Multimedia and the Arts in London
Part B
Production and Producers
The scope of this study includes gallery installation work, web-sites, CD-ROMs, the devising of frameworks for ephermeral interaction between many participants, and uses of multimedia within live arts. The common ground between these practices lies in the use of visual, text and sound elements in digital form. Since the computer is the tool with which digital elements are combined, manipulated and displayed, discussions about access to the tool itself and the know-how to use it inevitably rise to the fore if - as is the case in this study - multimedia is dealt with as a coherent field of creative endeavour.
This privileging of technology is a tendency that moves the debate away from the consideration of artistic work with new technologies as an integral part of the rich, distinctive and challenging contribution artists make to our culture. Instead, It nudges us toward an understanding of experimentation, innovation and training in a technological sense. This is a trend which the arts sector should regard critically. Nevertheless, digital processes of production are new and unfamiliar to many within the arts funding system and - for good reason - training and access of great concern to many artists and organisations both on the inside of the field, and on the outside looking in.
This section discusses generalised issues around production, complemented by some specific case studies. It aims to provide a base of information, and to highlight some artistic and cultural issues around production.
1.1 An Introduction to Multimedia Production
While there is no such thing as a typical multimedia production, whether a piece of multimedia artwork reaches its audience in the form of an installation, performance, CD-ROM or via the internet, there is broadly speaking a common production process. The stages may be summarised as follows:
1. Conceptual development and research: This stage includes the development of storyboards, creation of key visual and sound elements, and the development of new ways for the audience or user to interact with the work.
2. Creation and/or collection of audio, visual and text elements: (often called assets, especially when copyright material) The elements can be video, photographs, drawings, paintings, sounds, music, animation (film, video or computer), text, or spoken word. They may be originated and/or recorded using traditional or digital means.
3. Inputting elements and storage in digital form: This stage involves scanning images, digitising video and audio and saving as computer files. An multimedia work may involve creating thousands of files of constituent elements.
4. Processing and combining elements: For this task, artists may wish to use standard software packages, or their objectives may demand original computer programming. Often a combination of both is used.
5. Presentation development and testing: This may involve work within a space in combination with sculptural objects or performers. For CD productions or work for the internet, "beta testing" takes place which involves trying out all possible actions of the user to ensure programs are fault-free for publication.
6. Final presentation, publication or "posting" on computernetworks.
Summary (B) 1.1 An Introduction to Multimedia Production
Multimedia production is an interdisciplinary process that draws upon skills and resources from the existing artforms, aswell as requiring new tools and competencies. Production creates many opportunities for collaboration and teamwork, or can be the work of an individual artist.
1.2 Production Timescales and Budgets
1.2.1 Research and Development
Artists need the opportunity to develop the personal and conceptual aspects of their work hand in hand with technical competencies. Artists with a background in traditional disciplines need to get to know the characteristics and limitations of new media so that they can work creatively and appropriately with them, and those working collaboratively require extended periods of time to determine shared aims and working methods. For work with multimedia, therefore, key creative work and innovation occurs in the research and development stage. Development work allows artists to take risks, try out new processes, develop collaborative working relationships and push the boundaries of artistic practice without pressure to produce a finished work.
Multimedia production equipment includes scanners, cameras, sound recording equipment and powerful computers with multimedia software. However, resources neccessary for effective research and development may also include, for installation artists and live artists in particular, exhibition equipment such as projectors, closed-circuit cameras, sensing devices, and the use of a space. Interactive work in particular can benefit from a public airing as a work in progress in order to research the response and participation of the audience. Artists need to have the opportunity to try, fail and try again. Research and Development funding helps in the efficient use of production funding, and a final result that is conceptually well resolved and technically well executed.
For artists making screen-based works which are distributable in a consumer format such as CD-ROM, the research and development phase can result in a scaled down version of a project that can be used to bring in other funding partners. Such "prototypes" serve to illustrate the main design and content features with an emphasis on showcasing innovation. (see case study 6 and section B:3.2.2)
Case study 5: "The Castle - Parsing the Book" Simon Biggs An Installation for outdoor public sites in Hull (October 1995), London and Cambridge (forthcoming, 1996). Produced in association with Camerawork and the Film and Video Umbrella.
This installation consists of a moving frieze of images and text projected directly onto the outside of buildings. The piece was originally commissioned for the wall of City Hall, Hull for Root '95 whose theme was "Civil Liberties, Civic Pride". Reflecting the classical architecture of the sites selected, and the birth of systems of civic government the figures are dressed in classical clothing. Light-sensitive cameras track the movement of people in the space in front of the installation, triggering phrases of text and movement in the figures which appear to emerge from dark recesses, and gesture to both passers-by and each other.
Production Timescale:
Research and Development 3 months "The Living Room" project providing an opportunity for experimentation with interactive programs and sensing devices. This included six weekends in a large indoor public space (Truman's Brewery, Brick Lane) where the public could see the artist at work, and peoples' presence within the space allowed the artist to refine his interactive techniques. This part of the project aimed to be a "lab" style experiment in research and development.
Production, Post Production and Exhibition
1 day video shoot
3 months Post-production: digitising and processing images. The artist developed original software, hybridised from standard packages and his own programming to create the interactivity between the movement of the audience and the actions of the images. (Post-production took place at the artist's studio, using computer equipment that he owns).
4 days On-site installation and fine tuning of software, projectors and the cameras which will sense the movement of the audience.
5 days exhibition
1 day Take down installation
Each additional site requires substantial re-processing and re-programming. Funding: £5000 for "Living Room" research and development stage. ACE Film, Video and Broadcasting exhibition fund. £8000 Production funding from same source £9000 Touring fees from Camerawork, Cambridge and Hull. £5000 (estimated) deduction negotiated on hire costs for specialist projection equipment. All curation and production management was undertaken by Camerawork and the Film and Video Umbrella from revenue funding.
1.2.2 Production and Post-Production
The stages of work which characterise multimedia are the digitisation and storage, and subsequent manipulation and combination of audio, visual and text elements, as well as the creation of original work on the computer.
Currently, many of the constituent elements of multimedia packages - especially visual ones - are originated in analog form by standard video, photography or even film. The transformation of these into digital form, by scanning still images, digitising video, creation of sound "files" and so on, can be a lengthy and laborious process. Once stored digitally, each image, frame of video and sound file will need to be processed, manipulated and edited. Some specialist digitising equipment may be required for shorter periods of use, but for the most part the production process requires prolonged periods spent at a powerful desktop computer with access to a range of software such as Adobe Photoshop, Macromind Premiere and Macromind Director. Often sound and image processing can be done according to standard templates set up by the artist, which means that a team of people may help to make the work. The combination of the elements and creation of ways for the user to influence the course of events in the work requires more specialised work and is often done by one person. Standard software packages, or some original computer programming, or a combination of both, may be used. As creative ambition for interactivity develops there is more demand for specialist programming skills: while some artists acquire these skills themselves, for others it is necessary to buy in help.
It is these stages of digitising, storage and processing that is most influenced by new software tools, and speeded up by more powerful computers.
Case Study 6: Rehearsal of Memory, Graham Harwood with Patients from Ashworth Special Hospital, Merseyside
An installation commissioned for Video Positive '95.
"Rehearsal of Memory" was made with a group of long-term patients at Ashworth Special Psychiatric Hospital. All the collaborating patients had been convicted of serious crimes. The work uses photographs, video, text and sound to build a picture of the inner life and memories of the participants, as well as life inside the institution. For legal reasons the identity of the patients has to be concealed. The work uses the device of a scarred and tattooed composite body to create an interface with which the audience can navigate the piece. When exhibited as an installation the images on the computer screen are also projected onto the wall, with individuals taking turns to operate a mouse. Different parts of the work are accessed by clicking on the marks on the image of the body. The work was shown at Video Positive '95, Liverpool and in festivals in Canada, The Netherlands, and Finland to great acclaim.
The original work for exhibition at Video Positive was funded by North West Arts Board at a level of £4000. The artist worked with the group for 12 weeks, one day per week, making sound recordings, video tapes, photographs and pieces of writing. Another 3 days per week at least was spent inputting and processing the images, sound and text using the artists' own equipment. Exhibition required a high powered Macintosh computer, additional audio speakers and a data projector.
A further £20,000 has been awarded to the project from the ACE New Collaborations Fund to enable publication for retail of the work on CD-ROM. The funding has been matched by contributions in-kind from multimedia resource Artec and Bookworks, a specialist publisher of artists books. The money will be spent inputting new material, re-voicing by actors of some sections, paying fees for specialist video and sound practitioners, ensuring there are versions of the piece for both Mac and PC platforms, and researching opportunities for distribution. Aswell as Harwood's time, Artec will contribute access to equipment and technical support, an internet site and students on placement. Bookworks will be publishing the finished CD, ie: pressing, commissioning design and writing for packaging and supporting materials, printing, marketing materials and organising distribution.
While the original commission was a resolved and accomplished installation work in its own right, from a publishing point of view, it served as a as a "prototype", which could be developed for retail distribution (see B:3.2.2).
Summary (B) 1.2 Production Timescales and Budgets
Research and development is a key stage of production for artists: artists require time to develop ideas with "hands-on" the production and exhibition technologies they wish to use and develop working relationships with any collaborators. The production process tends to be lengthy, with time-consuming processing required on every audio or visual element.
1.3 Training and Access to Equipment for Artists
London is the home of several artists who are highly accomplished practitioners in multimedia who gain commissions for new work nationally and internationally. This is in addition to small but significant numbers of people using multimedia and the internet as forms of underground culture and activist media. However, computer-based arts are seen by some established and aspiring artists as the domain of an elite group with money or contacts that gain access to equipment and skills. Multimedia is both a new area of artistic work and one that is transforming existing practices, therefore demand for basic training and access is high.
The issue of equipment access is a complex one for arts organisations and funding bodies. Training and access interweave, as most artists become conversant with computer skills by working toward their own objectives with the help of manuals or audio-visual learning aids, perhaps first following a basic introductory course. Skill transfer also takes place during collaborative processes. Access to production equipment is therefore an integral part of skill development. Outlined are the strengths and weaknessess of current patterns.
1.3.1 Artists' Own equipment
The majority of artists currently working in multimedia within the funding system rely primarily on production equipment that they own and use in their own homes or studios. This is both an opportunity and a constraint, and of course a barrier to entry for new practioners. It is an opportunity because owning equipment allows artists unlimited machine time to experiment, develop ideas, and move beyond problems of technological mastery to refine and develop their own use of their computer to achieve their artistic aims. The constraints appear when artists wish to develop their work in a direction that requires other, perhaps newer, tools. Both Keith Piper and Susan Collins for example - two of the UK's best known electronic installation artists - have until recently relied on using their own, years old, cheap and cheerful Amiga computers to make most of their work, with specialist facilities used for some stages in production. An academic job, in Collins' case, and a commission that demanded new skills in Piper's, has enabled both to access new ways of working.
