Etan Ilfeld

Etan Ilfeld is a London-based entrepreneur, and the author of Beyond Contemporary Art,^[1][2] an image-driven contemporary art book, which spans disciplines ranging from science, design and architecture to new media, film-making and performance art.^[3]

Education

Ilfeld graduated at the top of his undergraduate Physics class at Stanford University and was awarded the David Levine Award. He is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa and holds a Masters in Film Studies from the University of Southern California, and a Masters in Interactive Media from Goldsmiths, University of London.

Media and Art

In 2007, Ilfeld founded Tenderpixel Gallery, a contemporary art gallery in central London.^[4] In 2008, Tenderpixel began hosting an annual experimental film competition known as Tenderflix.^[5] Ilfeld is also a digital artist and his New Kind of Cinema work was showcased at TEDxLondon in 2011, included in the Apparatjik iPhone magazine and archived in Rhizome's ArtBase.^[6] New Kind of Cinema was programmed in Mathematica and inspired by the usage of cellular automata after training with Stephen Wolfram in Pisa during the summer of 2009.^[7] Ilfeld was also an executive producer of the feature film, Killer Pad (directed by Robert Englund). Ilfeld also produced the sci-fi graphic novel, Binary,^[8] based on Chris Hinz's award winning Liege-Killer novel.^[9]He has written extensively on contemporary art. His article Contemporary Art and Cybernetics was published in the peer-reviewed Leonardo Journal published by MIT Press in February 2012,^[10] and his book, Beyond Contemporary Art, was published in October 2012 by Vivays Publishing.^[11]

Watkins Books

Ilfeld is the owner of Watkins Books,^[12] London's oldest Mind Body Spirit bookshop (established in 1893).^[13][14] He is also the editor-in-chief of the Watkins' Mind Body Spirit magazine.^[15] In the February 2011 issue of Watkins' Mind Body Spirit magazine, Ilfeld launched the 100 Spiritual List, which ranks the 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People in the world.^[16] The 100 Spiritual list continues to be published annually.

Mind Sports

Ilfeld is a competitive strategy games player having won the World Amateur Poker Championship Title in 2010;^[17] he is a ranked USCF chess master,^[18] and winner of the under 2300 section of the 2003 US Open. Ilfeld is also the inventor of Diving Chess, a chess variant played in a pool such that each player can think during their turn for as long as they can hold their breath underwater.^[19][20][21] He is currently the chief organizer of the Mind Sports Olympiad.

References