“The point is not to put poetry at the disposal of the revolution, but to put the revolution at the disposal of poetry”
Prize Arts was founded by Dean Whitbread, an artist, author, and entrepreneur from London, England. Dean has been been involved in the arts for over 25 years.
Biography
In his 1984 New Contemporaries piece, Camouflaging Trees from Further Attack, Dean wallpapered the trees on London’s south bank and thus first made TV news. He has continued to reach mass audiences in original and vivid ways ever since. Starting out from art college, selling audio cassette tapes in the ICA gallery bookshop and exhibiting scratch videos in film festivals, he became a commercially successful songwriter, stage performer, and music and video producer.
Dean started early internet business Netmare in 1994, and has since contributed significantly to the development of web culture. He has plugged corporations, institutions, artists and communities into the web and had a lot of fun doing so, conceiving and creating live events, audio visual media, new formats, digital products and campaigns for BBC television and radio, Channel 4, MTV, as well as a basket of major agencies and famous brands, and non-profit work for Greenpeace, Menschen für Menschen, Amnesty International, and Busk Aid.
Podcasting, Media Rights
Writing the popular Blog of Funk, Dean published a podcast about the 2005 UK election which voters in Islington South used to judge candidates and decide their vote. In 2006, he co-founded the UK Podcasters Association. Rallying global support from podcasters he took part in a successful EFF campaign to prevent WIPO imposing TV regulations on internet media.
Dean was the first to describe and discuss podcasting and the culture of podcasters in the House of Commons with MPs, distinguishing it from piracy, and stressing the importance of keeping podcasting and disintermediated media generally free from undue regulation. He worked with the UK music rights body PRS for Music to reform their podcasting license, and lobbied the UK’s Radio Academy to include podcasting, later judging the Sony Radio Awards in that category. He is now a member of the Open Rights Group Advisory Council.
Shindigs
Dean has spoken about the creative web and the culture of self-made media at many events: In The City, the UK Radio Festival, BPI and AOP annual conferences. He lectured degree and post-graduate students at Middlesex University, City University London, and the London College of Communication, and has spoken to media professionals at BECTU at BAFTA, and the Musicians Union on creative strategies, arts enterprise, technology and rights.
He wrote these tips for speakers.
Gold Medals
In 2007 Dean was one of the main drivers behind Podcamp UK. He made the first video podcast for Feedburner, on creativity, using consumer mobile devices alongside professional studio equipment.
In 2008 he won an award for the popular Pod of Funk, and that same year produced a YouTube hit for Seesmic with John Cleese, Sarah Palin, and a parrot.
In 2010 Dean published One Way Journey to good reviews, and this resolved him to spend less time making internet, and more time writing. He is still writing.
In 2011, he relocated to Norway, where he extensively researched and studied the mobile image sharing phenomenon, and developed the Prix Mobile concept.
Information: deanwhitbread.com
