A technician sees a bug and fixes it. An artist sees a bug and explores it.
Born of Czech political refugees, Karel Bata started working in the entertainment industry during the early days of the Comedy Store, and at Soho’s Gargoyle Club.
Karel is an artist and award-winning filmmaker. He creates artworks that try to subvert and push the boundaries of perception and experience. He created Europe’s first projection-mapping installation in 1981 using a Heath-Robinson combination of Super-8 film, monochrome video, and spinning mirrors. He believes the best art often comes out of ‘happy accidents’, and works with emerging technologies to create work that goes in new and unexpected directions. His installations are often an environment the viewer must enter and engage with.
For his recent MA in Stereo 3D at Ravensbourne University he created a dozen 3D shorts, which are now touring the festival circuit and winning prizes, and a series of immersive and interactive 3D environments using lasers, projection mapping, and more than a little magic. He likes to playfully challenge our notions of the personal space we inhabit.
Karel is currently developing a stage version of Macbeth that focuses on the witches and uses stereo-3D projected scenery.
He is director of the London 3D Film Festival.
Karel Bata - blog. 