Part A
1.1 Introduction
In an article in the Financial Times in 1994, multimedia was described as "a term even more elastic than back to basics" (1). The author's choice of comparison was certainly meant to indicate the undeniable problem of definition that surrounds multimedia. But - perhaps not intentionally - it also seems to hint at the disruption of traditional cultural categories, boundaries and modes of production that multimedia engenders. In the arts sector, the last four years or so have seen a diversity of cross-artform practices under the banners of "multimedia", "new technologies" and "digital arts" presenting a series of challenges for both arts organisations and funding bodies.
The original brief produced by LAB for this piece of work stated as its purpose "to provide information to allow LAB to begin to define its role in relation to the arts and multimedia technology". This resulting document does not aspire to be definitive: In an area of work committed to extending and re-defining the creative and conceptual possibilities of fast-developing communication technologies, it is perhaps of value to retain that sense of elasticity while helping to establish a framework of common goals and understanding. I hope that this study will be the beginning of a process, providing a useful framework and common starting point for argument and debate. Although the process of writing, research and discussion requires some working definitions, I would always be wary of creating new orthodoxies.
This document is the result of many discussions with artists, commentators and representatives of funding bodies, filtered through my own point of view. The report discusses general issues around production, distribution and exhibition, with case studies describing recent artistic projects peppered throughout. There is nothing generalisable from these examples, nor have they been selected on any criteria of quality. They serve simply to illustrate something of the range of work currently taking place, and the contexts for its production.
Each section is summarised by a paragraph in bold in the main body of the report, and the summaries collated to form a digest in Part C. A glossary of specialist terms used in this report or generally in discussion and writing about the field of electronic media is provided as Appendix 1. Appendix 2 is a bibliography.
I am constantly impressed, challenged and fascinated by artists work with technology, with its critique (implicit or explicit) of the commercial and technological determinist points of view that currently dominate discussion around cultural and social change. Such artists are working in the difficult borderlands between sets of cultural values. This is why support for such artists is so challenging for funding bodies, and yet so significant. I hope that LAB can carry forward the commitment it has shown to this area by commissioning this study into the effective support of artists work.
I would like to thank all of those I consulted, a list of whom is to be found in Appendix 4.
1.2 Background
1.2.1 Defining Multimedia
Artists work with computers is not new. Neither is the desire and ability of artists to combine sound, vision, tactility, viewer interaction, and even telecommunications systems in their work. Both are post-war currents that have operated within, across and between the fields of visual arts, performance, film and video, music and literature.
Over the past six years or so, however, these two currents have converged with the rapid development of the desktop computer. Increasing storage capacity and processing power has led to the capability to combine still and moving images, text and sound in a unified computer application. Because information is stored digitally these applications allow "random access" to the data. This means that any chosen element of the application can be called up instantly, without the need for winding and searching as, for instance, when using audio or video tape. This introduces the possibility for the actions of the viewer or user to determine their own next move within the application. This is the basis of "interactivity" in the context of electronic media. In addition, interaction has been further developed in many pieces of multimedia work to allow the manipulation of some constituent images and sounds.
Multimedia can be understood to mean the combination of any two of the following elements mediated by a computer: images (still or moving), sound (including music), the written or spoken word, and lastly, in interactive multimedia, some form of determination by the audience or user. This understanding of multimedia (which is close to an industry definition that demands three elements), will define the scope of this study. The definition is a pragmatic one which emphasises the form with which the work reaches the audience. For example: A sound installation which responds to movement within a room with sensors embedded in sculptural objects is inside this definition, while images created or processed digitally and shown as still images on gallery walls are outside of it.
1.2.2 A Diversity of Multimedia Forms
There is considerable diversity in multimedia in its mode of distribution, and in the way that it is presented to and interacts with its audience: the "interface". Multimedia is generally thought of as being presented to a single user on a computer screen, and controlled using a keyboard, mouse, touch-screen, or joystick. However, this is a convention (arguably) largely driven by the demands of the consumer electronics market. For artists, this is one choice among many.
Images may be projected and/or displayed on multiple screens and combined with sculptural elements, including still images or video. Sound may also be used spatially using speakers or, for instance, infra-red sensitive headphones. A viewer may interact with the piece by touching objects, making sounds of their own or simply moving through a space. The computer can mediate long-distance communications enabling people from different sites to interact with each other by sound, vision or text, possibly as part of an installation or performance. Variations in the environment, for instance, air temperature, ambient sound or flows of people can trigger changes to audio, visual or tactile elements.
