René Christen is an Australian artist and co-founder of Code on Canvas who has been creating interactive work professionally and through personal artistic practice since 2001.
From unique artistic, educational, museum and gallery-based installations for organisations such as The Museum of Contemporary Art and Vivid Festival to big-budget projects for the world’s leading corporate clients such as The World Expo, Cisco and numerous automotive clients – René’s experience runs the gamut of modern interactive development and technology across the US, Europe and the Asia-Pacific.
René has been making interactive installations almost exclusively since 2007, working as the Interactive lead for Spinifex group until 2015 before co-founding Code on Canvas, applying his skill set to various stages of the creative and technical process from high level concepts, technical direction, project and production management right down to the finest details of software development and systems integration.
His personal practice integrates the conceptual and technological through custom built technologies to explore the sensate within art and the poetics of systems. Highlights from Rene’s personal creative practice include his MFA Thesis project Hum, and a series of installations in collaboration with poet Astrid L’Orange, Geometries of Attention. Recent public interactive works include Snake the Planet! as part of collective MPU, and Inanimata.
René takes an aesthetically conscious approach to code, developing an artisanal relationship to making electronic art. He uses open source solutions wherever possible, as sensitive to the idea of giving back to the authoring community as he is to facilitating these contemplative immersive experiences.
René’s credentials include a Bachelor of Electronic Arts (Distinction) – UWS, Honors in Time Based Media – COFA, UNSW and a Masters in Electronic Integrated Arts (Full scholarship) – Alfred University, NY.
