Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network; MASS/NOMAD Scoping Study

Abstract

The Media Arts Scoping Study project was implemented to explore a national network of media art practices within Australian universities.
The aim of the media/electronic art scoping study (MASS) was to develop a three pronged approach in creating the national network for media/electronic art academics.
• To produce a networked website providing the basis for the design and construction of relevant infrastructures facilitating the collection and dissemination of data.
• A database was designed to obtain meaningful input and create a detailed understanding of the underpinning rationales enabling media/electronic art to evolve within the universities.
• To complement the database a word press site was constructed to run in parallel demonstrating major events influencing the evolution of media/electronic arts within the Australian university structure.
The second stage was the production of a media/electronic art scoping study symposium, held in July 2009. Attendees to the symposium were from across Australia. The symposium brought together three ALTC funded projects where team members, invited speakers and attendees interested in each discrete project shared ideas, mixed within focus groups and networked.
The final stage involved a range of public outcomes as an overview and analysis of new media/electronic arts to gain an accurate and comprehensive view of the sector in Australia.
The study’s aim to provide baseline data as to how media/electronic art curriculum has developed within the university sector has been realized. The networked study assists in the contextualization of emerging technologically mediated arts practice curriculum into the future, while developing further definitions of the sector for universities to manage the development of this area of study.

Full text

NATIONAL ORGANISATION OF MEDIA ARTS DATABASE
MEDIA ARTS SCOPING STUDY
Scoping Study for a
National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
Curtin University of Technology
Project Leader, Dr Paul Thomas,
Project Team, Eleanor Gates-Stuart;
Vince Dziekan; Dr Brogan Bunt;
Professor Julian Knowles.
http://www.nomad.net.au
Author Jeremy Blank, 2009.

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Support for this project has been provided by the Australian Learning and Teaching
Council, an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Education,
Employment and Workplace Relations. The views expressed in this report do not
necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council Ltd.
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Attribution: You must attribute the work to the original authors and include the
following statement: Support for the original work was provided by the Australian
Learning and Teaching Council Ltd, an initiative of the Australian Government
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Requests and inquiries concerning these rights should be addressed to the
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Learning and Teaching Council, PO Box 2375, Strawberry Hills NSW 2012 or
through
the website: http://www.altc.edu.au
2009

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
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Publisher Details
Publisher Name: Curtin University of Technology
Contact Name: Paul Thomas
Address Line 1: Kent Street, Bentley
City: Perth
State: WA
Title - Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts
Network
ISBN: 9780980718645
Format: Paperback
Publication Date: 3/2010
Recommended Retail Price: $0.00

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Scoping Study
For a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
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AFTRS Australian Film, Television & Radio School
ALTC Australian Learning and Teaching Council
ANAT Australian Network for Art & Technology
AVAA Australian Video Art Archive
BEAP Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth
CAA College Arts Association
CADCAM Computer Aided Design Computer Artists Media
COFA College of Fine Arts, The University of NSW
CPU central processing unit
IRCAM Institut de Recherche et Co-ordination
Acoustique/ Musique
LEF Leonardo Education Forum
MAAP Multimedia Art Asia Pacific
MASS Media Art Scoping Study
NASA National Aeronautical Space Agency
NOMAD National Online Media Arts Database
RMIT Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
UTS University of Technology, Sydney
VCA Victorian College of the Arts, The University of
Melbourne

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Acknowledgements 7
Executive Summary 8
Review of the Field 11
Project Overview & Timeline 13
Media Arts (A definition) 15
Part I! ! !!
1.1 Aims (Vision) & Objectives 16
1.2 Limitations 16
1.3 Context (Media Arts, an interdisciplinary approach to art) 17
1.4 Australian Historical Contexts in Media Art Education 18
1.5 The role of the Australia Council’s New Media Panel 20
1.6 The Australia Council’s New Media Scoping Study 20
1.7 Project Team biographies 22
1.8 Interdisciplinary approaches 25
1.9 Limitations of the study 28
1.10 Scoping strategy 29
1.11 Scoping Methodology 30
1.12 Contributions to the research project 30
Part II
2.1 Media Art Scoping Study symposium 32
2.2 Media Art histories and their presentation? 32
2.3 Contributions to the Media Art Scoping Study symposium 34
2.31 Keynote from Paul Brown 34
2.32 Relevant papers presented within the symposium
34
2.33 Mediality and New Media 36
2.34 Opportunities and indicators for ‘knowledge management’ 37
2.4 Issues arising from the Media Arts Congress 38
2.5 Building on past Success 40
Part III
3. Impact 41
3.1 Linkage and flow across discrete boundaries 41
3.2 Impact upon teaching and learning materials. 42
3.3 Value to the Sector 43
3.31 Student perspectives 43
3.32 Currently perceived student needs and requirements 43
3.33 eResearch 44
3.4 Engage with the Values and Principles of the ALTC 47
3.5 Interdisciplinary Possibilities 47
3.6 Cross-disciplinary learning 48
3.7 Stakeholders 49
3.8 Members of NOMAD 50
3.9 Recommendations 51
List of Illustrations 52
References 53
Appendices
Appendix 1: MASS symposium program 55
Appendix 2: MASS symposium abstracts 56
Appendix 3: NOMAD & MASS site data 62

