Stephen Cornford is a media artist and experimental musician who works by reconfiguring consumer electronics into expressive and reflective devices as a means of critiquing the ideologies they embody. He has had solo exhibitions in Tokyo, Berlin, Brighton, Bergen, Ljubljana & London and his work has been included in group exhibitions at the ZKM Center for Art & Media, Karlsruhe; ICC, Tokyo; Haus der Electronische Kunst, Basel; Sigma Foundation, Venice and at Biennalles in Lodz and Poznan. Stephen studied at The Slade School of Fine Art and Dartington College of Arts and is currently a PhD candidate affiliated with AMT.
His current research is concerned with image sensors: the now ubiquitous photosensitive semiconductors which transduce light into data in all digital cameras. This project seeks to reveal the structure of the digital image through direct material interaction with image sensors and to provide a new vocabulary of experimental digital video processes, which begins to redress the almost complete lack of in-camera experimentation with the digital medium. To this end he has exposed the sensors to infra-red laser pulses and hydrofluoric acid, appropriating laboratory processes from the optoelectronics industry in which this microelectronic component is developed.