1.3.2 Open Access and Introductory Training
Open access provision within the arts funded sector in London is scarce. Only the London Printmakers Workshop currently operates a public computer resource for artists (geared to the production of non-time based work), and Camerawork is about to make a digital workstation accessible as part of its darkroom provision to members. Organisations traditionally associated with open access in media arts, for example, London Electronic Arts (LEA) - formally named London Video Access -are moving away from open access provision and toward serving and fostering a more specialist constituency through programme of commissions and exhibitions will use their in-house facilities. Thus far, this organisation's approach to interactive multimedia media has been the adoption of a "masterclass" model: bringing in well known and highly skilled electronic artists to share their working practices with artists less experienced with digital work but accomplished in other areas of media arts. Participation in these workshops is on a selective basis.
London's specialist multimedia resource Artec is reviewing its policy of access and training for artists in the light of new staff appointments and a move to a new building scheduled for Spring 1996. Artec may begin short introductory courses after a break of over 18 months, but a more focused and specialised approach is likely to predominate, aimed at building a community of artists and providing continuity of access for them.
Open access for multimedia is a very problematic area for the arts funded sector. Running such resources is very labour as well as capital intensive. Machines need constant repair and upgrading, and the requirements of artists change rapidly and are hard to evaluate. Patterns of access - multimedia development requiring weeks or months rather than days or hours of computing time - mean that costs to artists can be prohibitive even via open access resourcing the arts funded sector. For example: The Lighthouse Media Centre in Brighton charges a concessionary rate of £40 per day and full rate of £70 per day for use of a Macintosh computer with scanner or camera attached.
However, open access and basic training resources are being created outside the arts funded sector. Kingsway College already runs a open learning multimedia resource and Guildhall University has obtained European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) funding for multimedia training, access and production provision on a grand scale. The London Borough of Bromley with Nynex and the National Heritage Arts Sponsorship Scheme has opened the "Nynex Multimedia Studio" in Beckenham which provides short basic and intermediate training courses and access for former trainees at a moderate to expensive price. Several adult education colleges in London run basic multimedia training and some Higher Education institutions are looking to expand the use of their resources. Marylebone Library is now running an open access Macintosh based computer facility. The Borough of Southwark has obtained an Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) grant to establish a multimedia resource in Peckham which will be integrated with library provision.
As one example of partnership between sectors creating access for artists, at the University of Luton 12 artists are being recruited to to make work using the multimedia facilites in the fine art department. After a short introductory course the artists will have access to that equipment for a year. mostly during evenings, weekends and holidays. The scheme is part funded by ACE (Visual Arts) and is run throught the National Association for Fine Art Education.
1.3.3 Training through Commission
Training and access opportunities for artists, often new to the electronic media, can be created by involvement in specific artistic projects.
Both residency projects on the Channel artists internet network, and the artists commissions for CD-I-CD, have provided an opportunity for artists to explore a new medium with a focus on their creative aims and with technical help. The learning process for the artists involved has been considered invaluable and the exploration of the new medium innovative and revealing. However, in the case of the Channel project, there has been a tension between the value of the process and the quality of the product. This can be seen as a reflection of the characteristics of a new medium, an inevitable outcome of an experimental project and/or the result of tension between a learning opportunity and a project with artistic objectives.
In common with basic training initiatives, it is important that practitioners introduced to multimedia in this way have continuing access to equipment to develop their work.
Case Study 7: Channel Artists Residency: Internet. Sex. Identity.
Channel, which aims to develop into a national artists network, was initiated by Artec with the Lighthouse, Brighton, and Artimedia, Batley, in Spring, 1995. All three organisations are specialist resources in multimedia which aim to work across vocational training and artistic production. Channel is an experimental project to create opportunities for artists to produce creative work for the internet. It has been funded by the ACE Visual Arts Department on a one-year basis.
Channel's inaugural project was an invitation to visual artists to participate in image making and exchange that would interrogate how use of the internet might shift the notion of "sexual identity". An open invitation for to artists was made, and selection was made on the basis of previous work with issues of identity above experience of either the internet or digital imaging. Artists in each of the three centres were invited to spend three weeks with full time technical support creating an identity and using the textual and visual possibilities of exchange on the internet to act out their new persona. Results were shown at the National Photography Conference in Derby which took place at the end of the residency.
The artists were on a steep learning curve, which included a need to familiarise themselves with the strengths and limitations of the medium so they could devise a suitable project, as well as the basic skills required to make work for the internet. The technician support was a necessity, but technical expertise varied across the three venues which caused some difficulties, especially in delivering the collaborative aspect of the project. The timescale was short and there was a tough balance to be made between the pressure to produce for a high-profile event, and the value of learning, experimentation and process.
1.3.4 Artist in Residence Schemes and Bursaries
The expansion of Higher Education, the popularity of multimedia courses in Higher Education, and the value placed by some departments on interdisciplinary projects has led to some fruitful and interesting schemes. While there are always difficulties for artists in working within academic institutions, residencies and research followships for artists in higher education enable artists to develop their own work without the pressure of working to commission, to access a high level of equipment, and with the possibility to draw on skills and resources from different departments. For academic institutions resident artists foster a creative atmosphere (especially within non-arts departments), and enable students to have contact with a working artist. Projects such as that outlined below at the Bartlett School of Architecture can also provide points of intersection between disciplines, and bridge the gaps between artistic work and creative production within different industries.
The Northern Arts Region has recognised the value of such schemes for artists working with digital media, and has created four one-year residencies for "digital arts" within different art colleges and university fine-art departments. A further residency within a local authority allows an artist to develop work in schools. The artists are expected to divide their time equally between teaching and making their own work.
Case Study 8: The Bartlett School of Architecture (University College London) Artist in Residence Scheme.
Architectural practice has transformed enormously since the advent of sophisticated computer aided design tools. Architectural models are now most likely to be 3D computer models, and architects are increasingly involved in building virtual environments that are never intended to become bricks and mortar. Consequently, architecture schools have a high level of computing equipment in their departments and a distinctive approach to their use. In 1993, the Bartlett School of Architecture decided to appoint an artist in residence to be based in its computer facility to teach students, but also to develop work of their own and make the computer facility a more creative part of the college. Although the artist originally appointed, Nina Pope, became so overwhelmed by teaching and adminstrative responsibilities that she became a member of college staff, the scheme has continued with the appointment of another artist. However, Pope acknowleges that her connection with the Bartlett has been essential to her being able to make and exhibit new work in digital imaging, installation and the internet. There is also a growing cluster of creative people active in multimedia with formal or informal connections to the Bartlett, including the producers of the art and architecture journal Artifice, both of whose editions have included CD-ROM's of artists' works. Nina Pope and several other staff at the Bartlett have been very involved with the ArtAIDS project (see case study 3), which in its first year was a collaboration with the computer science department at UCL.
There are initiatives to place artists within commercial audio-visual production. Schemes like the ACE's pilot high-tech awards are very time consuming to set up and are likely to be costly. However, the scheme can be seen as instrumental in building bridges between the UK's internationally renowned high technology film and video facilities, animation and graphics production sector (which is concentrated in London), and enables artists to use production equipment of a higher order than the higher education or arts sector allow. While the high-tech awards were mostly geared toward the production of single screen, linear moving-image work, it provides an interesting model for consideration in relation to multimedia and installation work. In multimedia production, the current skill and creative shortage within the industry could provide some leverage to form some new partnerships.
Case Study 9 The ACE Film, Video and Broadcasting "high-tech" awards
The high-tech awards are a pilot scheme run by the Arts Council of England Film and Video department in collaboration with Channel 4 that aim to give artists access to state-of-the-art special effects, graphics and animation resources in commercial facilities houses. In Summer 1995 six artists were invited to work with six facilities houses, which were all in London, to experiment with new tools and produce a proposal for a piece of work. The awards were emphatically geared towards research and development: they aimed to give an opportunity to artists to get to know some new tools and find their own ways of working with them without the necessity to create a finished product. Some of the facilities houses had already provided access for artists in "down-time" on an informal basis. Others were freshly persuaded of the advantages of having artists working in their midst. The facilities houses were paid a (relatively modest) agreed fee for an agreed amount of access, generally running into several weeks. The scheme has been considered successful with both artists and facilities gaining new perspectives on their work, some artists invited to continue to use the facilities houses during down-time and some hoping for commissions to develop new work out of their research.
The high-tech awards were 2 years in planning, with Channel Four's involvement commendably being secured inspite of the projects' research and development purpose.
1.3.5 Specialist Training
Additional to under- and post- graduate training schemes for multimedia there are vocational training schemes, which are geared to design practice, though emphasising creative development. This includes the Artec one-year ADAC course (Access to Digital Arts Certificate) many of whose graduates over the past four years have become active figures in the multimedia industry and enablers of projects in the arts sector.
There is currently a national mulitmedia training audit being undertaken by Artec, commissioned by BIMA, CITE and Skillset which is due for completion at the end of January 1996, and publication shortly after.
In line with Government policy, training provision and assessment will continue to be a growth area and source of support for the arts. However, the distinction between training projects and artistic production, while often not absolutely clear-cut, is important to consider.
1.3.6 Specialist Services and Consultancy for Artists
Through the course of a multimedia production, practitioners might well need to use specialist equipment or expertise. Some of this will be available via commercial companies, such as printing bureaux, or video post-production facilities houses. Some equipment and specialist skills, for instance computer programming, may be accessed through contacts at academic institutions and other personal contacts.
Artec is charged with an important role in London as a consultant to artists who wish to develop projects using digital media. The process of re-organisation and staff recruitment taking place during 1995/96 will enable Artec to re-define its role in relation to artistic practice. Hitherto this has existed amid some tension between the organisation's training and in-house production roles.
1.3.7 Personal Contacts
Arguably more than in any other sector of the arts, getting multimedia work made relies on artists contacts and activities in the worlds of further and higher education and private-sector production. Some artists are able to use "down-time" at commercial facilities because they do freelance work there or have personal connections, and the facilities houses see some value in having experimental work going on in their premises. Academic jobs and contacts are also an enabler of multimedia work. The role of these informal relationships must not be underestimated.
1.3.8 Business Skills
In an area of work that may involve private sector partners - including the setting up publishing and distribution deals, but also obtaining in-kind support and sponsorship for projects - artists and curators need well developed knowlege of how the industry works and negotiation skills to deal with it. There has been a well voiced demand for this, especially among younger practitioners.
1.3.9 Production Management Skills
A whole range of skills are required for undertaking multimedia production. These may not be computer-based, but are equally essential to successful artistic work.
