Paul DeMarinis (b. 1948 in Cleveland, Ohio) has been working as an electronic media artist since 1971 and has created numerous performance works, sound and computer installations, and interactive electronic inventions. One of the first artists to use computers in performance, he has performed widely internationally including at Het Apollohuis, Netherlands; Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria; Kunstencentrum Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium; Musikkens Hus, Aalborg, Denmark. Much of his work deals with the areas of overlap between human input, communication, and technology. He is currently a Professor of Art and Music at Stanford University, CA.
DeMarinis’s notable large-scale interactive installations include “Sound Waves and Scan-O-Vision” which was commissioned by Swatch for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, GA and “RainDance” at the Swatch Pavilion in the World’s Fair, Expo 1998 in Lisbon, Portugal. “Sound Waves and Scan-O-Vision” used timing devices and sensors developed for the Olympic competitions as input and displays, allowing members of the public to trigger sounds, rhythms, and time-motion images of themselves in play. “RainDance” was an installation of twenty falling streams of water modulated with audio signals, creating sound and music when in contact with visitors’ umbrellas. He has also created other interactive installations at the Park Tower Hall in Tokyo, Japan and the Ft. Lauderdale International Airport in Florida.
DeMarinis was featured in the 2006 Shanghai Biennale, International Biennial of Contemporary Art of Seville (BIACS) in 2008, and Art Basel in Miami, FL in 2007. He exhibited widely internationally at Museo De Arte Contemporáneo De Oaxaca (MACO), Oaxaca, Mexico; Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, Korea; Musée D’art Contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, France; Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland; Science and Industry Museum, Manchester, England; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; World Financial Center, New York, NY; Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA; The Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PA; Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA; The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA; San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA; Cantor Center for the Arts, Stanford, CA; Hoover Institution, Stanford, CA; among many others.
He has received major awards and fellowships in both Visual Arts and Music from The National Endowment for the Arts, N.Y.F.A., N.Y.S.C.A., the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and was awarded the Golden Nica for Interactive Art at Ars Electronica in 2006. His works are in the permanent collections of the Phaeno Science Center, Wolfsburg, Germany; Kanagawa Science Park; Kawasaki, Japan; Papalote Museo del Niño, Mexico City, Mexico; Ontario Science Centre, Ontario, Canada; Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA; Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA; Boston Children’s Museum, Boston, MA; Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA; among many others.