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The Media Art Scoping Study project team would like to thank the following
individuals, who have contributed to the success of this project. The main researcher
Jeremy Blank, who wrote the report and to the individual researchers, Ruth Cross,
Hugh Davies and Tim Maybury, who sourced so much relevant material.
The report’s success is through the support and contributions of the one hundred and
five media art lecturers from across Australia who have uploaded their information to
the NOMAD database and the many individuals and organizations contributing to the
MASS site.
We also thank Julian Stadon for the organization of the Media Art Scoping Study
symposium Vital Signs Revisited and who has worked hard to finalize the Media Art
Scoping Study symposium proceedings.
We gratefully acknowledge the assistance and support given to the project by Josko
Petkovic and Su Baker. Together we developed the Media Art congress, where three
ALTC grant beneficiaries worked together in maximizing their terms of reference. I
would personally like to thank Professor Ross Harley for all his support and insights
in the development and implementation of this project.
Project Leader
Dr Paul Thomas
Director of Centre for Research in Art, Science and Humanity
Co-ordinator Master of Electronic Arts
Curtin University of Technology
Kent St Bentley WA 6102
Project Team
Eleanor Gates-Stuart
Science Communication
Australian National University
Canberra
Vince Dziekan
Deputy Head Multimedia & Digital Art
Faculty of Art & Design
Monash University &
Convener, Omnium Research Network
Chief Investigation (CI): Research, development and implementation network.
Dr Brogan Bunt
Head of School and Coordinator Media Arts
School of Art & Design
Faculty of Creative Arts
University of Wollongong
Professor Julian Knowles
Portfolio Director - Music and Sound, Communication Design/Visual Arts, Dance
QUT Creative Industries Faculty, Queensland University of Technology,

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The Media Arts Scoping Study project was implemented to explore a national
network of media art practices within Australian universities.
The aim of the media/electronic art scoping study (MASS) was to develop a three
pronged approach in creating the national network for media/electronic art academics.
• To produce a networked website providing the basis for the design and
construction of relevant infrastructures facilitating the collection and
dissemination of data.
• A database was designed to obtain meaningful input and create a detailed
understanding of the underpinning rationales enabling media/electronic art to
evolve within the universities.
• To complement the database a word press site was constructed to run in parallel
demonstrating major events influencing the evolution of media/electronic arts
within the Australian university structure.
The second stage was the production of a media/electronic art scoping study
symposium, held in July 2009. Attendees to the symposium were from across
Australia. The symposium brought together three ALTC funded projects where team
members, invited speakers and attendees interested in each discrete project shared
ideas, mixed within focus groups and networked.
The final stage involved a range of public outcomes as an overview and analysis of
new media/electronic arts to gain an accurate and comprehensive view of the sector in
Australia.
The study’s aim to provide baseline data as to how media/electronic art curriculum
has developed within the university sector has been realized. The networked study
assists in the contextualization of emerging technologically mediated arts practice
curriculum into the future, while developing further definitions of the sector for
universities to manage the development of this area of study.
The first priority was the establishment of the National Organizations of Media Arts
Database (NOMAD). This database facilitated the collection and presentation of
relevant institutional information concerning the evolution of media/electronic art
within a University context. To complement the database a word press site was
established to work as an archive of significant events that informed and stimulated
course development.
Interviewing of some key educationalists to gather first hand historical accounts of
information, effectively lost through the pace of change, was perceived as an
important and necessary key element of the research. Time for documentation has not
been privileged in the general area, while ongoing changes in recording formats,
storage formats and codec’s has left us with little physical evidence of what has been
undertaken professionally and academically.

