Christopher Thomas

London, United Kingdom

Christopher Thomas Allen is a filmmaker and artists. He is the founder and director of UK based media art collective The Light Surgeons. His work crosses a diverse range of media; from graphic design, photography, film and video installations through to exhibition curation. He works on all aspects of projects as a producer, director and is a artist in his own right.

After graduating in design at Portsmouth University in 19111 he worked as a graphic designer for Beggars Banquet Records for a short period before establishing The Light Surgeons as a limited company in 1997. Over the past 12 years The Light Surgeons creative output has spanned a diverse range of different mediums; from print, photography, motion graphics, digital film production, exhibitions, to installations and ground breaking live audiovisual performance projects. However, they are renowned for producing countless innovative visuals for club events and concerts, and helping pioneer and develop the current VJ scene in the mid nineties. Originally set up as a partnership and run as a collective, The Light Surgeons now functions as a hybrid media/arts production company under Allen’s creative direction. It continues creating new cross-disciplinary work that breaks new ground and its installations, live audiovisual performances and digital film productions are exhibited internationally.

• Dialog 2009, Installation, Biennale Curve, OK Centre Linz, Austria; 2008, Seoul Art museum, Korea; 2007, Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK

• Articulated 2006, Barge House, London, UK
• Domestic Archaeology 2006, Geffrye Museum, London
• Requiem For Concrete 2005, Palazzo dei Congressi, Dissonanze Rome, Italy
• The Living Room 2004, Watermans Arts Centre, London, UK
• Lo-Rez Dolores Tabla Rasa 2004, Ron Arad Associates, Marconi Gallery, Milan, Italy
• Ron Arad Retrospective 2003, Centre d’Art Santa Mònica, Barcelona, Italy
• Grand Hotel Salone 2002, Ron Arad Associates, Marconi Gallery, Milan, Italy
• Warhol Retrospective 2002, Tate Modern, London, UK
• The Sum of Three Parts 2001,Bloomberg, City Gate House, London, UK
• London Loves Laforet 2001, Laforet Museum & British Council, Tokyo, Japan
• Mead Gallery Warick 2000, Warwick, UK
• Exhibit B 2000, Truman Brewery, London, UK

• Ocularis 1997, Opening of Lux Cinema, Lux Centre, London, UK; 1998, Rotterdam Film Festival, Netherlands
• AV-OP Dig_It! Festival 1999, Manchester, UK
• Electronic Manoeuvres 2000, onedotzero4, ICA, London, UK; 2000, CCCB, Barcelona, Spain; 2000, Nouveau Cinema Media Montreal, Canada; 2000, Popcorn Film Festival, Sweden; 2000, Big Chill, UK
• APB (All Points Between) 2001, onedotzero5, ICA, London, UK; (commissioned by onedotzero) 2001, World Wide Video Festival, Amsterdam, Netherlands; 2002, onedotzero_nottingham, Nottingham, UK; 2002, Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle, UK; 2002, B.TV Festival, Sheffield, UK; 2002, onedotzero_manchester / Futuresonic, Manchester, UK; 2002, Roppongi Think Zone, Tokyo, Japan; 2002, onedotzero_sfmoma, San Francisco MOMA, USA; 2002Electrofringe, NSW, Australia; 2002, onedotzero_munich, Munich, Germany; 2002, Auto Festival, Sheffield, UK; 2003, Visonic AV Festival, Belfast, Ireland; 2003, Pixelache Festival, Helsinki, Finland
• Z-AXIS 2003, Full Length + onedotzero7, ICA, London, UK; 2003, Media Mix Tent, The Big Chill Festival, UK; 2003, AVFEST, New Castle Upon Tyne, UK; 2004, Motion Graphics, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain; 2004, AVIT US, San Francisco Art Institute, USA; 2004, Numerique Festival, Villete, Paris, France; 2004, Watermans Arts Centre, London, UK; 2004, Sonic arts centre, Belfast, Northen Ireland, UK; 2005, onedotzero_stockholm, Moderna Museet, Sweden; 2005, Future Cinema, London Film Festival, UK; 2006, Elektra Digital Arts Festival, Montreal, Canada; 2006, Architecture Week, Bradford, UK
• I CAN’T HELP MYSELF 2005, Media Mix Tent, Big Chill Festival, UK; 2005, Rio Cinema, London, UK; 2005, Headspace Gallery, Brighton, UK; 2006, Mash cinema, Cattle Market, Herefordshire, UK; 2006, Bitfilm Festival, Hamburg, Germany; 2007, Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury, UK; 2007, Latitude Festival, Southwold, UK
• TRUE FICTIONS 2007, Armoury, RPI University, Troy, New York; (commissioned by EMPAC) 2007, Urban Screens Conference, Manchester; 2007, Teatro degli Arcimboldi in Milan, Italy; 2008, ZEMOS98 Festival, Seville, Spain; 2008, BFI at the Big Chill Festival, UK; 2008, BFI IMAX, onedotzero Festival, London, UK