ISEA grew out of a 1988 initiative to support the founding and maintenance of an international network of organisations and individuals active in the field of the electronic arts. This network took the shape of an association called the Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts, founded in 1990. ISEA oversees a regular event called the International Symposium on Electronic Art, also known as ISEA.

ISEA’s membership has always been international, bringing together individuals and organisations from around the world. From 1990-1996, ISEA was based in the Netherlands. Then from 1996-2001 the organisation’s headquarters were located in Montréal, Canada, returning provisionally to the Netherlands from 2001-2009, after which a new headquarters was established at the University of Brighton, UK. In 2009 ISEA, which had existed for over 15 years as a membership organisation, was changed from an association to a foundation, in order to better serve its mission.

The ISEA International Foundation Board, whose main role is to select the host city of each symposium, manages the organisation. The Foundation Board works closely with the host to ensure that the goals of ISEA are achieved. The symposium, in the past held as either an annual or a biennial event, has been held annually since 2009.

Sue Gollifer, ISEA Director (University of Brighton, UK)

Sue Gollifer is a Principal Lecturer in Fine Art in the School of Arts and Communication, the Course Leader for the MA in Digital Media Arts (DMA) and Director of ISEA International Headquarters. She has been a professional artist/printmaker for over 30 years, exhibiting work regularly throughout the world, and her work is held in major national and international public collections. She has established a number of international artistic and educational contacts, particularly in Europe, the United States, Eastern Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and has contributed to the development of an international community of artists and scholars with a shared interest in new technology. She is the Assistant Editor of Digital Creativity, published by Taylor Francis and Routledge, and is on the Leonardo Editorial Review Board of Transactions.

Julianne Pierce, Board Member (Adelaide, Australia)

Julianne Pierce is currently Executive Director of Australian Dance Theatre (ADT), one of the world’s leading contemporary dance companies working with performance and technology. ADT has collaborated with leading digital artists including Gina Czarnecki and Louis Philippe Demers. Julianne’s background is as a new media curator, artist and producer, and from 2007-2012 she was Executive Producer with UK artists’ group Blast Theory. She is a founding member of the influential artists’ group VNS Matrix, who exhibited widely in Australia and internationally from 1991-1997.

Peter Anders, Board Member (Midland, MI, USA)

Peter Anders is an architect, educator and information design theorist. He has published widely on the architecture of cyberspace, and is the author of Envisioning Cyberspace, which presents design principles for on-line spatial environments. The book was published by McGraw Hill in 1998.

Wim van der Plas, Board Member (Rotterdam, the Netherlands)

Wim van der Plas is a sociologist interested in the relationship between science and art, or, on a more practical level, between technology and culture. Until retiring in 2011 he taught at Mediatechnologie, Faculteit Natuur & Techniek, Hogeschool van Utrecht in Amersfoort, the Netherlands. He is one of the founding members of ISEA, and organised the First International Symposium on Electronic Art in Utrecht, NL (FISEA), the Second International Symposium on Electronic Art (SISEA) in Groningen, NL and the Seventh International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA96) in Rotterdam, NL.

Bonnie Mitchell, Board Member (Bowling Green, Ohio, USA)

Bonnie Mitchell is a Professor of Digital Arts at Bowling Green State University, where her teaching specialisation is in Animation and Interactive Art. She is internationally recognised for her interactive animated installations and collaborative internet-based art works. In 2006 she was appointed the chair of the international SIGGRAPH Art Gallery. She also coordinated the Beyond Boundaries: Charles A. Csuri 1963-present extensive retrospective exhibition and the Electronically Mediated Performances at SIGGRAPH in 2006, and curated/chaired the GRAPHITE 2006 (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) and 2007 (Perth, Australia) Art Exhibitions and Art Talks. Bonnie is President of CreativeMyndz Multimedia Studios, a company that develops interactive media for publishing companies in the field of the arts and humanity.