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The need for a networked database of media art is paramount in the development and
documentation of a new modality within the arts. Media/electronic art is of particular
interest in that its evolution has been so short and intense that it has had little time for
reflection and review of itself as a sector.
Since 1975, when John Drews and Eric Gidney first taught an audio-visual unit at
Alexander Mackie (COFA) we have, in the following thirty-four years, seen changes
taking place towards a total technological mediation of art. The rapid rate of change
has required that most course materials be reworked each semester to maintain
currency. Currently a computer, with various attachments, can become a surrogate art
school providing all the necessary mediums to create art.
The need for disciplined based research is due to the continually evolving status of the
field of media/electronic arts within the university sector in Australia over the past
thirty-four years. The overall lack of national information concerning teaching and
learning in this area provided the motivation for instigating a media art scoping study
MASS to be undertaken and for the development of a NOMAD.
The NOMAD database demonstrates that strategically reviewing the use of emerging
technologies opens up the ‘local’ and ‘isolated’ disciplinary domains to increasingly
‘social’ spheres of practice. Embracing the possibilities made available through an
online collaborative database, of significant media/electronic art course materials, will
provide important practice-led curriculum developments and opportunities in the
future.
The emerging technologies in Science are presenting us with new understandings and
different approaches to concepts of materiality and immateriality. The role of the art
school as a unique entity incorporated in universities is necessary and desirable to
create a blended homogenized curriculum at the convergence of disciplines.
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Figure 1. Example of educational components from the NOMAD site, Synchrotron
Residency RMIT School of Creative Media.
The above example from the NOMAD website indicates the level of integrated
initiatives already in place within Australia that have been uploaded to the MASS.
More research needs to be done to explore ideas of the creation of neutral research
environments between different discipline clusters. Media/electronic art has been at
the forefront of experimenting with environments that have established and developed
a remix culture, redefined art practice, cultural expression and the creative potential of
convergence increasingly throughout the twentieth century.

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The Australia Council’s 2006 New Media scoping study report has significantly
informed and influenced the Media Art Scoping Study’s focus in realizing the
documentation of significant educational initiatives in the area of Media Arts in
Australia. The Australia Council’s oversight of educational importance within their
report on the role and future development of Media Arts in Australia offered an
immediate and important focus for the scoping study. The generalized tone evident
within the Australia Council’s report emphasized the lack of material evidence
available as a resource in 2006. This will be discussed within the section addressing
the Australia Council’s scoping study.
The discipline of Media Arts has little documentation of its development either as a
distinct art practice, or more importantly its implementation and growth within
tertiary and university sectors of education. The area of Media Art documentation is
in its infancy, while the practice has established itself academically and professionally
at globally recognized levels of exhibition, funding and academic study.
1.8. That media literacy is promoted as a key element of the Australia Council’s Arts &
Education Strategy, and that the Australia Council initiate partnerships with other key
stakeholder agencies to further research the development of a proposal for a national
review of media literacy education in schools that establishes the status and quality of
teaching in this area. Further research would build upon the findings of the National
Review of Education in Visual Arts, Crafts, Design and Visual Communication.
(Donovan, Lally, & Miller, 2006, 23).
Noel Frankham’s ongoing research into the provision and delivery of Visual Art
across Australia further influenced the drive to realize a Media Art Scoping Study and
National Online Media Art Database.
Frankham's paper charted changes over the past 30 years and forecast possibilities for
the future of Australian art and design schools. He uses the evolution of the Tasmanian
School of Art as a reference for speculating on a range of factors that will impact
management and leadership of schools in the near future.
(Frankham, 2006).
Frankham’s ongoing documentation of Visual Art provision through ACUADS has
extended over several years. The Media Art Scoping Study sought to effectively
document and create an online accessible resource with open access for all in a
defined period of time.
Haseman & Jaaniste (2008), referring to the Australia Council’s Media art Scoping
study of 2006, state:
‘In March 2007, the Australia Council and the Centre of Excellence in Creative
Industries and Innovation jointly produced Educating for the Creative Workforce:
Rethinking arts and education, which framed arts education as an ideal training
ground for building the creative capacity of our future workforce in general, and future
innovators in particular. The National education and the arts statement, published in
September 2007, echoed that rationale’.