In a well known, relatively early piece of electronically interactive work from 1989, artist Jeffrey Shaw, made a computer modelled 3D "city". In his "Legible City" the streets take the form of words using a large, block-like typeface, each letter resembling a building. The viewer appears to move through a large projection of this environment by pedalling and "steering" a bicycle which is in fact stationary (2). Not an "interface" showing the greatest imagination perhaps, but certainly a good example of how an artist might re-combine the elements that define multimedia with unconventional results.
Multimedia may be "delivered" to its audience in various ways, and versions of the same piece of work may exist on different "platforms". CD-ROM is currently a common distribution "platform" for multimedia designed for the personal desktop computer and one several formats for the domestic, consumer market. Its competitors are mainly the game consoles that plug into a TV set, such as the Sega Saturn, Sony Playstation, 3DO, Super NES and the more adult targetted CD-I from Phillips. Photo CD can be a cheap way to reproduce a library of visual images and CD+, which functions as both a standard audio and an interactive CD, is a developing platform. Much of what exists on computer "servers", accessible via the telecommunications or cable TV network, is also multimedia in that it may be a combination of text, image and sound, and is interactive either by enabling the viewer to determine their own pathway through information, or by mediating communication between indviduals.
Multimedia may be stored as a CD-ROM, on floppy disk, in a hand-held computer game, on an individual computer hard-disk, on a server run by a cable TV company, or on a computer connected to the internet. However these do not constitute qualitative differences, such as the difference between video and film. These are simply different storage and delivery systems, tailored for different purposes, and involving different forms of interactivity. In the consumer electronics market the merging of the personal computer with the television, and the television delivery system with telecommunications will increasingly combine these distribution systems.
1.2.3 Multimedia Breaking Boundaries
The very word "multimedia" implies an interdisciplinary product, and a production process that demands a number of different skills.
Practitioners in multimedia are equally likely to have backgrounds in film and video, graphic design, computer graphics, music, animation, writing, photography, painting, architecture or sculpture - plus there is a growing number of specifically trained multimedia artists and designers. There may also be a role for those from primarily technical disciplines, such as computer programming or audio-visual presentation. It is even argued that the boundary between artist and audience is eroded by interactive multimedia, and this is true to an extent in works that allow the audience to manipulate and re-combine elements of an application.
While collaboration and teamwork very often have an important part to play, this is not a defining feature of multimedia production. It is quite possible that one person may have the required range of skills to realise their own aims, or may wish to take a leading role in the production.
Clearly this mixing of artforms, including the breaking down of the distinction between art and design, poses problems for funding bodies and therefore the artists that rely on them. However, multimedia's very unorthodoxy provides great opportunities for a fresh and vibrant addition to our culture. Sound, image and words can be re-combined to produce something quite different from the sum of its parts. With at least some multimedia works drawing from areas across popular and underground culture such as techno music, zine production, club-culture and video games, there is some re-thinking to do which is perhaps of value to all artforms.
While it is essential that multimedia does not fall through the gaps between artform distinctions, It is important to bear in mind that multimedia - like a book - can be different things in different places for different people: the involvement of a number of disciplines is perhaps a strength in continuing to foster diversity. While a coherent strategy for funding is necessary, it is important to guard against the simple creation of a new category which could restrict the range of work produced. I hope that this research will address some of these difficulties.
1.2.4 Multimedia in London: Illustrating the Range of Creative Work
A brief look at areas of activity in multimedia in the arts in London is a good way of presenting a first taste of the various applications of multimedia in the arts.
Multimedia in Museums and Galleries:
The first wave of excitement around multimedia and the arts was for its potential as an aid to the understanding and interpretation of existing artforms. For instance, The Micro-Gallery, opened at London's National Gallery in 1991, provides a room with a number of computer terminals linked to an interactive multimedia application. Visitors to the gallery can gather information about artists and paintings in the collection, and call up a wide range of contextualising information on such topics as colour, technique and restoration. A version of this package is now available for sale to the domestic consumer, published by software giant Microsoft. Also in 1991 the Arts Council of Great Britain commissioned "Very Spaghetti", a report by Richard Francis into the possible uses of multimedia by art galleries and art collections, arguing that multimedia displays in museums have the potential to bring together the functions of collection management and cataloguing, public education, information and publication (3). Certainly institutions including the British Library, the Horniman Museum, the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum have commissioned significant screen-based interactive multimedia displays to provide user-friendly information for visitors about their collections, some with CD-ROM versions for retail. Although this continues to be an important - even dominant - area of work in the arts, purely informational and interpretative uses of multimedia are not a central focus of this research.
