1970's and early 1980's, at the open University, St. Martin's School of Art, and Wimbeldon Schools of Art, and Chelsea and canterbury Colleges of Art. In 1987 he won the first ever Prix Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria. His artworks and performances are presented internationally. smith was also involved in the influential Computer programme on BBC TV, and he appeared frequentlyon television and radio. He has written a number of books for children and adults about computers, with an emphasis on their creative aspects. In 1998 he became a zombie. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.