Patrick Courtney is currently based in Hackney, London, after recently returning to the UK after several years living in Lisbon, Portugal. He has since worked on various freelance projects including; The Big Chill House in Kings Cross, London, for Department of Design, a commission for a permanent LED work, '60 Murders' for the boardroom of Lisbon law firm Sternberg, Galamba & Portugal, installed in September 2006 and the exhibition of his sound piece, ‘The Choking Pot', at Sociedade Guilherme Cossoul, Lisbon, in October-November 2006. In July 2007 he first presented ‘hair+spit.v1.0' at the Bregenzer Kunstverein, Bregenz, Austria in the exhibition 4'33' after John Cage.
In Lisbon, Courtney was a lecturer and tutor in video at ETIC (Escola Técnica de Imagem e Communicação) 2003-06 developing Laboratorio experimental. He was commissioned in 2003 to create an interactive video & sound piece at the Igreja Santa Luzia, Lisbon, ‘Holy Trinitron (Voice of God)', which after some controversy with the church authorities was subsequently cancelled in June 2004.
Previously Artist Project Coordinator for Vivid (Birmingham Centre for Media Art) in Birmingham, UK, 2000-02, developing the ‘hothaus' media lab project for emerging artists, including co-curating Metapod 01 where he commissioned and presented Herwig Weiser's electro-magnetic piece, zGodlocator, at IKON Gallery in 2001. He also taught Technology in Art & Design at UCE, Birmingham as an Invited Lecturer 2001-02.
From 1996 until 2000 Courtney was the Touring & Production Manager at Hull Time Based Arts, Kingston upon Hull, UK, and also between 1997-2000 was assistant & producer for Perry Hoberman, the New York based media artist, producing & presenting several of his works at European events such as DEAF, V2 Rotterdam, Mucsarnok, Budapest and Techni, Spazio Oberdan, Milan. These included Faraday's Garden and System Maintenance, which won the interactive award at Ars Elecronica in 1999.
Courtney has also exhibited his own work, which usually although not exclusively focuses on his personal life; family, friends & lovers, including Galleria Ze de Bois, Lisbon - 2000 - Aston Villa (film); Stuttgart filmwinter, Stuttgart - 2002 - My Grandad; Perugia video festival, Perugia - 2002 - My Grandad. He has worked and collaborated with many artists and producers over the years including, Darryl Georgiou, Brian Duffy/Modified Toy Orchestra, Mike Stubbs, Sadie Plant, Evelyn Wilson, Harry Palmer...
He has recently being working for Birmingham Rep Theatre, Birmingham producing sets for several productions and developing the next phase of the hair+spit project: hair+spit (HOME HOM HOM HOW DO U LIKIT) with the curator Helen Sloan.