The production management skills of budgeting, scheduling, drawing up contracts, negotating copyright, teamwork and team-management are essential for an area of work that is very often collaborative and interdisciplinary, requires careful use of resources, and works to extended timescales. There is currently little of this training available, and some arts projects have suffered because of this deficit. These skills are necessary across the board: whether the production is for CD-ROM, installation, live events or for running an on-going networking project.
Summary: (B) 1.3 Training and Access to Equipment for Artists
A "mixed economy" in training and access already exists - though it is an informal one - with artists' own equipment and resources within education and the commercial production sector being as essential to artists as those within the arts funded sector. Artists who have the contacts to access these other sectors are privileged. The further and higher education sectors are expanding and diversifying and are providing opportunities for supporting the production of new work, as well as some basic training and access resourcing. Provision is fragmented and there is no centralised source of information. Production management and business-related skills are particularly important in multimedia production.
1.4 New groups of Producers
Some artists working with multimedia come from LAB's existing client group and although they may be developing multmedia work and interdisciplinary processes, they remain rooted within traditional artforms. However, if multimedia is an emerging form of creative expression, then it follows that new groups of people will be making art in this way. The characteristics of these groups present some challenges for the LAB.
1.4.1 Film and Video Artists
Film and video has several areas of convergence with multimedia as artists increasingly use computers to produce, control and combine the audio and visual elements of their work, and become interested in interactivity. This is especially true of installation work. Traditional clients of the film and video funding system are beginning to fall outside the remit of that system which emphasises the promotion of film, television and cinema. However, they have some difficulties in gaining admittance to visual arts or combined arts funding programmes. Budgets may be higher than those to which the visual arts programmes are accustomed, and specialist expertise is required to interpret and critically contextualise applications. The emphasis on collaboration in combined arts funding criteria sideline the individual practitioner producing interdisciplinary work.
1.4.2 Multimedia Trained Artists
Since 1993, there has been an expansion of interactive multimedia courses in Higher Education at undergraduate and post-graduate levels. This is leading to a body of multimedia artists who do not identify with the traditional artform categories. Moreover, these younger practitioners can be less encumbered by distinctions between art and design, and are more likely to move comfortably between casual work in the commercial production sector, and making work independently. SASS, the six makers of the Anti-ROM CD-ROM are good examples of this (case study 1). It is always difficult for new artists to break in to the funding system, and this will be particularly true for these practitioners, whose position and perspective embodies the breakdown of artform boundaries. For those rooted within the traditional definition of the arts, the work of multimedia trained artists can provoke unsettling (but exciting!) difficulties in distingishing between very innovative, very well-designed products with commercial potential, and non-commercial work with artistic aims.
1.4.3 Musicians
Musicians and sound artists - from the avant-garde to pop - have a long history of using computers, mixed-media and audience partcipation in inventive ways. Music, especially technologically-based forms of popular and dance music like hip-hop and techno, have been mostly unsupported by the arts funding system. Musicians with these backgrounds who become interested in the new multimedia and interactive technologies form another new group of entrants to the funding system.
Multimedia is an opportunity for musicians to make visual work if they wish, but the technology does not necssarily demand the privileging of image over sound. Interactive installations by artists that work primarily with sound have been the highlights of recent electronic arts exhibitions nationally and internationally. In the meantime, some musicians who have been working with projections and installations in clubs have been showcased at arts events including "Terminal Futures" at the ICA, LAB's "Live and Eclectic" at the Ministry of Sound, the collaboration between Hex Media and The Big Chill at the Forum, and the Transgressions series, a collaboration between Chill-Out records, The Wire, Community Music, Radio 3 and LAB.
With growing interest from both the music and the multimedia industry in CD+ (combined audio and interactive CD recordings) musicians can be expected to take an increasing role in the development of multimedia.
Case study 10: "Resonances of 4" An installation by Toshio Iwai
Toshio Iwai is an electronic media artist from Japan. His work defies any boundary between art and design, having a delightful and spectacular quality, while using a mixture of old and new technologies to make moving image and interactive installations that create unique sensory experiences. Though not a musician by background, his work shows a sensibility to sound. "Resonances of 4" is an installation that uses visual means for the audience to create music of their own.
In the installation four grids are projected onto the floor or wall. Each grid produces a different set of sounds when the "player" uses a mouse to place barriers in the way of dots moving across the grid. A short time using the installation familiarises the participants with the different sounds available and it is soon possible to create ones own melody. Moreover, when more than one person is using the work, collaboration inevitably takes place and a shared "composition" emerges.
The installation was to be developed with Nintendo in Japan to make a hand-held video game. The bug-like moving dots inspiring the title "music insects". The current situation with the project is unclear following disagreement over the final form of the game, allegedly with respect to it speed of operation and visual qualities.
1.4.4 Youth and education
There is a growing interest in multimedia from those working in schools in both media studies, art education, and additionally in the youth arts sector. Computers and interactive computer packages such as computer games, are familiar and engaging for young people. Computer software packages are extremely well suited to practice the kind of deconstruction and reconstruction of images that enable young people develop a critical media literacy and a multi-media language of their own. Many young people find creating and maniuplating images, and combining them with text and sound a satisfying form of self-expression that can draw on skills which traditional arts education leave unexplored. Many schools are well equipped although provision - especially in the primary sector - can be patchy and computers may be incompatible within and between schools.
With few exceptions, teachers do not have the computer skills required to undertake creative multimedia projects even where there is an interest in using multimedia within the school curriculum. There is therefore a role for artists and arts organisations to work both with teachers and students. Two examples of long-term multimedia projects within schools - both funded by LAB - are those at George Orwell School in Islington with Artec and Rosendale School in South London with The Photographers Gallery.
The Art of Change have fruitfully integrated digital image making tools into their educational practices, although the costs of maintaining an equipment base presents them with an uphill struggle. Raw Material, a music and video resource which works with young people both inside and outside of formal education, is also becoming involved in this area and has some high specification equipment for both education projects and for access by young people. Once again, however, there is a shortage of skilled practitioners to support their client group's exploration of the new medium.
There are various opportunties for arts organisations and artists to become involved in education work, provided they can provide the teaching skills, continuity and possibly long-term committment that the educational context demands. Working with young people requires simple but effective projects, which can engage their interest quickly and preferably without technical hitches. In recognition of the interest and possibilties for multmedia work within schools, across several parts of the curriculum, the Arts Council of England Visual Arts Department have set up three curriculum research and development posts. These have been implemented in collaboration with photography or digital arts organisations and Higher Education Institutions, and one is in London: A researcher has been appointed for an estimated two to three years to work at Middlesex University and with Artec. These post should form a focus for exploration, evaluation and development of possibilites for promoting photography and multimedia in the curriculum, including the development of new teaching materials.
Case Study 11: George Orwell School project
George Orwell is a mixed secondary comprehensive school in Finsbury Park. It has a very large number of refugee students and recent arrivals from the Kurdish, Turkish, Asian, Latin American and African countries. English is the second language of many of the students.
The school is host to a 3 year "media progression" project to experiment with different media education projects across the curriculum, initiated by Kate Kelly, Arts and Sports Education Co-ordinator at Islington Education Department and funded by the LAB through the Education Department.
In year one of the project (1994/95) George Orwell School worked for short periods with two photograpers, Ingrid Pollard and Danijah Tafari. Sue Underwood, a multimedia designer from Artec has worked in the school throughout the year, becoming its main resident artist. In this first year, the project aimed to encourage ways to interpret and represent identity by exploring the theme of "Body Style and Adornment" though traditional photography and digital image manipulation techniques. Two classes in year 8 undertook work with black and white photography, visited the "StreetStyle" exhibition at the V & A, worked with "Photoshop" software to produce new, digitally manipulated images and used all these activities to engage in lively debate about the role of both dress and photography in constructing notions of identity and belonging. Sue Underwood estimates that each participating student had at least 6 hours to familiarise themselves with the machine and make a new piece of work out of their original photographs.
The images produced as part of this project were displayed at an exhibition at George Orwell, and are being incorporated in to pages on the World Wide Web about the school. It was originally intended that documentation could be published on a CD-ROM but the cost and complexity of this has so far proved prohibitive. The project is being evaluated by the ACE funded curriculum development researcher based at Artec and Middlesex University, Rebecca Sinker. Evaluatons will serve as research into the use of new media in the national curriculum and contribute to the development of teaching materials.
The evaluation of a pilot project in 1993/94 by Media Education Consultant Sheila Geraghty reports that the hands-on experience of representing themselves through multimedia enabled the students to think about how meanings are constructed through the combination of image and text, and that this affected their own readings of the mass media. The students motivated by the quality of the work they could produce and some were inspired to think about how multimedia could be used in other areas of their own studies.
1.4.5 People with Disabilities
Computer-based creative forms are seen as a particular opportunity for people with physical and learning disabilities, at least in part because of the adaptability of computers to suit special physical needs and challenges. Multimedia projects by artists with disabilities are set to come to fruition in 1996. Shape are working towards a multimedia exhibition with hearing impaired artists which will aim to raise awareness of issues around deafness, and a new dance company "Ish" is being formed by three women with physical disabilities to explore possibilities in multimedia and dance.
In an educational project with young people with severe physical disabilities, Marylin Panayi is working with a grant from the LAB education department to explore the potential of an interactive space. She will be setting up a room criss-crossed by light-sensitive sensors. Interactive multimedia technology will be able to sense particular movments and gestures made within that space and translate these into a "vocabulary" of sounds. This project - called "Bodytek: The Digital Body" - is one part of Panayi's research into interactive technologies as an aid for communication. Her broader project is funded through academic science research councils.
While there are exciting opportunities for people with disabilities to find new ways to make and distribute their work, there are some tensions and contradictions at play. The conceptualisation of projects and resources which aim to support artists with disabilities and create education and training opportunities for those with special needs require careful conceptualisation. For instance, while networking technologies do provide opportunities for those with mobility difficulties to work at home, there could be a danger that these can be developed at the expense of making arts resources and galleries, including digital arts resources, wheelchair accessible and their staff fully aware of disability issues. Current developments in computer-based media have a tendency to privatise and domesticise: a trend which should be regarded critically by the arts and particularly when looking at provision for those with disabilities. In the meantime, multimedia resources need to recognise that considerable committment in terms of personal and teaching skills, as well as committment to making technical adaptations, are required if people with disabilities are to be accomodated within general training and access provision in multimedia.
1.4.6 Addressing Cultural Diversity
Multimedia is an interdisciplinary, hybrid cultural form, with particular opportunities for global communication and bringing diverse fields of study into relationship with one another. Not surprisingly therefore, it is seen as a particular opportunity to explore cultural diversity, internationalism in the arts, the legacies of colonialism and issues of representation.
