Dr Steve Gibson

Associate Professor

School: Design Arts and Creative Industries

Steve Gibson is an interactive media artist, interface designer, audio-visual performer and Associate Professor in Innovative Digital Media at Northumbria University, Newcastle. He is interested in transdisciplinary collaborations between art, design and computing, and has concentrated his research work on tactile and physical interfaces and applications that enable a healthier relationship with technology. He works as lead-beta tester of the Gesture and Media System motion-tracking system and has produced a number of significant body-based pieces using this technology. His experimental electronic collaborative CDs include SPASM: The Sound of Virtual Reality and Hacking the Future.

His current research and practice also explore the formal, theoretical and practical implications of Live and Real-time Audio-Visuals. This work culminated in a co-authored book Live Visuals: History, Theory, Practice, published by Routledge in 2022. His current work revolves around issues of media mapping using synaesthesia as a metaphor, transparent “no-screen” performance using only performance devices on stage, and micro performance in support of sustainable audio-visual arts. He is currently working on a new co-authored book on Audio-Visualism to be published by Routledge in 2026. Steve has also had immediately publicly facing roles as Curator and Director for the Media Art event Interactive Futures (2002-07), and as Co-owner and Creative Director of a media company Limbic Media Corporation (2007-14).

Steve has been involved in multi-screen audio-visual events, including several with Swiss VJ collective Scheinwerfer in Zurich, Vancouver, San Francisco, Chicago, Shanghai and Singapore. He also performs as a body-based performer using motion tracking and gestural interfaces to control sound, lights, and video by movement in 3D space and has exhibited these projects in Xi’an China, Mexico City, Zurich, Stockholm and Vancouver. Over the course of his 25-year career he has presented at many world-leading venues including Ars Electronica, 404 Festival Mexico City, Banff Centre for the Arts, Digital Art Weeks, the European Media Arts Festival, the National Museum of Scotland and Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich.

Personal Website: http://www.telebody.ws
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/room101studio
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/steve-gibson-101
Live Visuals Book: https://routledge.pub/Live-Visuals

Email Steve

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

1. Real-Time and Live Audio-Visuals – I am interested in the varied uses of audio-visuals in a real-time context, including performance, live cinema, gaming, projection mapping and information systems. Both my theoretical and practical research has been primarily concerned with this topic. I ran an AHRC-sponsored research network on Real-time Visuals in 2013-14 that culminated in a publication on Live Visuals for Leonardo Electronic Almanac. I co-authored a book on Live Visuals publshed by Routledge in 2022. I am currently working on a co-authored follow-up volume on Audio-Visualism to be published by Routledge in July 2026.

2. Motion-tracking – I have worked on motion-tracking technologies for the past twenty-years plus. I have been lead beta-tester for the Gesture and Media System tracking environment for the past twenty years. My work with these systems has included creating behaviours for controlling mixed media with user-motion, and design of 3D spaces for multi-user interaction with immersive environments. I have worked on a project in this area with Northern Dance, funded through Creativity Works/European Regional Diversification Fund (ERDF).

3. Intelligent gaming – Between 2007 and 2016 I completed a project called Grand Theft Bicycle in which the user interaction is achieved by outfitting a stationary bicycle with sensors. This is part of my on-going interest in physical computing, and more particularly forms the core of a long-term research goal to create a series of interfaces that encourage users to physically interact with technologically based environments.

4. Transdisciplinarity, as evidenced by a new generation of researchers who work across different disciplines. These researchers work not just collaboratively but employ the skill-set from one discipline and apply it to another becoming transliterate individuals. I co-edited a Springer volume entitled Transdisciplinary Digital Art.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
VRitual AV Tactile Mico Interface: VRitual AV04 Particle+WAVE, Gibson, S. 7 Mar 2025
VRitual AV Tactile Micro Interface: VRitual AV04 ISEA25, Gibson, S. 25 May 2025
VRitual AV Tactile Micro Interface: VRitual AV04 short Sender Zurich, Gibson, S. 5 Apr 2024
Gestural Interaction Commonalities in Body-Based Performance, Gibson, S. 20 Mar 2023, In: Virtual Creativity
VRitual AV Tactile Micro Interface: VRitual AV01 AudioMostly Short, Gibson, S. 31 Aug 2023
VRitual AV Tactile Micro Interface: VRitual AV 404 Mexico City, Gibson, S. 14 Oct 2023
Afterword, Gibson, S. 29 Jul 2022, Live Visuals, London, Taylor & Francis

Professional Activity

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Other: SXSW London Roadshow: Gateshead - Day Conferencing 2025
Publication Peer-review: Audio Mostly (Event) 2023
Organising a conference, workshop, ...: Extended Senses & Embodying Technology Symposium 2022 2022
Other: Advisory Board, Sonic Scope: New Approaches to Audiovisual Culture, online Journal 2020
Organising a conference, workshop, ...: Sound, Image and Interaction Design Symposium 2020 2020
Organising a conference, workshop, ...: TVX2019 2019
Participating in a conference, workshop, ...: Twelfth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interactions 2018
Participating in a conference, workshop, ...: Twelfth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interactions 2018
Consultancy: Creativity Works 2017
Editorial work: Journal of Professional Communication (Journal) 2010

PGR Supervision

Emily Kirwan Human-Connection in Virtual Reality Dance Performances; A Framework for Meaningful Experiences Start Date: 01/10/2021 End Date: 08/06/2025