Kurt Ralske - Biography

Biography

During the mid-eighties, Ralske was a guitarist in the bands Nothing But Happiness and Crash.

In the late eighties and early-nineties he released three albums as Ultra Vivid Scene. After his last album under the Ultra Vivid Scene moniker, he produced, engineered, and performed on numerous albums for a variety of artists, including Ivy, Rasputina and Charles Douglas. He is also the producer of the album "Una semana en el motor de un autobus" by the Spanish band Los Planetas.

In 1999 he self-released two albums on his miau-miau label, one under his own name Kyrie Eleison and the other <> as Cathars. In 2001 he released another two albums, Kurt Ralske Amor. 0 + 01, and as Cathars Early Bells and Voices. The Amor. 0 + 01 album featured several digital video clips.

Since then he has focused on digital video. His video installations and performances are created exclusively with his own custom software and his work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Guggenheim Bilbao, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art.

Ralske programmed and co-designed a 9-channel video installation that is permanently in the lobby of the MoMA in NYC. In 2007, he received a Rockefeller Foundation Media Arts Fellowship grant. In 2003, his work received First Prize at the Transmediale International Media Art Festival in Berlin, as a member of the video ensemble 242.pilots. He is also the author/programmer of Auvi, a popular video software environment in use by artists in 22 countries.

In 2007, Ralske completed the interactive video accompaniment for Mathew Rosenblum's RedDust Opera.

Ralske is currently a Visiting Professor and Resident Artist at the Digital + Media Graduate Program of the Rhode Island School of Design, and is also on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts, in NYC, in the graduate program in Computer Art.