London is host to a number of projects that tackle these issues in different ways: notably InIVA's developing internet resource, Digital Diaspora's public events using global telecommunications networks (see case study 14) and the CD-ROM production, Critical Decade (see case study 2). Multimedia has become an integral part of the practice of individual artists such as Keith Piper, Rita Keegan and Derek Richards who are interested in representation, identity and the global dispersion of culture.
InIVA is committed to integrating multimedia - networked, CD-based and installation - into its activities as a publisher, archive, information provider and partner in commissioning and exhibiting new work. This organisation is currently investing in its own multimedia production and internet infrastructure, and is set to continue as a supporter and promoter of new work with new technologies.
In order to continue to support the contribution black artists make in the field of multimedia, strategies to expand opportunities for production and access must not disadvantage those who may be discriminated against because of race, belief or colour. While this report highlights the need and importance of partnerships with other agencies, any stategy must guard against any homogonising tendencies in either opportunities for practitioners or creation of artistic products.
1.4.7 Women Artists
London is the base of several influential woman multimedia artists who may or may not be making work that refers to directly gender. There are also significant numbers of women graduating from vocational courses such as the Artec ADAC course and courses in Higher Education who work within the commercial production sector and education. However, there is a recognition from resource and training organisations such as Artec and Camerawork that women continue to be disadvantaged and lack confidence in relation to technology, and there is value in women-only training sessions.
Women artists, together with lesbian, gay and black artists, have long been interested within their work in the meanings that culture and society invest in differences between bodies: "gender" and "race" being examples. Current interest from a number of artists in the potential for new digital and networking technologies to re-define and re-draw the boundaries of the body are converging with this area of concern. Similarly, the re-definition and re-representation of nature that digitial imaging technologies enable can have a gendered dimension. Women artists with already sophisticated visual and critical languages regarding these issues are well placed to make important, distinctive and critical interventions into creative work in new technologies, and there is a great deal of interest in the possibilities of digital technologies from them. Training provision targetted at women might be especially important to develop the work of more established practitioners, interested and experienced in working with these themes, but with backgrounds in the traditional artforms, especially photography, performance, film and video.
Summary (B) 1.4 New Groups of Producers
An emerging medium means new practitioners. While continuing to support new work by existing clients, LAB must take careful note of the characteristics and requirements of these new groups if it is to maintain its own relevance to a growing sector of cultural production. Often people in these groups do not identify with an existing artform category. LAB must also maintain an awareness of the needs and aspirations of practitioners such as those with disabilites, black artists and women artists, traditionally marginalised within the arts, for whom multimedia holds particular opportunities and creative interest.
1.5 Partnerships
1.5.1 Commercial Audio-Visual Production sector
There is an acknowleged multimedia production skill shortage, both within the private production sector in London, and within education. There is also a recognition among professional bodies in the traditional audio-visual industries (film, television, animation, graphics and special effects) that their workers must be able to re-skill and transfer their existing skills to the new multimedia environment. The challenges for both individuals and professional bodies are exacerbated by the casualised personnel base of these industries. The survey of vocational skills training commissioned by Cite, BIMA (British Interactive Multimedia Association), Skillset (the Broadcasting industry training body), and the UK Multimedia Special Interest Group (backed by the DTI) is an indication of concern around vocational training in what is seen as an area of potential economic growth.
Those artists who combine a creative vision with a high level of skill are extremely sought-after by the young multimedia industry, which is desperately looking for original and engaging products. As has already been noted, a growing number of multimedia artists, especially newer entrants to the field, work flexibly across the commercial production and arts funded sectors. Artists may gain new skills from their commercial activities, may gain access to equipment at their workplaces and can afford to buy their own equipment out of their freelance income. There are a number of positive and negative effects of this for the arts. On the plus side: artists with production skills are developing a foothold and a currency within multimedia production and are highly valued. One example - which raises a number of issues - is that the private-sector employers of the makers of the Anti-ROM (see case study 1) show the artists' work to demonstrate the excellence of their team. In return, the company allows its equipment to be used outside of office hours, and allows some flexible working, in order to support the production of Anti-ROM 2.
This creative currency is a window of opportunity for the arts sector to make partnerships with those few, but significant, commercial players who would value involvement with artists the arts sector. In the meantime artists need to have real opportunities to make and show non-commercial work, need to be assured of their value to the arts, and need to be supported adequately if they are to continue to work within the arts sector.
British computer arts pioneer John Lansdowne has pointed out some parallels between this current situation and the early 1970's when a whole body of experimental artists working on the cutting edge of computer graphics and computer animation were absorbed into the broadcasting industry as designers. The result was outstanding graphics and title sequences for television, to the detriment of experimental artistic work.
With artists increasingly wanting to make work that is on the one hand expensive, and on the other, in publishable and distributable form, bridges between sectors become ever more crucial to the success of a projects and can potentially be rooted in a real exchange of financial benefit.
Arts events are also attractive to the private sector as good ways of showing the capabilites and raising the profile of their latest services to a broad and culturally influential audience. For instance: PictureTel videoconferencing provided equiment on this basis for the "Digital Slam" project, which estimates that at least £50,000 of help in kind was contributed for a project that was funded through London Calling and New Collaborations at a total of £40,000. Acoustiguide, who make remote controlled audio guides for museums provided an engineer and equipment to Susan Collins for her "AudioZone" piece shown as part of V-Topia in Glasgow. She also received a donation £60,000 worth of hardware from Fanuc Robotics for her installation in Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry, whose (arts funded) budget stood at £7,500 excluding artists fees.
1.5.2 Art and Design Higher Education
As universities, especially the new universities find more flexible ways to define research activity they are becoming more interested in supporting the work of artists making and showing work outside colleges. In the example given below as case study 12, the University of Middlesex cash-funded Tessa Elliot and Jonathan Jones Morris' work "for i= (0001;<=1001;i++)", that integrated education, performance and installation. John Moores University in Liverpool is increasingly collaborating with electronic arts commissioning and exhibition agency Moviola: firstly on an ongoing series of critical seminars and more recently on a proposal to commission and produce a CD-ROM of artists work.
Case study 12: Tessa Elliott and Jonathan Jones Morris: for i = (0001;<=1001;i++)
An interactive installation and performance commissioned for Camerwork Gallery, Spring 1995.
This installation work forms part of a series by the artists that interrogates the notion of interactivity. Using a light-sensitive camera, the installation responds to audience movement by triggering sounds and images. However, taking interactivity further, Elliott and Morris worked with a large number of people in Camerawork Gallery over a three week period in to create those sounds and images. Each morning the artists worked with groups ranging from architecture students to primary school children, and each afternoon the installation was available to the public in the gallery with the new elements added. The residency culminated in a performance where a dancer moved within the space, creating her own accompanying musical score and visual backdrop by triggering the sounds and images.
Tessa Elliott and Jonathan Jones Morris both work as lecturers and researchers in Middlesex University's Centre for Electronic Arts. Middlesex University contributed one third of the total costs: £2000 cash. Camerawork supported the remaining costs.
With all universities having permanent (as opposed to dial-up) and high-bandwidth connections to the internet via Janet, the Joint Academic Network, there are opportunities for artists who wish to work with the internet in collaborating with academic institutions. Artists with the right know-how and contacts in Higher Education can set up their own web-sites for next to nothing. As more universities become linked to SuperJanet, the broadband network which enables videoconferencing and real-time exchange of sound and image, more possibilities for exchange will open up that would be prohibitive in cost for the arts sector.
Other departments in higher education including philosophy, media and cultural studies also have strong interests in multimedia and may be open to partnership. In one example: the Art of Change have worked with the New Ethnicities Unit at the University of East London on text for their pilot multimedia project "Tricks of the Trade".
1.5.3 Computer Science research
The ArtAIDS project (see case study 3) is a good example of how a computer science department at a university can contribute skills and resources to a project, while benefitting its own research activities. As whole areas of computer science are geared to communication applications, collaboration on arts projects become increasingly valuable to the scientists. Such collaborations are riddled with difficulties, not least over conflicts in priorities, purposes and terms of reference, and successful projects can only come about through building up a common understanding at the outset of a project. The arts sector can promote itself as an important provider of ideas and content to those developing new applications while taking care that technological development is not prioritised over artistic objective. However, the extent to which projects are at the mercy of institutional agendas cannot be underestimated: the ArtAIDS project made the decision to move off the server at Queen Mary College, partly in response to changes in departmental personnel and priorities.
1.5.4 Arts Organisations as Providers of Services
With skill shortages in commerical production and in teaching, arts organisations are in some cases taking a role in providing services to education and/or the commercial sector.
For example: The London Printmaking Workshop is in discussion with Brighton University about using its facilities to teach modules to degree students. In return, the Workshop may be able to have its own courses accredited by the University. Artec has provided consultancy and training for organisations ranging from the British Library and the Museum of London to Charter 88 and UNICEF. The organisation is currently developing a local network - "Islington On-line" - for Islington Borough Council. Autograph (The Association of Black Photographers) is in discussion with the Daily Telegraph with a view to providing cultural information for their "Electronic Telegraph" service on the internet.
Summary (B) 1.5 Partnerships
There is an exchange of skills and practitioners between the arts sector, the private audio-visual production sector and education: vocational skills and equipment resources can strengthen and enable artists work while the mixture of creativity and skill is much in demand in the industry and for teaching. This is opening new opportunities for partnership in supporting artists' multimedia work. Such partnerships are an opportunity but need to be approached with caution and mutual understanding of each sectors creative, economic, and technological priorities. Artists must be valued and supported creatively and financially by the arts if they are to continue to make innovative, experimental work within the funded sector.
2. Distribution, Exhibition and Audiences
2.1 The Limitations and Opportunities of the New Electronic Media
A small MORI survey of 339 adults, published in The Times on November 1, 1995 revealed the following: 45% of respondents had never used personal computers, mobile phones, pagers or modems. In the A and B social/economic classes: 59% of people regularly use computers. This figure drops to 19% in social/economic classes D and E. 14% of class A and B respondents had used the internet, 4% in classes D and E. The MORI survey points out that unemployed people are the least knowlegeable about information technology because, for most people, access is through the workplace. In a separate study (Multimedia in the Home, Europe 1995), it is stated that just 10% of internet access is through the home. The rest is at workplaces and through academic institutions.
These statistics show that we are a long way indeed from a scenario where the new electronic media reach an extensive and demographically varied audience of its own, let alone replace traditional public spaces, including those for the exhibition and discussion of the arts. Nevertheless, the trajectory of technological change is commercially driven and tends toward privatisation in every sense of the word: privatisation of infrastructure, information and production, but also increasingly the privatisation of the individual and confinement to the domestic sphere.
