Dew Harrison and Suzette Worden
University of the West of England, Bristol

"Digital Art On (the) Line"

Keywords: Digital art, online exhibition, online curation, Watershed Media Centre, Bristol

This paper concerns the ongoing research undertaken in the field of Digital Art at the Digital Media Research Centre, University of the West of England, Bristol (see: http://www.media.uwe.ac.uk/). It remains specific to the working partnership developed over the past three years with the Watershed Media Centre (see: http://www.watershed.co.uk) where action research has informed working practice, consequently determining further research. This symbiotic relationship is particularly fruitful in view of the climate of our current technocratic culture where Media Centres can be understood as the new Art Galleries for Digital Art in that they are becoming the main centres for the production, distribution and showcasing of this new art form. The paper discusses the significance of three projects and their outcomes evidencing the rapid changes occurring in this evolving and dynamic field of study and gives an in-depth account of a fourth project, the online exhibition entitled 'Net_Working', which is currently on show at http://www.dshed.net/networking and has opened the way for further research into the curation and practice of Digital Art.

Project 1 – 'Electric December'

The Watershed's 'Electric December' is a digital advent calendar now in its third year of production. The project objectives are to:

• Promote the diverse cultures of today's Bristol;
• Raise the profile of New Media creatives in Bristol;
• Raise public awareness of the web as a creative medium;
• Develop audiences for web-based creative product;
• Raise awareness of the web across the full spectrum of creative communities;
• Create networks to share and develop New Media skills.

For the 2001 calendar the contributors were asked to interpret life in the city at a particular hour of the clock with the idea of gradually assembling a picture of city life over the twenty-four days of the event, from 1.00 am on December 1st to midnight on December 24th.

Fig. 1 The 'Electric December' electronic advent calendar, December 2001

This electronic advent calendar presents a collation of work indicating the range of digital activity undertaken in the South West region of the United Kingdom, mostly Bristol, which houses a plethora of digital creatives including Aardman Animations, ¹ BBC Wild,² bolexbrothers³ and nameless-uk⁴ . Each day throughout December reveals a digital 'chocolate' in the form of an animation, video, graphic, game, poem and/or sound piece from a different media company, arts organisation, community group or individual. All the 24 calendar boxes are available in still-image form as email Christmas cards before the compete multimedia boxes are due to opened. Electric December is now well known as a Bristol showcase of British talent and this year is supported and sponsored by the Guardian (see: http://www.electricdecember.org/index.htm).

The main premise of Electric December is that of fun and experimentation, it provides a creative outlet for those working on commercial projects and offers an international platform to local groups and schools. The Watershed provides technical advice and support to those who may not have the necessary computer skills and particularly encourages members of the local community, who would not normally engage with new media, to take part in this project. This year has advanced those principles of encouragement and support by focusing on the establishment of a new working method where Dick Penny, the Watershed Director, has persuaded the professional commercial ventures to work with local groups to produce joint calendar boxes. An example of this is box number sixteen where Aardman Animations have worked alongside Withywood Community School. This has had exciting results for the community where a small local state secondary school has not only created an accomplished piece of work with a leading animation company but is exhibiting it across the globe.

The University of the West of England's contribution is a calendar box for 13 December and is a video record of a live-streamed event, which took place on that day. We had Andy Sheppard, the jazz saxophonist, playing at the Watershed to a background of three screens connected to three Apple computers which were managed by three of our MA in Digital Media students. The result was a dynamic synthesis of sound and vision with swirling abstract shapes and aural forms. The event was live-streamed between 7.00-8.30 pm and 9.00-10.30 pm and proved to be a well-attended public performance with a full audience. Those who could not buy tickets for the event itself could view the show on the large screen coming live into the Digital Café in the Watershed building, or on their own computers in their own homes. The Sheppard performance was a popular event for a number of reasons:

• He is a musician of international renown and status;
• He was playing for Electric December which now involves a good proportion of the local community and so has high profile locally;
• The calendar has been promoted by a national newspaper and has become an item of interest on a national scale;
• This was an international artist playing on the global stage of the Internet to an international audience;
• This was a prime example of the creative use of the new media communication channels now in reach of us all.

