CHArt Conference Proceedings, volume eight
2005

Editorial

The selection of papers published here was first presented at CHArt’s twenty-first annual conference, Theory and Practice, held at the British Academy, London, on 10-11 November 2005. Conference presentations reflected upon the relationship between theory and practice across a broad range of digital media and technologies in the visual arts.

The keynote presentation was given by Jemima Rellie, Head of Digital Programmes at Tate, who analysed changes in practice in the collection and archiving of culture in the digital age and the ways in which digital technologies provide the impetus, as well as the tools, to transform the way museums disseminate knowledge and encourage understanding.

Many of the presentations focused on art practice and one of the most engaging of these was David Furnham’s Les Cyclistes, a self-proclaimed ‘absurd world’ comprising a mixed media installation paying tribute to the French national enthusiasm for cycling. This presentation also drew attention to the complex matter of the standing of practice-based research in an academic environment, pointing out the lack of recognition of this area within institutions. Ann Sophie Lehmann’s paper reflected on another aspect of the concept of practice as research, taking the view that current practice has not yet become self-reflective, in terms of making the creative process part of the work of art. On a similar theme, but in the field of Systems Art Francis Halsall addressed what he felt to be the inadequacy of current art history to deal with the ambiguities and complexities of this area, such as, for example, the aesthetics of networks or the prioritising of non-visual aspects in an artwork. He proposed that Systems Theory might provide an effective theoretical model to account for such art. Other aspects of contemporary practice were also represented including locative and object-oriented artwork which was the focus of the paper given by Elizabeth and Graham Coulter-Smith. They investigated the contribution of such work to changes in the spatial awareness of, and role of, the viewer.

The concept of practice-based research was extended into archive practice by Dew Harrison, who argued, in line with Derrida and other modern theorists, that archiving itself could be considered as a form of art practice, and the digital archive reconsidered as a curatorial project, or an art work in itself.

Hamid van Koten examined the social and philosophical implications of the digital environment, drawing on contemporary philosophical and new media theories such as Marshall McLuhan’s notions of ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ media while Ralf Nuhn explored the tensions between the real and the virtual, in the context of his own practice which aims to bridge the gap between the digital and the physical world. Stephen Partridge examined the convergence or incorporation of video with digital forms and at how this process of substitution and simulation explains the current lack of (perceived) distinctions between forms or media.

On a more pragmatic level John Pollini and Nicholas Cipolla studied the value of 3D visualisation within the academic context of historical and heritage studies, emphasising the need for transparency in the processes that inform their creation, a point developed by Hugh Denard in his reflections on a visualisation-based study of Pompeian frescoes as a possible setting for theatrical performance (this paper not included here).

Another type of representation lay within Simon Down’s Paper-Like Displays and Paper-Like Books. He addressed the boundary between visual communications designed for screen and for print, seeking to merge the best elements of each with a view to creating a ‘web-like book’.

Two papers studied the role and value of large-scale image collections, respectively ARTstor and the Madison Digital Image Database (MDID) (the latter paper not included here). Issues around the availability of digital art images had been explored in detail on the first day of the conference in an invited round-table discussion initiated by David Ehrenpreis, Director of the Institute for Visual Studies, James Madison University, USA. The panel session, entitled Democratising the Image: Creating a global learning community, was held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA). It explored the possibility of an international learning community for art history whereby students, educators, and researchers would share unprecedented access to images of the world’s cultural heritage. The discussion addressed the problems and complexities of bringing about any such goal within the many restrictions that curb access to images, not least the thorny and ever-present matter of copyright. A select panel presented a range of views on these issues and this was followed by a lively open forum (see CHArt Newsletter, Spring 2006, http://www.chart.ac.uk/newsletter/spring2006.htm).

As always with CHArt, the bringing together of creative, academic and pragmatic issues into a cohesive event was a hallmark of the conference.

Hazel Gardiner

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