[ISEA98] Artist Talk: Julie Myers – Peeping Tom and Nosey Parker

Artist Statement

The aim of the presentation is to talk in very practical terms about how an artist generates, content and participation on-line, and how our initial expectation might differ from reality. I use the net as an on-line sketch book, a place to exchange information and an arena in which to exhibit – my first site, Peeping Tom went on-line in April 1996. The sites use traditional techniques of storytelling and theatre as basic structures on which to build interactive screens, with an element of play and humour used to explore wider issues of gender, pornography and identity. I love its anonymity, its minimal feel and its open ended nature. I think much of the debate around “Terror” and “Revolution” stems from the unknown, my own way of dealing with this is to ease myself into cybersapce through very ordinary exchanges that develop and expand organically. All the work is accessible on-line.
“Julie Myers uses traditions of storytelling and popular culture to draw participants into her playfully subversive fictional spaces.” _Lux Catalogue 97.
In the two previous net sites, Peeping Tom and Nosey Parker, I used traditions of story telling and Pantomime to create interactive spaces. For me the sites are empty shells before they are launched and don’t really become live until people feed into them. The project I hope to present at ISEA, “Fi Fi La Boo”, explores how on-line participation can be fed into the site both during and after its construction. The presentation will concentrate on how artist generate content and response from the on-line community.    julie9.org

  • Julie Myers, UK, is an artist and lecturer at Middlesex and Kingston Universities. She is currently working with the Public Art Commission Agency and Glenn Howell Architects on the development the of the South Thames College courtyard project and begins a new residency at the Institute of contemporary Art, London, in November ’98.
    Group Exhibitions:
    1997 Nosey Parker backspace.org/noseyparker, Video positive 97: Cornerhouse, Manchester 1997 Butcher,Baker,Candlestick-maker Marking Presence: ArtSway, Sway, The New Forest 1996 Peeping Tom, Love @ Firstsite, Firstsite Gallery, Colchester.
    Selected Screening:
    1997 Rotterdam International Film Festival, Lux Centre, Hoxton Square, London 1997,
    ISEA96, Rotterdam, Centre International d’art Contemporary, Montreal.                              Artist in Residence:                                                                                                                                1997 Heathrow Project: Terminal 1. In association with B.A.A and Hestonschool, 1996 Rosendale Odyssey: in association with The Photographers Gallery, London