Project 2 – 'Expansionslot'

The Faculty of Art, Media and Design has developed a good working relationship with the Watershed Media Centre where research into new media is involved. Both are central investors in the creation, analysis and evaluation of a fast changing art form. Interactive multimedia is taught as part of the Time-Based Media Degree at UWE. The production of interactive multimedia requires continual user feedback if fully functional and accessible pieces of work are to be created. Watershed provided their newly established Digital Café as a 'lab' for the third year undergraduates for this purpose. They continued to build their work in this public arena every Sunday for six weeks until the end of their course culminating in a two-week exhibition 'Expansionslot' at the Digital Café in June 2000. Throughout this studio time the students had acquired a public. Their work could be changed according to the user feedback they were given. Their audience felt that they had a direct influence on the creation of the work produced and this interest encouraged and empowered the students to complete. The results were most rewarding.

Project 3 – 'Clark Digital Bursary'

The idea of the Watershed as a glass laboratory for the production of new media work was strengthened but not initiated by 'Expansionslot'. The Digital Media Research Centre has been closely involved with the development of the year long Clark/DA2 Digital Bursary (see: http://www.watershed.co.uk/bursary/partners.html) for the creative development and production of new work in digital media since its inception in 1997, and has observed and documented the process feeding the analysis and research outcomes back to the Watershed for implementation. The Bursary was formed with the aim of providing the opportunity for creative development in the production of new work in digital media. It is open nationally but proposed projects should have relevance to the South West UK region and be socially resonant. The bursary is now entering its fourth year and is currently in the selection process for three smaller projects which are to be undertaken throughout 2002–2003. A full report can be read on: http://www.media.uwe.ac.uk/dml_frameset1.html

Fig. 2 Graham Harwood/Mongrel's 'Invisible Geographies' work for the Clark's Bursary, October 1999

It has become evident over the research span of the bursary to date that the emphasis for the creation and support of digital art has shifted from the production of outcomes and artifacts to that of research and development. The intent of the bursary is to further the artist(s) own practice, perhaps expanding into new media for the first time, and it is now understood that this may result in an event, or series of events, instead of the creation of an art object. The Digital Café is a platform for these artists to engage the interest of the public and show their work in progress. They are also encouraged to run workshops and seminars to expand interest and help their new audience to 'read' digital art while promoting and enriching their own work. The Watershed now provides both a 'lab culture' of technical support⁵ and, through the Digital Café, audience/user feedback in the creative process. Thus it continues to develop its production and screening facilities to offer the artist dynamic user feedback and to offer the audience the chance to witness and contribute to the creative process.

Project 4 – 'Net_Working', Online Exhibition and Curation
(http://www.dshed.net/networking)

Through the AHRB-funded (Arts and Humanities Research Board) 'Digital Art Curation and Practice' research project the Research Fellow curated the 'Exchange Online' exhibition, 27th October–3rd November 2000, to accompany the 'Exchange 2000' conference facilitating research in art, media and design at the Watershed Media Centre, 2–3rd November 2000.⁶ This virtual gallery of online work was the first large screening of online digital art work held at the Digital Café. It constituted an exhibition of twelve websites selected from eighteen international submissions, a response to a 'call' for art work put out across the World Wide Web and emailed to appropriate lists. There was the required selection panel of suitably qualified referees and a set of five selection criteria from which work was graded from 1–5. The final choices were substantial but small enough to be archived on one CD-ROM – all the work could be viewed in one, long sitting equivalent to an afternoon spent viewing an exhibition in a conventional art gallery, and the single front screen of a dozen URL choices did not tax the viewer too severely (see: http://www.media.uwe.ac.uk/exchange2000/exhibition/).

Fig. 3 Home page for the 'Online Exhibition', November 2000

One year later the process was repeated in order to curate the online exhibition – 'Net_Working' – again at the Watershed's Digital Café but this time to accompany the CHArt 2001 conference held at the British Academy, with astonishing results!

