Sondheim, Alan, 1943-

Alan Sondheim is an author, musician, artist, and cyberspace theorist. He was born February 3, 1943 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and received a B.A. and M.A. in English from Brown University.

Sondheim's work explores embodiment in cyberspace and Codework, which is the use of computer coding languages for creative expression. His written works include Being on Line: Net Subjectivity (1997), Disorders of the Real (1988), .echo (2001), Vel (Blazevox, 2004-5), Sophia (Writers Forum, 2004), The Wayward (2004), and Writing Under (2012), as well as numerous other chapbooks, ebooks, and articles. In 1994, Sondheim began a "continuous meditation on cyberspace" titled The Internet Text. This collection of writing and mixed media art is distributed via the email list "Cybermind" and displayed online (https://collection.eliterature.org/1/works/sondheim__internet_text.html). He has also co-moderated several email lists, including "Cyberculture," "Wryting," "Fiction of Philosophy," "Image," and "Deleuze World." Sondheim's writing is philosophical and poetic in nature, often incorporating computer coding languages and concepts from online gaming communities.

Sondheim is also a musician, and has released numerous albums as a solo musical artist and a member of the groups Damaged Life and Ritual-All-7-70. He started out as a guitarist, and expanded to playing a variety of instruments, including ghijak, cura, saz, sarangi, sing lisu, harmonica, and Chinese mouth harp. His music is characterized as post-industrial, avant-garde, and free improvisation. He frequently collaborates with his partner, singer/songwriter Azure Carter. Sondheim has also collaborated extensively with Swiss choreographer and dancer Foofwa d'Imobilité (Frederic Gafner), as well as many other dancers, often using tools like motion capturing technology to explore themes of embodiment and sexuality in cyberspace.

Sondheim has created several films and videos, including The Blue Tape (1974, co-directed with Kathy Acker), Hollywood (1981), Postmodern Pobre (1992), Nikuko (2000), and Trilby (2002). Much of his filmography includes digital avatars that are manipulated with 3D blending software. He has also shot a large collection of travel and nature photography and videography.

Sondheim has completed residencies at the trAce Online Writing Centre of Nottingham-Trent University, SecondLife's Odyssey exhibition space, West Virginia University's Center for Literary Computer and Virtual Environments Laboratory, and Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana. In 2001-2002, Sondheim taught New Media at Florida International University in Miami. In 2006-2007, he taught filmmaking at his alma mater, Brown University. His mixed media art has been exhibited and performed internationally and across the United States. He also speaks at symposiums, conferences, and cultural events that explore cyberspace theory, including the Cybermind96 Conference, CyPosium, and South by Southwest.