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Many of the resources relied upon and accessed in the development, expansion and
promotion of this scoping study have been through online alliances, where the project
leader Paul Thomas has had a significant presence for many years. His relationships
and links with many international professional organizations embracing Media Art
education and development have enabled him to forge and establish lasting
relationships throughout Australia, Europe and the United States of America. The
value of personal professional networks is a defining aspect of Media Arts growth,
within a fledgling area of art and academic practice where progress has outstripped
documentation since the onset of it as art practice.
It is the absence of the documentation and development of Media Art education that
has inspired and galvanized the scoping study to realize a significant and real resource
for educational and research referencing.
Australian Screen Production Education & Research Association (ASPERA)
ASPERA is the peak discipline body of Australian tertiary institutions teaching and
researching film, video, television and new media as screen based production
practices. It was established in 2004 at an initial conference at the Victorian College
of the Arts in Melbourne attended by 16 institutions.
http://www.aspera.org.au/
The Leonardo Education Forum (LEF) promotes the advancement of artistic
research and academic scholarship at the intersections of art, science, and
technology. Serving practitioners, scholars, and students who are members of the
Leonardo community, LEF provides a forum for collaboration and exchange with
other scholarly communities, including the College Art Association of America
(CAA), of which it is an affiliate society.
The Leonardo Education Forum is part of the Leonardo Educators and Students
Program which also includes the Leonardo Abstract Service (LABS) and the
Leonardo International Faculty Alerts List.
http://www.leonardo.info/isast/lef.html
The MASS site has an extensive link menu to artists and organizations across
Australia. The links provide extended referencing potential and dynamic access to
media art practice across Australia provided by contributors to the MASS and
NOMAD sites.
http://mass.nomad.net.au/links/

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The National Online Media Arts Database (NOMAD) and Media Art Scoping Study
(MASS) are joint initiatives of the funded scoping study by the ALTC.
The NOMAD website provides a database of current and historical educational
materials and resources from across contemporary Australian education institutions.
http://nomad.net.au/
The MASS site is both a contemporary and historical database of Australian Media
Arts activities significantly contributing to the growth and definition of Australian
Media Art practice reflecting educational curriculum development. and
documentation of recent exhibitions, conferences and practice. The MASS site has
significant extended linkage across a range of Australian media art related portals
such as Experimenta, ANAT and Realtime magazine’s online resources.
The illustrations contained in this report are accessible through the MASS site. They
offer visual references, immediately contextualizing their place in the history of
Australian Media Art practice from an educational research context; emphasizing and
complementing stated facts realized through the scoping study.
Figure 2. Telesky@Sky Art Conference (1981): C.A.V.S/M.I.T/Cambridge
Organised by Eric Gidney, Telesky was the first visual telecommunications event in Australia
linking the Paddington Town Hall in Sydney with MIT in Cambridge Massachusetts.

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Figure 3. Timeline for the NOMAD & MASS scoping study.
October to December 08: Expand committee representation; determine web management
approach; Hold ‘roundtable’ as part of ACUADS -- Establish NOMA as Sub-Committee of
ACUADS; ‘Media Blitz’ (including flyer) Sign-off on Web Architecture; CFP for ‘Vital
Signs II’ Symposium; word press site to augment nomad.
TIMELINE 2009
January to March 09: Close Call for papers; Review Abstracts; Leonardo Education Forum
Symposium CAA; Road Trip’ promotion
April to June 09: Coordinate Symposium; Gather Data for MASS site
July to September 09: Hold ‘Vital Signs II’ Symposium; Report back to ACUADS; Convene
Sub-Committee; Digital Futures Conference Presentation nomad
October to November 09: Produce final report on outcomes of grant; publish conference
proceedings; LEF@ re:live Conference Presentation --- Next Stage (Edit selected papers for
Leonardo)

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To recite the story of media art in its syncretic mode is not to advance its
development, nor is it sufficient simply to outline the syncretic reality that is
emerging. Strategies to strengthen this emergence are needed. (Alexenberg.,
ed. 2008, 47).
Alexenberg cites Roy Ascott’s definition (above) from Pixels & Particles; The Path to
Syncretism (2007), which is used as a banner within the National Online Media Arts
Database website, an outcome of this scoping study.
The title for the proposed scoping study referred to New Media /Electronic Arts. As
research progressed across a broad range of subjects and disciplines, each with their
own histories and emphasis, it has been understood that the term Media Arts would be
more appropriate serving a broader range of areas without over emphasis of a
particular historic faction. The following definition is taken from The Australia
Council’s 2006 New Media Scoping Study where the term Media Arts was stated as a
definition of the areas surveyed.
‘Media arts is a diverse and dynamic field, constantly evolving as artists find
new ways of working with visual, audio and data technologies. In media arts,
artists maintain creative and editorial control over their work, distinguishing it
from the cultural industries of film, television and multimedia publishing.
Media arts may encompass participatory and location-based work, screen-
based art, sound art, networked media, projection work, mobile or portable
work, software and database generated art, artificial intelligence, wearable
computing, bio-art, nanotech, robotics, interactive and immersive environments,
art/science and technology practices, and augmented, mixed and virtual
realities. It can inhabit traditional presenting spaces such as theatres, museums
and galleries, but also non-institutional spaces ranging from online
environments and networks to public spaces and remote communities.
Media arts may also involve hybrid collaborations between different art forms
including the visual arts, dance, music, literature and theatre, as well as
popular cultural forms, and disciplines such as science, architecture and
history. It is integrated within, and funded by, all boards of the Australia
Council’.
(Donovan, Lally, & Miller, 2006, 9).

