Midian (Hebrew: מִדְיָן‎), Madyan (Arabic: مدين‎), or Madiam (Greek: Μαδιάμ, Μαδιανίτης for a Midianite) is a geographical place and a people mentioned in the Bible and in the Qur'an. William G. Dever suggests it was located in the "northwest Arabian Peninsula, on the east shore of the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea (the "Hejaz") " Some scholars believe it to be somewhere in or around Sudan as the Bible does not make direct mention of its location.

Some scholars say it was not a geographical area but a league of tribes. We are also told that Midian was a son of Abraham.

The modern Hebrew pronunciation, "Midyan", is the result of a normal vowel shift changing an "a" sound to an "i" sound (compare Miryam in Hebrew versus Mariam in Greek or Maryam in Arabic).

The Midianites were the descendants of Midian, who was a son of Abraham through his wife Keturah. This can be seen in the following Biblical passages. Genesis 25:1-2 1Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. 2And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. (King James Version)

Paul Sermon was born 23 March 1966, in Oxford, England. Since June 2000 he has worked as the Professor of Creative Technologies in the Research Centre for Art and Design at the University of Salford, Manchester.

Paul Sylvester Sermon was born in Oxford, England in 1966. Studying for a B.A Hon's Fine Art Degree in the Newport School of Fine Art at the Gwent College of Higher Education, under Professor Roy Ascott, he began to gain an interest and involve himself in Telematic art work. It was at Gwent College that he was first introduced to the possible ways that telecommunication networks and computer systems could be combined to create what became known as Telematic art.

Sermon then went on to receive a Post Graduate Degree in Fine Art at the University of Reading, specialising in Reading's history in art and computers. His final project for this degree was entitled "Think About the People Now". The piece incorporated hyper-media technology and computer based interactive narrative that explored a one man protest that happened at the 1990 remembrance ceremony in London. The piece received a distinction and later that year, the Golden Nica Award from 1991's Prix Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria.