Karen Gaskill is an artist researcher based in Manchester, UK. She is currently a PhD Researcher and Artist in Residence at the Digital Research Unit (DRU) based at The University of Huddersfield. Her practice-based research explores the re-definition of interactivity through contemporary art processes and approaches, questioning the expansion of the term to encompass collaborative work, exchange and social networking. The practical element of her research involves the creation of live pieces highlighting specific possibilities for participation and dialogue.

Her art practice has been shown nationally and internationally, and she has recently shown work with Host Artists Group in the Millennium Galleries as part of Sheffield08, and on the Orkney Isles for PixelPops08. Gaskill lectures part-time in Multimedia Studio Practice and Curatorial Studies at the University of Huddersfield and Sheffield Hallam University. She has an MRes in Fine Art and a BA(Hons) in Fine Art Textiles.

Karen Gaskill's practice explores the gap inherent in the use of representative technologies to present visual information. She is interested in the notion of rupture and illusion present in everyday situations, and the social neuroses that emerge in this space; such as feelings of displacement, estrangement, and the symptomatic development of anxieties.

Her work is influenced by early techniques of visual representation and how these were often used to manipulate experience and imply association. In augmenting these spaces of uncertainty, she explores the observers relationship  to the image, drawing from early influences such as the panorama in locating the viewer in a conceptual landscape, yet removing familiar anchors that make up our everyday socio-spatial constructs. This destabilisation of the visual causes confusion to occur, as we comprehend what we are seeing, but the construct it provides is incorrect or perhaps mismatched.

She works in a combination of digital and analogue technologies, combining 16mm film, photography and high definition video with emergent technologies and devices.

Gaskill's curatorial practice is interested in the collaborative and participatory aspect of exhibitions. Her current PhD research explores models of open and collaborative curation, and the re-structuring of conventional exhibition formats to provide space for discussion and exchange. She is the curator of Interval, an arts platform that investigates the potential configurations and collaborative outcomes that occur between artist, curator, audience and event. Recent projects include: Turnstile, ScatterProjects - If Elsewhere, Becoming Electric, Fast and Slow Networks and Meme Pool.

www.occasionallysomewhere.org
www.interval.org.uk
www.scatterprojects.org

Selected Recent Exhiibtions & Projects: 

2008    Observatory. Sheffield 08, Host Artists Group, Millennium Galleries, Sheffield
2008    Behind in Front, single channel video, 3 mins, silent. Pixel Pops, Orkney 

2007    Diorama2, Synchronised 4 channel video installation. Holden Gallery, Manchester

2006  Diorama1, live feed dual channel video installation. Futuresonic Festival 2006, Museum of Science and Industry and Bridgewater Canal, Manchester 

2006    Overlap, single channel video, 2,30 mins, sound. Victoria Baths, Manchester

2005    Frame, digital and mixed media installation. Bates Mill, Huddersfield
2005    InTheBox, Corridor Gallery, Melbourne, AU 

Curatorial:

2007    Interval07, Turnstile-Single Use, 3 single-day exhibitions, Holden Gallery, Manchester. 11 New Media Artists (co-curated with Michelle Kasprzak and Steve Swindells)
2007    Scatter Projects, The Media Centre, Huddersfield. 6 Mixed Media Artists (co-curated)

2008 Research Presentation. Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, UK. Supported by Castlefield Gallery

2007    Poster. Intimacy Conference, London, UK. Supported by AHRC
2007    Publication. Book Chapter. DeCentre. ISBN 0-920397-55-5
2007    Award. Curatorial Trip to Istanbul Biennial supported by Arts Council England and Castlefield Gallery
2007    Paper. Urban Screens Conference, Manchester, UK

2007    Award. Grants for the Arts, Arts Council England
2007    Artist Presentation. Huddersfield Media Centre, UK