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The aims of the proposal were:-
1. To conduct a scoping study of media/electronic art teaching practices
2. To build a network and database supporting curriculum development and
enhancement in media/electronic arts education at universities.
The Scoping Study’s aims were achieved through the construction of a website and
the efforts of Dr. Paul Thomas. A series of publicising initiatives and interviews were
undertaken by Dr. Thomas to generate interest and attract contributions to the project
through web submissions. The organization of the scoping study symposium held in
Melbourne at the Victoria College of the Arts, July 2009 in conjunction with two
other ALTC funded research projects and further international presentations
publicising the scoping study were also driven by Dr. Thomas.
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The Scoping Study focused on gathering historical and current information relating to
Media Art practice and educational initiatives from within Australia. Databases were
created through Web - 2.0 technologies where practitioners, institutions, publications,
academics and artists were invited and encouraged to contribute in building a
database of accessible and relevant material for research and reference purposes.
The Scoping Study did not seek to analyze or present the resultant data or information
beyond the initial brief. It is evident that the initial focus of the project, while
necessarily tight in its remit, could be significantly expanded to gather and create a
more fully realized portal or significant reference point for institutions, academics,
artists and students.
Submissions from ANAT (The Australian Network for Art and Technology)
REALTIME magazine, the AVAA (Australian Video Art Archive) academics, artists
and teaching staff from across Australia significantly enrich the scoping study; such
as the article below from REALTIME archives by Linda Wallace an artist, academic.
Figure 4. Wallace (2003) Cross
disciplines, experiment, market!
REALTIME (56):
http://www.realtimearts.net/article/56/
7154 (accessed November 22/2009)

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The disciplinary area of Media Arts has grown from small ‘interdisciplinary’ and
experimental approaches from within, what once were, Art Schools. ‘The Tin Sheds’
of Sydney in the nineteen seventies were cited as an example of interdisciplinary
teaching and learning by Stephen Jones at the scoping study’s symposium, Melbourne
July 2009.
In the nineteen seventies and eighties understanding of ‘multimedia’ was broad,
where a variety of media approaches were encouraged by a handful of practitioner
teaching staff aware of international trends and increasing access to technologies such
as video, sound, installation and computer based media. Such approaches were
implemented through the professional links and involvements of academics either
directly involved as practitioners or as critical theorists prepared to travel across
Australia or beyond to maintain personal currency.
Developments of areas such as Interdisciplinary Studies by individuals such as
Warren Burt, Eric Gidney, Donald Brooke, Paul Thomas and Douglas Sheerer
integrated traditional ‘Art School’ values and approaches with experimental,
contextual and theoretical emphasis; while having little access to high-end
technologies, which remained the preserve of Film and Television or Graphics.
The label Multimedia was significantly claimed by Graphics or Communication
Studies as a cover-all term for the use of computers. The term Media Arts includes
both Media and Art. The area has historically been known under many names or
titles, often confusing for students, staff, management and funding bodies. Each
area/section or subset has developed from a different initial emphasis. Audio Visual
Studies initially provided a broad term where time based study in any form, sonic or
visual, could be accommodated. As some areas emerged from sound, others grew
from performance, animation, photography, super 8 or 16mm filmmaking or
‘Portapack’ video. With each area having its own history, the context for study
within such a broad field has clearly proven problematic. Areas such as painting,
where staff with experience in figurative work combined with others in abstraction,
may offer a broad teaching experience for students. Accessing multi-skilled staff with
fine art experience and specialist knowledge of technology is a rarity. The strengths
and emphasis of key staff within any institution effectively drive the focus of that
respective study area. With the advent of computer based software, analogue areas of
sound and video moved into the realm of multimedia, as understood and owned by
graphics and design. Media/electronic arts have a broad and complex web of histories
while coexisting and competing for hardware funding with commercially driven and
focused areas such as film and television.
The development of the Internet has seen the growth of small-scale providers of
media content, where a global phenomenon in the growth of animation, sound and
video has exploded over the last ten years in direct relationship to the expanding
accessibility of the Internet. Ironically it is major television and film distributors
whose dominance is challenged by amateur content and social network providers such
as YouTube or Vimeo. Democratization of media content with the individual
becoming the content provider, critic, commentator and globally accessible media-
personality is upon us.

