George Mallen

Dr George Mallen (b. 1939) is a pioneer of computer systems since 1962. He commenced his career working with British cybernetician Gordon Pask and was one of the co-founders, along with Alan Sutcliffe and R John Lansdown of the Computer Arts Society in 1968. Around this time, he founded and became Managing Director of System Simulation Ltd (SSL), a software development company specialising in multimedia management systems that provides software infrastructure for many major art and culture institutions and for commercial image libraries. SSL supported computer art and the role of computers in cultural activities in many ways since its inception. The CAS collection of works on paper accumulated over the years and held by Mallen at SSL was donated to the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2007. From 1971 to 1981 Mallen held a research fellowship at the Department of Design Research at the Royal College of Art focussing on computer-aided design and animation and was instrumental in developing the Department and introducing computing activities to the RCA. Later he held academic appointments at Bournemouth University, where he was founding head of the Department of Communication and Media. He is a fellow of the British Computer Society, a chartered engineer, a chartered information technology professional, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Biography by Catherine Mason.