This film was only available during the Computer Baroque online exhibition, which ran from 14 April-14 July 2009.

A film by Simon Biggs
Music by Jon Rose
Thanks to Spaceward Microsystems
Produced at the Centre for Advanced Studies in Computer Aided Art and Design, Middlesex Polytechnic

In A New Life, electronic effects bring a welcome Renaissance, and Old Masters take on a new meaning. The tape borrows from Dante’s The New Life – using the cut-and-paste facilities of the Supernova to montage picture by Mantegna into new composite images – and does so with a finesse that draws out affinities between now and then.

With works such as this, Golem and Alchemy, artist Simon Biggs began an investigation into parallels between medieval hermetics and the arcane practices of data processing, genetic engineering and artificial life.

Simon Biggs was born in Australia, 1957, and moved to the UK in 1986. He studied Electronic and Computer Music at Adelaide University 1979-81. Since 1978, Biggs has been working with computers and interactive systems within large-scale installations, web-based artworks and other. He is Professor of Art at Edinburgh College of Art.

His work has been shown at numerous international venues in over 35 countries around the world. He has participated in numerous symposia and lectured in Europe, the America's, Asia and the Pacific region. He has also curated exhibitions for Site Gallery, Sheffield, Berlin Video Festival, National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, Bradford, Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff, Canada and the Adelaide Festival of the Arts.

Recent publications by the artist include theoretical book Autopoeisis (with James Leach, Artwords, London, 2004); CD-ROM's Great Wall of China and Book of Shadows (both Ellipsis, London, 1999 and 1996) and monographs Halo (Film and Video Umbrella, London, 1998) and Magnet (McDougall Art Gallery, NZ, 1997).