This is not to suggest that artists should not use these media, or to underestimate the breadth of the changes underway in how information of all kinds is circulated and the importance that artists and the arts participate in this. I use these figures to provoke at the outset a questioning approach to discussions about the current constituency for electronic work, the role of the arts as a part of public life and how this relates to new developments in electronic media.
In the meantime, it is multimedia's ability to work across and between cultural forms, and for artists work with multimedia to reflect critically upon the increasingly dense visual and aural culture that surrounds us, which provides an opportunity for the arts to develop new audiences. Multimedia art - including installation and live work - does have a certain accessiblity because of its relationship to a popular media, and may be surrounded by different pre-conceptions than traditional forms of art. However, this does not mean they should not have to compete with commercial interactive packages such as games on the levels of spectacle and speed.
Arguably, the potential of the electronic media in the arts currently resides in the strengthening and adding of a new dimension to "traditional" exhibition practices by showing work that is experimental, provocative and - even if only because of its use of computer technology - topical. Quite possibly this will be work that can interlace the electronic media and the "physical" world, capitalising and reflecting on the characteristics of both.
Additionally, electronic publishing and use of electronic networks can be complementary to the activities of arts organisations, disseminating their activities widely, and instrumental in building an international profile and international links.
Summary: (B) 2.1: The Limitations and Opportunities of the New Electronic Media
The new electronic media of the internet and interactive CD currently have a limited audience. Creative work in multimedia is well placed to bridge the gaps between the electronic media and existing sites for the arts, strengthening and building new audiences for both. The tendency of commercially-driven technological developments to target a domestic audience is one that the arts may wish to approach critically.
2.2 Integrating the Live and the Virtual
2.2.1 Interactivity
Interactivity in the context of electronic media is the ability for the viewer to influence the course of events in a time-based work. The notion of interactivity is one that is explored in different ways by artists, from the triggering of events by a person's movement through a space (more re-active than inter-active), to the building of a web of images, sounds, texts and information through which a viewer can determine their own pathway of enquiry, to the complex notion of interactivity posed by Tessa Elliot and Jonathan Jones Morris' piece for i = (0001;<1001;i++) (see case study 12) where viewers of the installation also take part in building its vocabulary of sounds and images. Live artists are also interested in the possibilities of interactive electronic media to expand and extend the possibilities for the audience's engagement with their work. Artists work can explore the notion of interactivity in ways that go far beyond the familiar pairing of the mouse and the screen, although equally some work deliberately plays with these conventions.
Interactive works demand motivation from the audience: the work will never be fully revealed unless the audience is engaged enough to explore it. In galleries, electronic work always has high audience figures. For instance, audience figures for Liverpool's biennial Video Positive Festival regularly breaks audience records for the host galleries. Expectations of multimedia, at least on the level of spectacle and excitement, are also high partly because they share a medium with computer and arcade games. However, while interactive artists can never afford to ignore their audience, this does not mean that their work is necessarily spectacular, or easy, or should not be expected to be so.
case study 13: Blast Theory: Stampede
Blast Theory are a London based group of young live artists who aim to create powerful issue-based work by combining the excitement of live performance and physical energy with the artistic potential and cultural signification of video, computer graphics and interactive technologies.
Their most recent completed piece of work "Stampede" aimed to explore the exhilaration and the terror of the individual in the crowd, from the shared passions of football and concerts to the frenzy of the riot. The audience for the performance was able to move in the space, being itself treated as a crowd to be by turns corralled, fragmented, intimidated and watched. A number of technologies had an integrated role to play in creating this experience, reflecting the role of technologies in our lives. Closed circuit video cameras surveilled the audience and performers, projecting images onto large screens. Small sensor pads placed throughout the space triggered sound and image interventions by the actions of unsuspecting individuals in the crowd and computer graphics displayed "scores" and "results" of various kinds.
Blast Theory are in receipt of a small amount of funding from the ACE combined arts department on a three-year basis. Stampede was funded to £20,000 by the New Collaborations fund, supported to a futher £10,000 by the Junction in Cambridge and the co-commissioner, Arnolfini Live who contributed another £9,000 of in-kind support in the form of wages, accomodation, a space within which to develop the work and the opportunity to show the work in progress. As well as the five perfomers and technical crew the production involved musicians, video makers, and three interactive multimedia designers. The multimedia designers were paid a very small amount, probably less than a quarter of the money they would earn doing design work. While the designers were very committed to the work, they were unable to afford to give up commerical work. During their tour, the company used the three on a rota system: an inadequate system that lacked continuity. Because of equipment hire and personnel required the show is very expensive to stage and this limits touring venues.
The company find that the costs of hires of exhibition equipment prohibit a prolonged development period. They are anxious that shoestring budgets for ambitious uses of technology might confine their work to a low production standard, even though their work is maturing in both its approach to content and the integration of audio-visual and interactive technologies.
2.2.2 Telematic exchange
Both the internet and broadband telecommunications are of growing interest to artists and arts organisations, both as sites for artistic endeavour in themselves and as opportunities to disseminate activities within the arts.
For example, the Poetry Society (case study 15) wish to use the internet to relay events in their upcoming Poetry cafe to other venues nationally, and simultaneously to make them available to individual internet subscribers. Technosphere, developed by Jane Prophet and Gordon Selley, is a virtual "world" on the internet for which subscribers are invited to design inhabitants. A version of this will be constructed for exhibition at the Cambridge Darkroom Gallery in Spring 1996. The Channel artists network has commissioned two residencies, one for writers to work on the internet, and one for visual artists to make work for the internet that explored notions of identity (case study 7). The visual arts project was presented at the Derby photography conference. The Arts Council of England Film and Video Department runs "The Hub", an internet site which provides information about the activities of UK electronic media practitioners. Alongside, the "Hub Club" is a monthly meeting at a Central London venue which physically brings together multimedia artists, creative software designers and small commercial multimedia companies to exchange ideas and information and look at works in progress. The internet site includes a small number of very small, original interactive multimedia pieces that are downloadable onto floppy disk.
London's academic institutions host probably hundreds of web sites by individuals who post up examples of their own creative work.
All of these projects have to work within a constantly changing set of technical limitations that govern what is achievable on the internet, and which must cater to widely varied systems for accessing work. Currently, the internet is limited in its ability to transmit high-resolution images and sounds, especially for the user with dial-up access through a standard telephone line, and for users in countries with less developed telecommunications infrastructure. Although technology changes rapidly, artists are becoming more interested in working within the limitations of the medium, devising ways to use lower resolution images and - the one form of communication that everyone on the internet can access easily - the written word.
However, internet connections in public sites, for instance in galleries, can fix up more powerful connections and make more effective use of the internet's ability to transmit sound and image. Technologies to "compress" sound and image into smaller amounts of data are moving a-pace, and there are already experiments in the USA using the cable television system to deliver the internet, which is one possible way it may be transformed into a full multimedia network.
There have hitherto been only a handful of projects that use higher-bandwidth networks - for instance ISDN or broadband - which are able to carry video signals in real-time. The lines themselves and the equipment required to make use of them is scarce and expensive, and the organisation required to co-ordinate activity in several internationally dispersed sites is complex, time consuming and - paradoxically - demands international travel. The Digital Slam project is an example of such a project. A version of Richard Land's installation "The Mirror" that bridged Derby and Osnabruck was shown in 1992 and in several projects in The Netherlands, Germany and Finland, British artist Paul Sermon has been experimenting with the possibilites of transmitting video to create interactive installation work linking several sites. In Autumn 1994 the ICA in collaboration with Camerawork hosted the British link of the "Televirtual Fruit Machine", created by artist Agnes Hegedus for exhibition at a major German telecommunications trade fair and supported by Deutsche Telecom. Case Study 14: Digital Diaspora: The Digital Slam & Black Cyberspace Conference.
The Digital Slam was a weekend of music, poetry, video and debate, bringing a black perspective to the creative uses of new technologies the role of electronic media in cultural and social change. The event took place simutaneously in the ICA, London and the Kitchen, New York, in April 1995, using an ISDN line based videoconferencing system to link the two cities. The Black Cyberspace Conference provided a unique opportunity for international black artists, writers, and theorists to debate issues relating to race, gender, cultural diversity and the new technologies, using some of those technologies to enable international links.
The Digital Slam was a conceptually, technically, organisationally and theoretically ambitious project to experiment with new forms of global communication. These forms were used to reflect upon cultural changes, from geographic re-definition to re-figuring of personal identity, that are being brought about by the new electronic media. The evening event linked poets in both cities, taking inspiration from the oral tradition of call and response, and also consisted of DJ's and video artists mixing sound and video over the ISDN lines. Those attending the event and the following day's conference also had an opportunity to use the internet and a number of CD-ROM packages.
The organisational problems of working across two international venues were immense. The technical set-up was complex and a lack of experience in production management and at the venue exacerbated the problems. While as an experimental event it was necessarily uneven, it did succeed in exploring and highlighting issues which concern people of colour and their relationship with new technology, and in the role of new technology in cultural production. It created a forum for creative experimentation and encouraged audience participation. Both events attracted capacity audiences.
The Digital Slam and the Black Cyberspace Conference were supported by a number of sources: the ACE New Collaborations fund, LAB's London Calling, LFVDA, Channel Four and InIVA. Commercial sources of funding proved to be difficult largely due to the culturally specific nature of the project. However, its level of grant aid was probably matched by in-kind support by hardware and software companies.
2.2.3 Integrating the Global and the Local
The discussion above has illustrated that simply making work available on the internet is not enough to ensure a critically engaged and broad audience. If projects are going to work across "real" sites and the electronic networks, then there is an neccessity to interrogate and experiment with the relationship of the global and the local. Communication across large distances is not innovative in and of itself: pockets of interest both within a region and internationally need to be identified and targetted, and meaningful means of exchange between them devised. Approaches can be as simple as buying a strategically placed advertisment for a web site in an international print publication, or as complex as the work of Digital Diaspora detailed above (case study 14).
One example of a link between the global and the local is the ArtAIDS project (see case study 3). This is a "virtual gallery" project on the internet. As the quilt analogy suggests, artists are invited to add their visual response to the AIDS crisis to an ever growing display of images. The project is centred around an issue of international concern, with a tradition of artists' involvement in campaigns, and many of its activist groups in parts of the world with well developed telecommunications infrastructure. Internationally, the internet site has become a forum for exchange. Locally, it has been a focus of activity for artists wishing to respond to the epidemic, and through the project's workshop programme, it has helped artists around the country develop skills required to use the internet. With the participation of Crusaid, the project is experimenting with the fundraising potential of the internet.
