Dr Mike King

BSc (Hons) Physics and Chemistry
MSc Software Engineering
PhD Computer Graphics
MA Studies in Mysticism and Religious Experience

Reader in Computer Art and Animation

RAE Outcomes

Research interests
I am a polymathic researcher, working across the domains of art, science and the spiritual, and have published related articles, book chapters and reviews, along with exhibitions of digital artworks, since 1989. The term "the spiritual" is taken from Kandinsky’s Über Das Geistige in Kunst (a direct translation of "das Geistige"); is recognised as problematic; and is pursued under cognate terms such as "religion", "metaphysics" and "the postsecular".

Research projects examine the intersection of two of these three domains, though in a key paper published in Leonardo, I set out the terms of the three-way enquiry. This long interdisciplinary enquiry is now bearing fruit as a book series: the first is published by Lutterworth Press in November 2007, and is called Secularism: The Hidden Origins of Disbelief, and the companion volume, Postsecularism: the Hidden Challenge to Extreme Religion will be published in November 2008.

Further books are in preparation pulling together the art and science strands of the research. So far, I have been the recipient of three AHRC awards and a BA bursary in pursuit of these projects.

Selected publications

Postsecularism, Lutterworth Press, forthcoming (Autumn 2008)

Cutting "God" Down to Size: Transcendence and the Feminine in Howie, Gillian (Ed.): Women and the Divine: Transcendence and Feminism, Palgrave, forthcoming (Autumn 2007)

The Hidden Origins of the Secular Mind, Lutterworth Press, forthcoming (Autumn 2007)

Laszlo and McTaggart - in the Light of this Thing called Physics (joint authored with Prof. Chris Clarke), Scientific and Medical Network Review, No. 92, Winter 2006 (ISSN 1362-1211)

Topological Redheads and Cod Philosophy, art show catalogue essay, Sala Rekalde, Bilbao Bizkaia, Spain, 2005

Art and the Postsecular, Journal of Visual Art Practice Vol. 4 (1), 2005 (ISSN 1470-2029)

The Role of Transpersonal Psychology in a Postsecular Society, BPS Transpersonal Psychology Review, Vol 8 (1), 2004, pp. 6-22 (ISBN 1366-6991)

Towards a Postsecular Society, Sea of Faith Journal, January 2003, pp.10-11 (ISSN 1460-5244)

Towards a Postsecular Society, Network - the Science and Medical Network Review, Winter 2003, pp. 7-11 (ISSN 1362- 1211)

The Sculpture of William Latham in Curtis, Penelope (Ed.): Sculpture in 20th-century Britain, Leeds: Henry Moore Institute, September 2003 (ISBN 1 900081 04 0)

The Art of Artificial Life, invited essay for Kunstig Liv Symposium, Norway, September 2003

Virtual Visions - the Physics and Metaphysics of Light and Space, EGUK, De Montfort University conference proceedings, Washington, Brussels, Tokyo: IEEE Computer Society, 2002 (ISBN 0-7695-1518-5)

From Max Ernst to Ernst Mach - Epistemology in Art and Science, Research into Practice conference, University of Hertfordshire, July 2002 (ISSN 1456-4917)

Digital Art Museum in Mottram, Candy and Kavanagh (Eds.): Creativity and Cognition, Proceedings of the 4th Creativity and Cognition Conference, Exhibition Papers and Posters, Loughborough University, Loughborough: LUSAD Publications, 2002, p.30 (ISBN 1 900856 48 4)

Computers and Modern Art: Digital Art Museum in Candy, Linda and Edmonds, Ernest (Eds.): Creativity and Cognition, Proceedings of the 4th Creativity and Cognition Conference, Loughborough University, New York: ACM Press, 2002, pp.88-94 (ISBN 1-58113-465-7)

Against Scientific Magisterial Imperialism, Network - the Science and Medical Network Review, April 2002, pp. 2-7 (ISSN 1362-1211)

Preface for Brown, Richard: BIOTICA, Art, Emergence and Artificial Life, Royal College of Art, 2001 (ISBN 1-874175- 33-0)

Crossovers - Art, Science and the Spiritual, in Whitehead, Frederika (Ed.): Crossovers, London: Crossover UK, 2001 (ISBN 0-9541115-0-8)

Selected exhibitions

2004 - InterGraphic, Bishkek International exhibition of Graphic art, State Museum of Fine arts, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

2003 - Digital Art Museum group show, Soho House, London

2002 - Digital Art Museum, Lady Margaret Hall Gallery, Oxford

2002 - ArCade-III, Russia and Kazahstan

2002 - solo show, Caestecker Gallery, Ripon College, Wisconsin, USA

2001 - Ninth New York Digital Salon, followed by international venues

2001 - New Greenham Arts, Newbury

2001 - ArCade-III, Glasgow

2001 - Soho 601, London

2001 - Colville Place Gallery, London