Bill Dolson's artwork occupies a unique juncture of New Media and Land Art with Conceptual components.
The Large Scale series of works, begun in 2004, comprise vast ephemeral land art pieces which either occur in the sky or are meant to be viewed from above, providing a novel vantage compared to traditional land art. These pieces involve highly charged dynamic geophysical events including synthetic meteor showers, artificial cloud formations, and large scale fires. Some of these works also extend the concerns of land art to include the urban landscape, which is dealt with plastically as part of the natural environment.
![]() Studies for Synthetic Meteors, New York City, 2005 still from HD Video animation |
Companion Human Scale works explore common lifelong concerns with sources of light, interactive environments, and the night. Many of these works transport technological media, such as lasers, into the out-of-doors, creating novel "intersections" between technology and the natural world, again extending the boundaries of historical land art.
Bill Dolson has worked in what is now known as New Media since the late 60s. A very private person, he has until recently only rarely exhibited. He has supported himself by consulting on computer engineering. In the early 70s he wrote software for the ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet. He has consulted extensively on digital image processing for the film and television industries. Most films which appeared on television during the 70s and 80s were transferred to video using software he wrote. A specialist on robot vision, he is currently consulting on a NASA research project on advanced aircraft cockpits and planetary rovers for manned missions.
Bill moved to New York City from Illinois in the early 70s and for the next 20 years produced abstract computer graphics and animations as well as a body of photography and numerous videos, many dealing with the human female figure. He abandoned his art practice in the early 90s and devoted himself to auto racing. He moved to New Mexico in 2000 and destroyed virtually all of his artwork produced to date. He became intensely involved in aviation as a private pilot, accumulating hundreds of hours flying over the Southwest in both gliders and powered aircraft. In 2004, as a result of this experience, he decided to return to an art practice and began producing his current body of work.