In a very different project, being developed by artist-run organisation Beaconsfield, an artists' exchange with Vilnius in Lithuania will explore the nature of and possibilites for the global communication system. Twenty British artists will go to Vilnius, and twenty Lithuanian artists will come to London. During the course of the exchange, artists in both countries will be invited to send back responses and documentation of their visit though fax, post, internet, telephone... whatever communication media are available to them. The modes of communication used in the project will be circumscribed both by the economic differences between the two cities and the preferences of the artists.
London Electronic Arts, a production and distribution resource for video artists which is increasingly involved in multimedia, plan to open a gallery in Hoxton Square, Shoreditch, when they move to new premises there in 1997. Their emphasis on this development indicates their perception that gallery-based exhibition practice is instrumental in fostering a critical and aware constituency around electronic art. The organisation has been involved for many years in the international distribution of artists' video. Their aims for the future prioritise both the further development of the international dimension of their work through networks and new media, and engagement with their new locality through gallery and site-specific exhibition.
All organisations using the World Wide Web as a marketing tool are exploring these relationships to an extent. For instance, a poetry site such as that run by the Poetry Society (see case study 15) carrying links to other poetry sites available on the internet is part of building a global constituency with a local focus. Computer networks can enhance international communication, co-operation and profile for arts organisations.
2.2.4 Integrating Process and Product
Many networking projects invite the on-going participation of a number of individuals, and interactive work relies on the presence and actions of the audience to fully reveal a piece of work. Given also the experimental nature of many projects, it can be difficult to distinguish between the process involved in making a piece of multimedia work and the end product.
Camerawork is a gallery and darkroom resource which has always aimed to integrate its exhibition programme with its role in supporting production, and to ensure that its education programme works across both areas. Through digital media the organisation is finding it is able to achieve these objectives in new ways. Tessa Elliot and Jonathan Jones Morris's piece for i=(0001;,1001;++) (see case study 12), took the whole production process into the gallery, involving diverse groups of people in creating a library of sound and moving image snippits that became an integral part of the installation. Simon Biggs' site outdoor projection project "The Castle: Parsing the Book" (case study 5) began life as a research and development "lab" in which a publicly accessible space was set up so that the artist could experiment with a range of interactive techniques.
The Photographers Gallery, which has not hitherto been a production base, is planning to build up a multimedia resource of its own in a desire to integrate production and exhibition - which the organisation sees as a particular issue for digital work.
Since the production process may be an integral part of an artist's project, it can be important to devise and support new ways for the public to access the work, and to ensure that projects are evaluated appropriately.
Summary (B) 2.2 Integrating the Live and the Virtual
Artists work with multimedia does not represent a clean break with past practices in exhibiting and distributing art work, and conventional exhibition practices remain relevant. However, the new media do offer new and revealing ways for artists and curators to re-configure and experiment with relationships between physical and virtual space, process and product, and between regional and international constituencies. An awareness of these relationships is key to innovative and effective artists' projects.
2.3 Venue Development
2.3.1 Equipment
Across gallery and live arts venues there is a desperate concern about the cost and accessibility of exhibition equipment.
Equipment hire, which may include computers, projectors and monitors, sound equipment, cameras and sensors, and technician support for multimedia work is very expensive, prohibitively so in some cases. It has been estimated that the LAB supported installation by Simon Robertshaw "The Nature of History" would cost £22,000 to any venue wishing to re-stage it.
There is also a need for installation and live artists to research and develop their work with access to projectors and other exhibition equipment. The costs involved often curtail this part of the working process. Education projects also suffer from this lack of opportunity.
Galleries that do show electronic work, and promoters of touring exhibitions such as the Film and Video Umbrella, often find that it is cheaper to buy exhibition equipment than undertake a long-term hire. However, once a particular exhibition is over, the equipment languishes unused. The organisations involved do not have the resources for insurance, maintainance and technician support that would be required to allow the equipment to become more widely accessible. The Moving Image Touring and Exhibition Service (MITES) based in Liverpool provides subsidised hire rates and technician support for its stock of equipment. However, this resource with its national remit, tends to be stretched thin and is little used in London. Running an exhibition equipment resource is expensive, labour intensive and subject to all the problems of upgrading and changing demands faced by a production resource. However, a wide ranging and well-resolved body of exhibition and live work with electronic media can only be realistically undertaken, and research and development supported, if the problem of exhibition equipment is tackled.
2.3.2 Skills
Technicians, administrators and curators at galleries and live-arts venues need a baseline level of technical understanding if they are to work effectively with electronic media. This requires a different knowlege base than either digital production or more usual theatre technician skills, and one that tends to be overlooked in arts training provision.
2.3.4 Site Specific Work and New Venues
Projects such as "Nature of History" (Autumn 1995), Camerawork's "River Crossings" (Spring 1993) and two large-scale outdoor projection pieces by Simon Biggs at the British Library (January 1996) and Senate House Library (scheduled for Spring 1996, see case study 5) are examples of multimedia art work in a site specific context.
In each of these projects have used electronic media to make a relevant response to an exhibition site outside of the conventional art gallery. The "Nature of History" installation at the National History Museum functioned partly as a critical reflection of the permanent interactive displays in the museum which replicate traditional scientific approaches based on categorisation by genetic difference. Simon Biggs' piece for the British Library reflected upon memory and the aging process, suggesting a notion of the library as an archive of human experience.
The financial costs of such projects tend to be high, but their value in terms of profile and ability to develop new audiences are equally so. Most importantly, these projects expand the definitions and expectations of what multimedia can be and do.
It is also perhaps worth mentioning here London's "Internet Cafe" Cyberia. This is a commercially run cafe which provides facilites for browsing the World Wide Web and sending email at a charge of £2.50 per half hour. The cafe also runs short introductory courses about accessing the internet (including a weekly women only course). The same business operates a successful internet subscriber service aimed at the domestic user and small businesses which generates additional revenue. Cyberia has built up a good relationship with some electronic arts practitioners and its network of computers has been used for arts funded activities. For instance, the ArtAIDS project has run workshops there and London Electronic Arts will be making use of the equipment for its multimedia master-classes in early 1996.
Summary (B) 2.3 Venue Development
Training and Infrastructure in the traditional venues for art need to be strengthened to enable the exhibition of multimedia by artists and to support research and development comprehensively. This as least as urgent as the need to invest in new forms of production resources. Lack of funding means that equipment is not shared between arts organisations efficiently. Site specific commissions are a good opportunity for artists to make work that broadens the definition of what multimedia can be and critically engages with its location, the audience and the medium itself.
2.4 Publishing, Literature and the Book Trade
Most large publishers are becoming extremely interested in the possbilities of packaging, promoting and marketing interactive CDs through their traditional outlets: bookshops and mail order. Some are setting up in-house production facilities to make new products or - more commonly - make interactive CD versions of existing books and English versions of American interactive products. CDs for children are currently seen by major publishers as their biggest retail opportunity. However, among these companies there is very little interest in exploring multimedia as a new form of writing.
By contrast, some small book publishers are becoming interested in working with multimedia artists to press, package and distribute their work. Graham Harwood has been funded to make a CD-ROM version of his installation "Rehearsal of Memory" (see case study 6) which will be packaged and put into distribution by Bookworks, a specialist publisher of artists' books. Two installations commissioned by the Film and Video Umbrella: "Passagen" by Graham Ellard and Stephen Johnstone and "The Castle: Parsing the Book" (see case study 5) by Simon Biggs are to be published in collaboration with specialist architecture publishers Ellipsis. In all three of these cases, the installation served as a "prototype" to show potential publishing partners, and to raise interest around a piece of work prior to retail distribubtion.
The economies of CD-ROM publishing are different from those of book publishing: with reproduction costs (pressing) being relatively small and origination costs very high. This means that small publishers are most likely to experiment with CD-ROM publishing when work aleady exists. It also means that artists and specialist publishers can break out of the commercial market's expectations of size for a CD-ROM, incorporating less than the maximum amount of data if they so wish, and pricing accordingly. Finally it has to be recognised that the consumer market for CD-ROM is small. The extent of the specialist market for CD-based artists work, including collections, libraries and art colleges, has yet to be tested.
When funding work for potential retail it is essential that copyright clearances and contracts (see copyright section B:2.8) are properly in place, that products are fully tested so that they runs smoothly whatever choices the viewer makes, and that supporting materials are well produced. Some kind of "completion award" might help bring some pieces of work to this stage.
There are few barriers to very cheap distribution of text-only and visually simple work on, for instance, floppy disk that use common personal computing software packages. Authors taking this route are aware that their work can be very easily copied without authorisation and they have little control over distribution and income. Photo CD is basic platform for still images and text which can be produced simply and quickly. Autograph, the Association of Black Photographers have published work in this form. There is growing interest in "hybrid" CD disks, for instance CD+ which can be played for audio only in a standard audio cd-player, but which also carries some interactive material whch can be accessed by playing the same disk through a personal computer with CD-ROM drive. Some hope that these will succeed in dropping the price of interactive CDs and developing a market for multimedia among music CD buyers. Systems for recording CDs on a small scale are becoming cheaper which may lead to more possibilites for small-scale and self publishing.
Password, a distributor of books published by small presses, makes its catalogue on the internet through the World Wide Web. Password find this useful for their regular clients, as it is a good way of making constantly up-to-date information available. However, they too do not make direct sales from the internet. Password's recent "Shareware Poetry" experiment for National Poetry Day was also more of a profile-raiser than anything else. A handful of people e-mailed Password requesting poems the company offered through the internet. Those who liked the poems and wished to keep them were asked to pay Password £2.50, or else were requested to delete them from their computer. Few people paid for their poems, but the press coverage was extensive, and the exercise illustrated something of future possibilites for the distribution and delivery of literature.
As electronic networks become more widely available, it is possible that the practice of self-publishing by authors will increase, despite the uncertainty of financial return. This could lead to an abundance of new and experimental writing on the internet, and possibly a new role for small publishers in making selections and collections out of this profusion.
Among large publishers too the internet is currently regarded as little more than a marketing tool and an investment in the future, and until it becomes possible to pay for goods and services over the internet this is unlikely to change. Some publishers have web sites with extracts from their publications acting as tasters of their products. Several also publish their catalogues in this way. Once a secure payment system is developed, however, "electronic publishing" can take off with a vengeance, bringing new modes of delivery of the written word and transforming the relationship of publishing and distribution. The effect of these changes on books is unpredictable: of course they will not disappear, and they may even become increasingly valued items in a world deluged with ephemeral information.
Summary (B) 2.4 Publishing, Literature and the Book Trade
The field of book publishing holds two different opportunities for multimedia. Traditional forms of writing can be distributed via electronic means, although the difficulties of establishing secure direct payment on computer networks have led to a measured approach. On the other hand, the publication of new work for retail, especially on CD-based media, has enough in common with the business of publishing and book selling for publishers to see this an avenue for diversification. Specialist art publishers and distributors are entering into partnerships with producers and promoters of artists' interactive work, especially that which has already achieved a profile through public exhibition. A culture of self-publishing on the internet, floppy disk and increasingly CD is springing up.
