Panel Statement

Panel: Electronic Space and Public Space: Museums, Galleries and Digital Media

Intro

With respect to the theme of the Symposium, we need to look away from ‘virtual’ spaces for this
session and return to some ‘real’ spaces in which, to quote Roy Ascott, ours is “an art which is emergent from a multiplicity of interactions in electronic spaces.’

Abstract

The exhibiting and distribution bodies have developed expertise over the last 20 years in the field of video art, over the last 10 with digital media installations. Current work on Cd-Rom is beginning to define the standards that will be expected of computer networks as bandwidth increases. High-end installations indicate other ways in which computer-mediated art will develop. The art organisations and institutions will remain inexorably linked with making this potential available to others to experience. They will also need to mediate between the artist and the consumer to make this possible politically. The session will focus on these political issues and the logistical problems associated with exhibition of artwork the issues anticipate. The experience of developing and staging of the exhibition, ‘Burning the Interface<International Artists CD-ROM>’ has contributed greatly to our appreciation of the dynamics of the development of this new medium. Many other festivals, galleries and museums around the world over the last 12 months have likewise evaluated the many issues that work on Cd-Rom raises. At ISEA95 a session attempted to deal with this area but it was less productive than it could have been by attempting to bridge across too broad a front with many speakers. The session must be focussed and specific and preferably involve prior circulation on the Web of papers.
BURNING THE INTERFACE, International Artists’ CDROM, mca.com.au

• Mike Leggett, Australia. Mike Leggett has been working across the institutions of art, education, cinema and media arts since the early-70s. He has a Master of Fine Art (1st Class Hons) from the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales; and a PhD from the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney. With an Australian Postgraduate Award he investigated the precept of visual mnemonics in the development of tools and models for creative interaction with digital motion pictures [source: mikeleggett.com.au/content/biography

Full Text p.148