The Commercial Sector:
The years since 1991 have also seen a burgeoning commercial sector in London producing CD-ROM's, games and one-off retail projects such as the Vid-Zone in Tower Records on Piccadilly Circus. Despite recent hard times, in the commercial world London is a centre for excellence and innovation in multimedia design. Much of its energy and creativity flows from its relationship to Britain's constantly inventive independent music scene, club culture, graphic designers and film and video production sector. In the meantime, sectors of british television production and publishing with backgrounds in arts programming are beginning to embrace multimedia. The Multimedia Corporation founded by ex-BBC staff, Illuminations Interactive (sister to Illuminations TV) and the Interactive division of the BBC itself are examples. Commercially significant and internationally acclaimed products developed in London range from Dorling Kindersley's multimedia versions of coffee table books, published with the financial backing of Microsoft, such as "Musical Instruments" to "Burn:Cycle", the cyberpunk influenced "interactive movie" for Phillips CD-I from London independent company TripMedia.
Commercial activity in multimedia concentrates on the production of applications for domestic consumer formats - CD-ROM and games - plus museum installations as described above and retail and training packages commissioned by large companies. The current market for this kind of work demands that it is designed to be shown on the screen. Artists are able to work beyond this convention.
Increasingly companies of all kinds are interested in the possibilities of the internet, with thousands of internet "sites" being set up every day. However, with no secure system of payment yet in place, most of this activity is an investment in the future: a marketing and research strategy rather than a real growth area for business transaction. However, with such high financial stakes, research is going on apace to devise a payment system. Once this comes into being the internet is set to burgeon as a business and consumer resource, with one possible consequence being changes and increasing complexity of infrastructure.
Education:
In response to the industry growth, art and design departments of several universities, especially the new universities in London, have set up multimedia courses as new programmes of study as well as within existing degrees. New graduates from these courses are much in demand in the multimedia industry (as well as adding to the body of arts practitioners who wish to use electronic media for non-commercial ends). London College of Printing, London Guildhall University, the University of Westminster, Middlesex University and the Royal College of Art all offer multimedia courses. The Royal College of Art also has a Computer Related Design course which is subsidised to the tune of £2 million from Interval Research Laboratories in California's Silicon Valley. Interval's director has stated the role of this investment in keeping his "gene pool fresh".
Both Further and Higher Education have a major role to play in providing training and access to equipment. Short courses, vocational training and public access facilities are growth areas for education and ones in which interesting new partnerships are being forged with local authorities, the commercial sector and sometimes arts organisations. These partnerships have already been, and no doubt will continue to be very successful in attracting major funding from the European Union (EU).
Creative Uses of Multimedia and Arts Funding:
As one might hope and expect, artists devise multimedia projects that are creatively significant but not fully commercially viable. It is here that arts funding has begun to take a role by supporting projects that are innovative or experimental in form and/or content. The development of new audiences and practitioners, and the fostering of critical debate around technology and the related issues of artistic and cultural change also constitute important areas of activity for the funded sector.
It is impossible to generalise about arts practice in multimedia. Thus far, levels of funding, patterns of access to equipment and training, modes of production, distribution and exhibition have varied in every case. I am therefore providing four short initial "case studies" to introduce some of these configurations. While not aiming to be comprehensive, I hope that these examples will indicate the crucial role of strong relationships between artists, education and the commercial sector in bringing these projects to fruition.
In an area of work that is characterised by rapid technological change, that is often collaborative and always labour and hardware intensive, it seems clear that partnerships have an central role to play in supporting artists' work. The challenge in multimedia is to foster a distinctive and independent body of work by artists while building strong and workable relationships with other sectors. A main focus of this study will be to explore these possibilities.