2.5 Broadcasting and Convergence
For terrestial television broadcasting institutions, multimedia is a rival media for bringing entertainment and information to the home. However, as a fellow audio/visual medium they are also intimately related, and some broadcasters - including the BBC - are diversifying into multimedia production. Current emphasis for broadcasters is on making multimedia packages out of existing television concepts. Plans unveiled by the Government in late 1995 for licensing digital broadcasting will bring a proliferation of potential television channels for the existing terrestial broadcasters, but the conventional form of one-way broadcasting of linear programming will continue.
In the UK, cable television is still developing, but is a significant player in the development of multimedia and interactive delivery of information. Key to the convergence of television, telecommunications and retail multimedia plaforms like interactive CD's is the development of an infrastructre of high capacity cable networks reaching into every home. Such networks allow two-way communication between the reciever and the television station, enabling forms of interactive television, various consumer services, and the possibility of "video on demand" services. These networks also have the technical capacity to carry all the services we currently associate with telecommunications: voice and video telephony, fax, access to the internet and other electronic networks.
People in those parts of the UK which are connected to cable television are able to have a telephone provided by the cable company. In 1995, the consumer electronics market saw a new range of home computers whose screens double-up as televisions. There are a growing number of producers interested in making CD-ROMs which can also launch a connection into the World Wide Web for constantly updated information and communication with other users of the product. Versions of publications such as Time Out and the Daily Telegraph are available on the internet. In the USA a company is using the broadband cable television network to deliver the internet into people's homes. These are the first steps in convergence.
There is differing opinion about the best way forward for broadcasting and telecommunications, and different approaches to policy making. The present Government has barred British Telecom from using its network for entertainment purposes. This policy aimed to stimulate the market for cable television, adding an inducement for the cable franchise holders to build broadband infrastructure, and in the meantime introducing further competition in telecommunications provision to British Telecom and Mercury. British Telecom has complained that the ban is unfair, and a damaging disincentive for it to build advanced broadband telecommunications infrastructure for the country. The Labour Party has stated that it will lift the ban on entertainment service provision, should it come into office. In exchange British Telecom would then set to work on building a new national infrastructure for a combination of telecommunications and entertainment services.
Since the privatisation of British Telecom in 1984, telecommunications has ceased to be seen by government as a public service whose infrastructure should be within the public sector, and its development planned by government for the benefit of society and the economy. The development of broadband infrastructure is currently unpredictable, but the future seems to hold a network where telecommunications and entertainment services do conglomerate, in a context of increasingly privatised provision of services and ownership of information. Once a secure system of direct payment is developed, much of what we currently understand as the internet will become part of this overall package. Services ranging from the delivery of "electronic newspapers" to home banking, home shopping, and video games are likely to become simple to access, consumer-friendly, and - arguably - less inviting of public participation except by consumption of goods and commodified information. It is possible that a marginal network, accessible to the more computer literate will persist.
In the meantime, there will be a proliferation of non-interactive television channels delivered by cable satellite and digital broadcasting and therefore an enormous demand for (very cheap) material to show.
The current situation with the four main terrestial television channels is that they are less interested in artists' work as pressure to be competitive increases. In the meantime film and video artists are becoming increasingly interested in interactive and installation work. Those cable companies who have interactive television services already on stream have crude systems, and no money to commission artists work although at least one franchise holder - Videotron - has expressed interest in working with artists in the recent past.
The coming profusion of television channels and fragmentation of delivery systems will add urgency to the questions around the continued relevance of the "public service" remit of terrestial television. The arts sector will need to begin a complex task of re-figuring its relationship to television, finding ways to exploit its own value in a less patrician, but far more competitive and financially leaner scenario, with more companies, institutions and modes of delivery to deal with. While the future remains uncertain, multimedia artists are making explorations that could have long-term relevance to the changing media delivery systems ahead.
Summary 2.5 Broadcasting and Convergence
The traditional role of broadcasting is changing with fragmentation in delivery systems and questions about its public service role. In the future, the development of broadband telecommunications infrastucture may absorb many of services the internet currently offers into a more marketable and user-friendly package. The current priority of cable television is cheap product and developing telecommunications services to broaden its market. There will be a profusion of channels looking for inexpensive product. Artists work will have to find a place within this scenario on a new basis.
2.6 Existing Channels for Distribution of Artists Media
London Electronic Arts (funded through LFVDA) and the Film and Video Umbrella (funded through ACE Film, Video and Broadcasting) are the leading distributors of artists media. Both organisations are developing a key role in multimedia, coming from a background of work with film and video artists.
Much of the work of the Film and Video Umbrella involves creating touring packages of artists work for exhibitions in cinemas and educational use. However, the organisation is becoming increasingly involved in commissioning and touring installation work for the gallery and public sites. Recent projects include co-commissioning installations in the V-topia exhibition and Simon Robertshaw's "Nature of History" project, touring Graham Weinbren's "Sonata" installaion and Simon Biggs' site specific work "The Castle" (see case study 5). Film and Video Umbrella are beginning to experiment with publishing artists' electronic media on CD-ROM in collaboration with architecture publishers Ellipsis, and developing artists' work on the internet with their support (£2,000 for research and development, through ACE Film, Video and Broadcasting) of "Technosphere" by Jane Prophet and Gordon Selley. The organisation is likely to continue as a key agency in the commissioning and promotion of artists' work in electronic media, and this will move its activities increasingly toward the remits visual arts, literature and combined arts departments.
The Film and Video Umbrella have a background of involvement with bringing experimental work to the Regional Film Theatres, but as yet the BFI have no policy in electronic media except to state that their primary function and interest is in the study of film, television and the cinema. The BFI have not funded any interactive work except to look at some possibilities for educational work about cinema. However, the Film and Video Joint Officer group is currently looking at how the cinema space might be re-defined and its exhibition role expanded to encompass interactive media. The ICA cinema department has been at the centre of the "Toward the Aesthetics of the Future" conference series and has hosted a number of showcases of artists' multimedia.
London Electronic Arts (LEA) have been the UK's main distributor of artists' single-screen video since 1976, with education as a key user, although television, sell-through video, festivals and theatrical exhibition are also major outlets for the work. LEA are developing a Web site that will carry their catalogue (funded by ACE Film, Video and Broadcasting), and are engaged in the beginnings of what is set to become a key process of dialogue and exchange with distributors of artists media internationally. LEA has yet to undertake research to formulate a strategy for involvement in new media such as CD-ROM, artists work for the internet and the "distribution" of installation work. However, the organisation's move into exhibition with the Pandaemonium Festival and their plans for a gallery space are an indicator of the importance they attach to developing exhibition projects of their own, and integrating these into their work as a resource for artists' media.
Summary (B) 2.6 Existing Channels for Distribution of Artists' Media
As film and video artists become increasingly interested in gallery and site specific exhibition, the artists' film and video distribution agencies are developing a key role in the commissioning, touring, publication, distribution and promotion of new electronic media work by artists, including installations and projects for the internet. Their curatorial perspective, experience in working across distribution platforms and exhibition contexts, expertise and contacts nationally and internationally are important in supporting multimedia in all its forms. This is creating another area of cross-over between the film and video funding sector and the rest of the arts funding system.
2.7 Information, Marketing and creative work
Most arts organisations use of multimedia, especially the World Wide Web on the internet, has a marketing and information dissemination function. Similarly, Regional Arts Boards are developing a presence on the internet which is geared to providing information about funding programmes, with information officers providing expertise.
However, it is generally acknowleged that a good World Wide Web site presents information in interesting, appropriate and well-designed ways, but to hold ongoing interest it must keep changing. As a medium for information, the internet's major strength is its ability to be accessed immediately and be constantly up to date. It is also easy for visitors to sites to deliver further requests, additional information and feedback to the organisation via email.
The implication is that organisations are likely to negotiate contracts with internet providers which include an updating service, and they may wish to develop in-house skills to prepare and update information for their World Wide Web site. With these in place, organisations have all they need to extend their presence on the internet to encompass a creative function. The "Hub" is an example of a combined information and creative web site: artists are invited to make small downloadable pieces of animation or interactive media which form a creative focus for a site which also provides an opportunity for sharing contacts and information. The "Toybox" CD-ROM is another example of the collision of archiving, information, re-publishing and commissioning of new work. Prepared for Video Positive '95 by Clive Gillman, the disk incorporates electronic versions of the Video Positive '95 catalogue, the three back catalogues with additional documentation of exhibits, and 20 small pieces of specially created interactive works by artists.
Case study 15 The Poetry Society "Poetry Map" on the Internet
The Poetry Society launched a World Wide Web site on the internet on National Poetry day, 12 October, 1995.
"The Poetry Map" uses the device of a map of a fictitious place to enable navigation through different kinds of information. The site incorporates some of the Society's own publications, biographical details of a number of contemporary poets, information about the Society and an extensive list of other poetry-related internet sites nationally and internationally.
While the site is currently fairly basic, it is well placed to develop in a number of directions. The international links have the potential to turn into international networks and collaborations. The number of poets who publish work or biographical information about themselves on the site will expand to become a useful resource for research and education. When the society's live venue, "The Poetry Cafe", opens the organisation intends to use the site to document its activities by posting sound and text files of readings and supporting information about participants. The site might increasingly generate revenue for the society by attracting orders for its publications. Last but not least, some poets may become more interested in the potential of hypertext and exchange of texts on-line to create new work, making the site a focus for a new form of creativity.
An annual fee of £1000 is being paid to the BBC Networking Club for server space and technical support for updating. £600 was paid for initial design work, and the designer did some of the work on equipment accessed for free through his workplace. All the updating and addition of information, including placing the Society's paper publications on the internet site, is being done by existing personnel at the Poetry Society who have undertaken some additional training. The Society aim for a site that can develop steadily, that will enable additional use of all the literature being generated, and that it can be fully integrated into the activities and developments of the organisation.
Summary 2.7 Information, Marketing and Creative Work
Is is important to make the distinction between original, creative work and the provision, dissemination and re-cycling of information by organisations. However, in practice it may be of benefit to organisations to look at creative and informational uses in an integrated way. Combined projects have already provided opportunities for artists from several disciplines to develop small-scale, experimental, pieces of work. The combination of both creative and informational functions ensures constant change and encourages on-going interest in an internet site.
2.8 Copyright
The distribution of artists work using digital media, and the creation of new works in digital form create a number of challenges to the current systems of copyright licensing and protection.
