Mark Fell

Mark Fell is a British electronic musician and multi-disciplinary artist from Rotherham, United Kingdom, born in 1966. He lives and works in Sheffield. His work brings together sound, image, interaction, new technologies, experimental electronic music, contemporary art, philosophy and computer science.

Music and releases

Fell’s published sound work appears on labels including Mille Plateaux, Or, Line/12k and raster-noton. His output places him within digital and experimental electronic music, with tags associated with glitch, minimal, IDM and minimal techno. He also works under or with several group names and collaborative projects, including SND, Blir, Shirt Trax and You Speak What I Feel.

Performance, exhibition and curation

He performs and exhibits internationally, with appearances at events and institutions including Sonar in Barcelona, Mutek in Montreal, Siggraph in Los Angeles, Powerhouse in Sydney, ACMI in Melbourne, ISEA in Paris, the Hong Kong National Film Archive, the Barbican in London, the Corcoran in Washington, Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, Volksbuhne in Berlin and Liquid Room in Tokyo.

He also curates digital music for festivals and has worked on lovebytes and Sightsonic in the UK. He guest curates The Year of Living Digitally in Singapore and the Algorithm Stage at the Glade Festival in the UK. Through this work, he presents UK premieres of emerging and established artists using digital technologies.

Research and related practice

Fell works with the Creativity and Cognition Research Studios in the UK, where his research focuses on emergent technologies in contemporary art practice, especially interactive art and creative process. He has written and published several papers on these subjects.

He is a founding member of The School of Interactive and Algorithmic Art, a regionally based initiative that provides training for professional artists and designers working with digital technologies. As a consultant and systems developer, he designs and builds interactive and generative art systems for clients, including prototypes for a piece shown at the Natural History Museum, a multi-channel sound playback system in the Winter Gardens in Sheffield, and an interactive tank installation at Hong Kong Heritage Museum.

Residencies, awards and current role

He takes part in international residency programmes, including at the Hong Kong National Film Archive. His awards and nominations include Ars Electronica, the Quartz award for research in music, and the Euro Asia foundation.

With colleague Mat Steel, he co-directs a Sheffield-based studio focused on research, development and production in digital arts and music, which serves as a platform for his own work, collaborative projects, technical consultancy and curatorial practice.