Case Study 1: Anti-ROM
The Anti-ROM is a "labour of love" created by six recent graduates from the University of Westminster's multimedia course who all work freelance in the commercial sector of the multimedia industry. The seventy or so small "games" that make up the Anti-ROM were made by the team in their spare time, mainly using equipment at their workplaces during evenings and weekends, or drawing on their own resources for less sophisticated tools. When most of the work was already done, a £4000 Research and Development Grant from the Arts Council of England (ACE) Combined Arts Department was awarded. Some of the grant was used to pay for some working hours spent pulling all the elements together to create a package that would work as a CD-ROM. The rest was used to press 500 CD's which were distributed free of charge, and for marketing costs including a launch at Camerawork Gallery. The elements of the Anti-ROM include word games and puzzles, skits on your usual shoot-em-up video game, visual teasers, and exercises in sound manipulation. A further grant from ACE has been awarded to support the development of "Anti-ROM 2".
Case Study 2: Critical Decade Interactive CD (CD-I-CD)
This long-running project grew out of an idea to make a CD-ROM out of the Ten:8 paper publication "Critical Decade" about the work of black photographers and cultural theorists through the 1980's. The project involves Artec, Illuminations Interactive, Autograph and InIVA. The production has been taking place at Artec, a specialist digital media resource and training centre supported by the London Borough of Islington with funding from the European Social Fund (for training), the London Arts Board and the Arts Council of England. In addition to a multimedia version of the publication the CD will comprise commissioned multimedia works by four black artists crossing the disciplines of visual arts, music and cultural theory. The full production budget has been calculated at £100,000. Production is going ahead on £60,000 raised through arts funding, and fundraising is continuing. The finished product will be 2 versions of a CD-ROM, one for Macintosh computers and one for PC's. It is anticipated that the finished CD will be "published" and sold.
Case Study 3: ArtAIDS
ArtAIDS is a visual arts project for the internet initiated by the Director of Cambridge Darkroom, Peter Ride, with the participation of Crusaid, a fundraising organisation for AIDS related charities. The project was launched on World Aids day 1994. ArtAIDS is a virtual "Art Gallery" on the World Wide Web: the part of the internet that supports the display and distribution of images and sounds in addition to text. Initial images were commissioned from a number of artists, but the gallery is expected to grow. Anyone logging on to the site is encouraged to download, transform and send the images back for display on the electronic "pages" that make up the gallery. The project is curated by Peter Ride with all technical support, including design and space on a server with a permanent internet link provided by the computer science department of Queen Mary College, University of London. A £10,000 ACE grant contributed toward a researcher's time at the College and a hire fee for server space. The grant has also supported a series of workshops around the country to pro-actively encourage artists to participate. However, much of the day-to-day running of the project is by volunteers. In December 1995 the project "moved" from the server at UCL to that run by Illuminations, a television and interactive media productin company. The move took place because the the site wished to begin raising money for Crusaid by selling advertising space and such activity is not permitted on academic sites. In addition, staff changes at the college led to a less sympathetic regime there.
Case Study 4: Susan Collins
Susan Collins is a visual artist who has worked with computers for over 10 years. Most recently she has created gallery and site specific installations using sound, video and projected images which respond to the actions of the viewer in the space. She had been commissioned to produce works on a one-off basis for exhibitions such as V-topia, Video Positive and River Crossings, and for sites including railway stations and Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry. She creates most of her work using her own rather outdated and meagre equipment: a five year old Amiga computer for animation and a modest Macintosh for sound editing. In Summer 1995 she was in receipt of an Arts Council of England "Hi-tech Award", a pilot scheme that matches facilities houses in London with artists, allowing them access to the highest level computer equipment. In her new role (September 1995) as Head of the Slade Centre for Electronic Media Susan Collins will be responsible for equipping a multimedia teaching centre at the Slade School of Art. Frequent access to this equipment will offer her a much needed route to develop her own work further, trying out new tools and techniques without the pressure of working to commission.
Summary (A) 1.2 Background
For the purposes of this study, multimedia is taken to mean the combination of sound, image (still or moving), written or spoken word or viewer interaction, mediated by a computer. Multimedia must be understood as taking many forms, including installation, interactive CD's, internet projects, interactive television, or be used as part of performances. While multimedia has assumed a variety of informational functions and can be a secondary form of distribution for existing material, the focus of this research is on the production of original artistic work. London is host to burgeoning activity in further and higher education, and a lively commercial production sector comprising both new and existing media companies.
References:
1. Levis, Kieran, "Faulty Picture of the Multimedia World", Financial Times, 30 March 1994.
2. Fundacio Joan Miro, Moving Image = Images en moviment electronic art, exhibition dates: 2 July - 6 September 1992.
3. Francis, Richard, Very Spaghetti: A Report on Interactive Multimedia in Art Galleries, The Arts Council of Great Britain, 1992