It needs to be clear at the outset of this discussion that copyright does apply to digital art work and computer programmes, as these are considered a "permanent form". The concern over copyright has come about because of the ease with which works may be copied and re-distributed, especially across national boundaries, and the tendency of producers of interactive packages to alter, manipulate and re-contextualise sound, text and image.
Artists are in a paradoxical relationship with current copyright law. On one hand they are protected by copyright, giving them the right to control how and where their work is shown, and allowing them to gain financially from sales, reproduction and distribution. For some artists, this revenue supports the creation of further work. On the other hand, it is an important part of contemporary art practice to manipulate and re-contextualise found images, words and sounds - including well-known images from contemporary mass culture - to create new works. This is a practice that long pre-dates the advent of digital means of image manipulation, although recent developments in computing has made this process easier and more popular.
There are two polarised positions on how copyright law might be developed in the light of the new electronic media. Some advocate the total elimination of copyright law and any idea of intellectual property. All creative work would be in the public domain, with fees to artists paid only at the point of commission. At the other end of the scale, there is a body of work and opinion that holds that copyright law must be strenghtened for the benefit of the individual creator and for the public interest. This position states that artists need continue to gain financial benefits from their work to support creativity, that they should have the right to control the integrity of their work if they wish, and that there is a need to guard against the circulation of mis- or bogus information. Technological solutions are being sought for the problem of enforcement: these include methods for electronically tracing and tagging copyrighted works. There is a current trend toward the privatisation of information, with very large international corporations such as Microsoft buying exclusive rights to electronically reproduce and distribute of works of art whose originals belong to individual artists or are in the public domain. The effect of this might be to restrict access to digital reproductions of cultural artefacts to products and networks developed by those companies. "Ownership" of these electronic rights would therefore be being used to strengthen the market position of those networks. The pro-copyright position takes the view that if the rights of the individual author is strengthened then this trend would be curtailed. The anti-coyright position holds that if there is no copyright the strategy collapses in an information free-for-all.
Predictably enough, the extreme anti-copyright position is a politically marginal one. However, there is currently a great deal of discussion and manoevering over copyright law changes, with a focus on a Green Paper issued in Autumn 1995 by the European Commission. The operation of copyright across national borders is a growing issue and it is likely that policy making and administration will increasingly take place on an international level. Britain has a relatively recent copyright act with strong protection for copyright holders: internationally this legislation is considered to be advanced, so this might be taken as an indication of the trends.
While detailed, technical and protracted discussions take place, licensing copyrighted material for multimedia is being done on a case-by-case basis, leading to consternation for multimedia producers, great suspicion on the part of copyright holders and their representatives, and very busy copyright lawyers.
It is perhaps worth noting that many organisations currently producing multimedia within the funding sector have a background in training, design and fine art. They may not have the workaday experience of dealing with copyrighted materials of those with backgounds in in broadcasting, publishing and archive research. Artists should, therefore, be encouraged to draw on existing expertise at the research and development stage of their work. A well informed, well advised and (unfortunately) very pragmatic approach is required.
An optimistic view is that good co-operation and constructive relationships with copyright holders, including copyright collecting societies, is the best policy. The Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) have, in recognition of the processes by which multimedia projects come to fruition, established a nominal fee structure for prototypes of multimedia projects (see B:3.2.2). This allows the use of copyrighted images for a fee of £4, dropping significantly if more images are used. Even the full fee for image use is managealbe in the guideline schedule of fees. Altering material is not prohibited, but manipulations of images need to be cleared though DACS on a case-by-case basis which is time-consuming.
A well known recent case is that of Glenn Brown, a young British Artist whose painting that appropriated an image by Salvador Dali won critical acclaim and was bought by Charles Saatchi. A furore blew up when the representative of the Dali Estate, in this case DACS, pointed out that the use of the copyrighted image had not been cleared and it transpired that the copyright holder had not been approached. After negotiation the Dali estate agreed to the use of the artists use of the image, recognising that the appropriation of images from contemporary culture is an important part of contemporary art practice. This case had a positive outcome, but there is nothing generalisable from it except to point out that copyright issues need to be tackled in the research and development phase of a project.
It is undeniable that confusion and suspicion over licensing copyrighted materials for multimedia is currently a barrier to some kinds of creative work. These barriers come as much from large media conglomerates bulk-buying exclusive electronic rights to copyrighted material as from individuals worried that the integrity of their work may be damaged.
While LAB may wish to take a position regarding copyright on a level of advocacy, arts funding bodies must help artists ensure that funded work is not illegal to a point where it cannot be exhibited or distributed. Clearly, some aspects of contemporary art practice do work at the margins of legality and the law is open to interpretation. However, an awareness of copyright issues and openness to confronting them must be encouraged, especially if artists intend to make work for retail distribution. Work for publication and distribition in partnership with commercial organisations must be contractually watertight. Contracts need to cover both the use of copyrighted materials within the work, and the assignment of copyright in all constituent images, text, music, sound and software originated during the making of a work.
Summary 2.8 Copyright
Artists' copyright is protected in electronic and digital media as in any other. Artists who wish to use copyrighted material in their work are entering a difficult realm, shrouded in mutual distrust and increasingly affected by corporate interests. However, copyright issues can be resolveable and contractual issues need to be dealt with at the research and development stage of a production, with the use of professional consultants if needs be. Artists need to show awareness of any copyright implications of work they might propose to make, especially if they are hoping to enter into partnerships with publishers and distributors.
2.9 Documentation and Archiving
Documentation and archiving is an issue of continuing concern, especially for live artists and installation artists.
For live artists, CD-ROM is provoking interest as a form of documentation. Multimedia has the potential to encompass information about every element of a performance, from lighting design and choreographic notation to video of work in progress and performance, to critical responses. Such electronic documentation of live arts is increasingly on the agenda with the launch of the live arts archive in Nottingham in early 1996. However, CD-ROM production is a complex and long-term undertaking.
Documentation of time-based installation work is also difficult - most artists are restricted to the use of video. In this case there is gap in archiving projects: Although the ACE has developed a scheme to archive artists' film and video in collaboration with the BFI/NFA, and quite separately the NFA is beginning to create an archive of video games, there is no scheme that encompasses the archiving and documentation of interactive or installation work by artists.
Documentation and archiving is often a first casulty of tight budgets for artists. However, it is an important area to support if the rich and varied actvity in electronic arts in London is to have critical weight and continuity.
Summary 2.9 Documentation and Archiving
Multimedia is of interest to artists for documentation purposes. However, a full CD-ROM production is a costly undertaking and both artists and funding bodies would need to consider the potential market and distribution for such products before taking on the task. There are limited funds for documentation which tends not to be seen as a priority. There is a gap in moving-image archive provision for installation work artists' work using the new electronic media platforms.
2.10 Developing a Critical Context
Critical writing and discussion around multimedia is essential if this area of work is to flourish, and if the arts funding system is to continue to be able to identify projects of cultural significance that would not be supported elsewhere.
Focuses for debate such as publications and symposia are extremely important in fostering information exchange, an active constituency and a profile for artists working in electronic media nationally and internationally. These debates also provoke a set of critical arguments around new technologies and broader issues of social and cultural change. At a time of transformation in the way we originate, receive and consume information and cultural products, it is essential that debates about the cultural implications take place in the public domain. The arts have a key role to play in this.
The ACE/ICA conferences in the series "Toward the Aesthetics of the Future", the"Black Cyberspace" and "40 Acres and a Microchip" conferences (see case study 14), and the London based publication Mute (see case study 16) have been important focuses of information exchange and discussion. They have brought together practitioners, decision makers, cultural and political theorists and commericial producers to consider some of the driving forces and implications of technological change. These publications and events have an international scope and reputation, and are positioning London as a centre for distinctive critical thinking and cross-over between cultural sectors.
There is an acknowleged shortage of good critical writing around multimedia. In spite of growing representation in the art press, many critics shy away from the area. Perhaps they perceive a requirement to make judgements in technological terms and feel unqualified to do so, or declare a blanket disinterest because of the work's questionable status as "art". Any lack of consideration by arts critics and journals is a loss to the field of electronic arts, and may begin to be rectified as a less technologically-led appraoch takes hold. However, much of the appeal of multimedia artwork comes from its position at intersections between many disciplines and enthusiasms: from philosophy and cultural studies to contemporary art to science fiction and computer games. The regular coverage of multimedia arts in magazines such as i-D and The Face indicates something of this. Journals such as "Mute" that are dedicated to the relationship of art and technology also reflect this mix and are a valuable addition to the field.
Case study 16 Mute
Mute is a journal dedicated to "Digital Art Critique". Its pilot issue was published and distributed free in November 1994. It fourth issue will appear in January 1996. Like the previous three editions, it will retail at £3.
Mute is designed and published in the form of a newspaper, on the same pink newsprint as the Financial Times. The form of the publication reflects its editorial approach by taking an ambivalent, playful and historically aware view of the information revolution which we are supposedly party to. Contributions to the publication range from short fiction, political polemic, philosophical considerations, original work by artists, reviews and views. Contributors have included Keith Tyson, Bruce Gilchrist, Andy Cameron and Celia Pearce (curator of the Arts section at SIGGRAPH - the main annual US computer art and design festival). The emphasis is on the issues and discourses around technology, as much as looking at work with technology. The journal is committed to both serving a constituency of contempory artists with varying degrees of involvement in electronic work, and providing a forum for cultural debates around new technologies accessible to a more general audience.
Mute is edited, designed and published by small group of individuals. Despite selling around 600 issues per month nationwide, gaining distribution in Canada, USA and the Netherlands, and attracting some advertising, the journal runs at a loss and is substantially subsidised by the publishers' freelance work in interactive CD and Web Page design. The shoestring budget means no fees for writers, and no resources for the promotion of the journal.
The journal is on paper because the publishers feel that many of their artist and general readership are not necessarily interested in the bytes and bits of computers, will not necessarily have their own modems and internet connections. A paper journal is able to reach a broad audience and maintain a critical position within the debates around technology.
Summary (B) 2.10 Building a Critical Context
Publications and symposia are necessary for the fostering of high quality artistic work in multimedia and providing access for a broad audience to the issues of cultural change that surround the work. It is very valuable to provide forums for those with backgrounds in the traditional artforms to respond to work and hear what multimedia artists have to say about their practices, but multimedia's ability to engage people with a wide range of interests demands some new contexts for critical writing. Symposia and publications are crucial in breaking down the barriers between multimedia artwork, more traditional forms of arts practice, and related disciplines from cultural studies to science fiction.
3. Funding Strengths, Weaknesses and Opportunities
Over the past two years there has been a great increase in applications for multimedia related projects to the LAB. This increase has been mirrored across the funding system, in the other RABs and the Arts Council of England. Hithert