Ebon Fisher’s ‘Nervepool’ featured at University of the Arts

HOBOKEN , N.J. — At An experimental exhibit by Ebon Fisher, Visiting Artist to Stevens Institute of Technology, will be featured at the University of the Arts, Philadelphia. Fisher’s “A Glimpse of the Nervepool” opens Oct. 12 and runs until Nov. 2 (Gallery 817, Anderson Hall, 333 S. Broad St , Philadelphia ). In addition, he will present a lecture on Thursday, Oct. 12 in the Levitt Auditorium Gershman Y ( 401 S. Broad Street , Philadelphia ) from 10:15 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and conduct an experimental Media Immersion Workshop for students (Gallery 817, Anderson Hall, 333 S. Broad St , Philadelphia ) from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. The workshop will involve absorbing students virtually into Fisher’s transmedia world, Nervepool.net. “It’s a more physical immersion than you would normally expect from 3D game-worlds like Second Life,” says Fisher.

Since 1992, Fisher has called himself a “media breeder.” He “cultivates” his art in what he refers to as the “plasma of media and minds.” He taught experimental media at MIT's Media Lab at its inception in the mid 1980s and after three years fronting a multimedia rock band, landed in Williamsburg , Brooklyn , where he began to explore community-based media rituals.

Based on an attempt to map the flows of information within his rituals, Fisher developed a network system of ethics called Bionic Codes. These later evolved into Zoacodes. Fisher is now cultivating a transmedia, interspecies sanctuary for his Zoacodes called The Nervepool. He teaches transmedia at Stevens.

Cultivating “media organisms” in the plasma of culture and mass communications, Fisher refers to himself as a "media breeder." Wired has dubbed him “Mr. Meme” and New York Magazine has listed him among the “New York Cyber 60.” Java Magazine featured him as one of the “Visionaries of the New Millennium.”

Fisher was one of the first instructors at MIT's Media Lab where he began his research into culture as a form of “intercoding” between humans, machines and ecosystems. His experimental media rituals in the 1990s helped to build vital channels of communication in Williamsburg , Brooklyn , which has grown into a landmark arts district. According to Domus Magazine, Fisher’s bionic ritual, the Web Jam, became a “symbolic climax” to the emerging Williamsburg art scene. Newsweek dubbed the Web Jam a “sequel to the rave.” Stemming from his media rituals Fisher developed a network-based system of ethics called Bionic Codes. These evolved into Zoacodes and have spawned an entire transmedia world, the Nervepool. Much of this work draws parallels between nerves, circuitry and social networks.

Fisher's media works have been exhibited in museums and festivals around the world. His codes have been presented for the last nine years on the Guggenheim Museum 's online CyberAtlas which documents the emergence of cyber culture.

Fisher received his M.S in Visual Studies from MIT following a BFA from Carnegie-Mellon University . In 1998 he was invited by the University of Iowa to create a new digital arts program, “Digital Worlds” which he directed for three years. Fisher is currently a Visiting Artist at Stevens. He has lectured at numerous colleges and universities, including New York University , Sarah Lawrence College , Bennington College , the University of Washington and Columbia University . He has written on media and the arts for Art Byte, the Utne Reader, Digital Creativity, the Walker Arts Center and the New York Council for the Arts. Fisher's transmedia world is at www.Nervepool.net

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.

Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,150 undergraduate and 3,500 graduate students, with about 250 full-time faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.  

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