Within a week of putting out the 'call' for work on 25th September across the web there were over 150 submissions, by the deadline of 12th November there were well over 300. There are four possible reasons for this escalation in submissions of web works for an online exhibition:

• Further research within the year between exhibitions had targeted the main websites where artists browse looking for 'calls' ⁷
• The announcement was timely, late September, post the summer break when people are eager to begin work again;
• The exhibition title and theme was phrased well enough to engage interest;
• There has been a surge of net activity by artists within the last year.

A combination of all of the above is most likely, although the greater weight must lie in the latter two. It is evident that there has been an acceleration of artists using new media within their practice and the Internet can now support most elements of new media e.g. video, animation, sound, text, image manipulation, communication and Artificial Life forms. Engaging interest without being over deterministic is difficult – the theme needed to be open, flexible, slightly ambiguous and intriguing enough to catch a diversity of practice. The final call for work was as follows:

"* * Net_Working * *

Online but non-linear meshed and inter-linked net works for the Net. Collaborated clusters of single entities, caught in the Web where medium is content.

Trawling for content with Net works which are: collaborative, co-operative, interlinked, conversational, human, supportive, interdependent, organic, inclusive, expansive, joining, connecting, uniting, enriching..."

The work submitted covered a vast range of Internet art from all over the world. The URLs flooded in from Latvia and Estonia to Argentina and California, they covered documentary and web narratives to sound-led sites and hacktivism. The issues involved with exhibiting an online exhibition on this scale have led to further research concerning the curation, production and exhibition of online art. The sheer numbers of the Net_Working submissions indicated that Internet can now be understood as a living archive of digital art where the curation is the creation of a search engine hunting for an artist's name, title of work or content-led keyword. Virtual online exhibitions then become databases where the curator decides on the search mechanisms and methods of access (see: http://www.dshed.net/networking).

Fig. 4 'Net_Working' Home page, November 2001

Problems Encountered

The wealth of submitted work changed the curation methods applied previously for smaller online exhibitions such as the Exchange 2000 Online Exhibition. These methods had been adapted from curation in the traditional terrestrial galleries where a panel of 'experts' would apply a set of selection criteria to the submitted works. For example, the selection criteria for the Exchange 2000 show were:

• Visual aesthetic;
• Depth of content;
• Level of Engagement;
• Originality;
• Extent of furthering research/practice;
• Ease of access and functionality.

For an exhibition on the scale of over 300 works any selection criteria would have had to narrow down the choices to the point of negating perfectly good pieces of work in different forms, whereas an open submission based on the theme would sustain the diversity of new media practice now apparent on the Internet. Having made a decision in favour of open submissions, the exhibition organisers⁸ then faced the challenge of how the exhibition was to be viewed. How do you present 300 pieces of work on one monitor screen? Few Net-artists are well known in the art world, with the possible exceptions of JODI, Mongrel, Craighead and Atkinson and a handful of others. They are not so 'personality' driven as artists using more traditional media, preferring instead the anonymity of the Web and the temporary, ephemeral status of work on the net. (Although this is beginning to change as web art gains more of a foothold in the art scene). Therefore searching by name would not be sufficient.

Fig. 5 Tiia Johannson's contribution from Estonia – her work is worthy but is little known outside a small circle of fellow artists.

We approached this problem by investigating the nature of online art, concluding that:

• Work on the web is often intended to be short-lived and not realised as a piece to be permanently on show in a gallery or collection.
• Time on a server may be limited.
• Dynamic, generative work is difficult or impossible to archive if it only exists in a live state.
• Interactive work requires a viewer to interact with, in order for it to exist in its live state.
• A work only exists when the computer is turned on, if the URL is not well known or promoted the work will not be seen.
• Downloads and plug-ins are often required to experience the work fully.

We defined anticipating user needs as being:

• From previous events it was evident that our exhibition viewer would be interested in the type of work, whether documentary or animation etc.;
• Where it originated from, country, culture etc.;
• Who created it, an individual, organisation, team of specialists etc.;
• What the piece is about, content, narrative etc.

The exhibition team of five organisers then took sixty sites each and proceeded to explore the options for accessing numerous Internet sites from the interface of a single screen, considering the above points. The team was to check each site for functionality, speed and ease of access, viewing time and pace of engagement. They also took note of the content and form of the work on show. These observations would both assist the interface design for the exhibition and feed further research into the challenge of online curating.

They agreed that providing the viewer with many methods of accessing the work presented was preferable to offering only one and the exhibition can now be accessed through several choices, such as category; image; content; artist's name; title of piece and country of origin. Collating this very specific information meant opening a dialogue with 150 artists in order to obtain the following within the time limit of one week: Title of work; name of artist/s involved; country of origin; 200 word statement; descriptive sentence and a 100 pixel square 72 dpi jpg image. The artists were also asked to declare a category for their work. It was necessary here to explain that this was clearly for reasons of navigation and not for 'labeling' purposes. Where argument was expected, we offered support: artists engaged with the Internet as exhibition platform understand well the difficulties of interface and access. The artists were offered a list of possible categories to select from and of course were able to extend this to more aptly 'catch' their work: text/poetry; game; web narrative; documentary; film/video; sound; hacktivism; gallery; other. Further categories have been added: portfolio; organisation; log/journal and multi-user domains. Many chose the 'other' category, which may require further definition and discussion.

Fig. 6 Stanza, an internationally known artist, contributed his 'amorphoscapes'. He works with generative sounds and visuals often triggered by the viewer's use of the mouse. He chose 'other' as his category.

The time span of one week in which to build the site was (predictably) unrealistic and artists continue to submit information. During the 10-day large screening of the exhibition at the Digital Café work was constantly put online as the support material came in. Email was the fast, direct communication channel between artists, the curation team, and interested parties, the dialogue begun in this format was extended to a live chat arena on the web. This event was to exist between 7.00 - 9.00 pm on 26 November 2001, in effect the public forum continued throughout that night, allowing for different time-zones and the obvious need for artists to communicate about their evolving form of practice. The archive from this will feed further research into online curation.

Other events organised to enable artists to contribute to the discussion concerning practice in new media were:

• An opening event of presentations and discussion on 20 November 2001 to which there was a good turnout of the local artists involved in Net_Working. This was well attended by the public and again was archived for future research;
• A live link-up between delegates from the 4th International Conference on Modern Technology and Processes in Art, Media and Design held in Bangkok and a contingent of Net_Working artists at the Watershed. 28 November 2001, 10.00 -11.30am (Bristol)/4.00 - 5.30pm (Bangkok).

These two events together with the opening evening and the presentation of this paper at the CHArt annual conference brought the 10 day exhibition much attention and it is envisaged that further focus on Net_Working will be given through a series of smaller exhibitions relating to the separate categories identified here. It is crucial that all the submitted work is seen and appreciated as a significant array of the range and diversity of digital art practice, and if this is achieved, it will be inevitable that this exhibition will be understood as a curated database of the living, dynamic archive that is the Internet. It is hoped that Net_Working will provide researchers with a fruitful case study for further research into both curation and practice in the field of digital art and new media.

November 2001

Notes

1. http://www.aardman.com/

2. http://www.bbcwild.com

3. http://www.bolexbrothers.com

4. http://www.nameless-uk.com

5. The working method of 'lab' culture is now evident in many media centres and organisations where technicians work with artists to produce new work, however it is becoming apparent that the most fruitful combination is where the technicians are artists in their own right and act as collaborators or co-authors rather than dispassionate programmers. Centres of good practice which can be given as examples here are PVA Org in Dorset and Hull Time-Based Arts: http://www.pva.org.uk http://www.timebase.org

6. http://www.media.uwe.ac.uk/exchange2000/exhibition

7. The 'call' went out to media centres, artist organisations, networks and individuals. The most lucrative places reaching the most artists are: Rhizome.org which has an international following, Turbulence which covers USA and Canada and Rezone which serves Eastern Europe, however all those contacted have mailing lists and websites with a global audience.

8. A team of five consisting of two UWE researchers, the Watershed events organiser, a new media artist and a Digital Café technician.