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The potential to immediately distribute material globally as soon as it is conceived,
directly challenges the established controlling realms of cinematic, televisual or
musical distribution that defined the twentieth century. The challenge to generate
material where artistic elements or content are considered defines much current
thinking within media arts.
The area’s history has been broad, with new developments contradicting each
previous aesthetic perspective. Teaching in such an accelerated arena as media arts
challenges staff and students on many levels where technological emphasis rapidly
shifts. Stylistic and conceptual shifts in media art move at a far more accelerated pace
than in the established areas of painting or sculpture. The integration of technologies
within the areas of sculpture and painting has already significantly influenced those
areas professionally.
Media art is currently represented within two essential strands of practice.
• The democratization of technology and rise of low art has realized Joseph Beuys’
statement ‘everyone an artist’, where anyone has the capacity to create art. The
expansion of social networking websites has created global possibilities beyond
the physical constraints of being in a geographical location and surrounded by
people.
• The development of new potentials through hybrid practice. A remarkable
expansion in contemporary art practice has occurred where artists have
collaborated with a range of specialists across areas as diverse as Biology,
Physics, Computer programming, Philosophy, Politics, NASA, Oceanography,
Poetry, Mathematics, Sculpture, Nano-technologies, Architecture, Economics,
sound installation, online web-art, painting, photography and performance. It is
this aspect that effectively preserves high art concepts of contemporary art
practice at a time where art is challenged, once more, by technological
innovations being described as revolutionary as the birth of the Gutenberg press.
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The contextualization of Media Art’s history nationally and internationally has been
within mostly practical focused units and courses where technological upskilling is
combined with practical outcome based emphasis within art contexts.
Historical or contextual referencing to international activity has been more recently
achieved through such online portals as Ubuweb and YouTube, where previously it
would have been through lecturers’ personal documentation, copies of events,
exhibitions or marginal publications within the area. Practice based lecturers have,
necessarily, had to become theorists in order to present or contextualize their study
materials effectively.
Reference to the history of media art education have been negligible, other than
conference papers addressing important initiatives that would otherwise disappear
from our collective memory.
There has existed a long term desire to document, preserve and make available the
rich experience and work already done in securing the role of Media Arts within
tertiary and higher education in Australia since the 1989 Summer School at
CADCAM in Adelaide.

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
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The MASS and NOMAD sites document a rich and diverse history paralleling the
interests of universities.
Figure.5 Australian newspaper 7 February 1989 press clipping for the CADCAM artists
summer school Adelaide.

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
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The Australia Council created a specific panel for New Media, encouraging and
supporting ‘high end’ collaboration between artists working with a broad range of
media with technicians, scientists, architects, biologists and aeronautical engineers.
Internationally recognized artists such as Patricia Piccinini, David Haines and Joyce
Hinterding were supported through the Australia Council’s dedicated funding for
New Media work between 1996 and 2005. The New Media department of the
Australia Council significantly supported the Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth
(BEAP) 2002, 2004 and 2007. The existence of such a peer body encouraged
educational institutions to support and develop Media Arts within Visual Art higher
education.
The panel further supported organizations such as Experimenta, MAPP, D’Lux and
ANAT as well as academics involved in practice and theory within the discipline of
New Media.
Salient points from the Australia Council’s scoping study are included below
confirming the external relevance of this funded scoping study.
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The Media Art Scoping Study has specifically referred to the Australia Council’s
2006 New Media Scoping Study, which significantly informed current funding of
Media Arts, the repositioning of Media Arts within Visual Arts and has been
extensively referenced by academics as a defining statement on the development of
New Media in Australia.
The MASS perceived the Australia Council’s omission of the significant role
universities had already played in the direct funding, theoretical and practical
developments as well as exhibition of Media Arts as being a defining aspect for the
development of the NOMAD and MASS initiatives. It is clear from the Australia
Council’s report that universities needed encouragement to develop the area of New
Media.
Media literacy and the Arts & Education Strategy
1.8. That media literacy1 is promoted as a key element of the Australia Council’s Arts
& Education Strategy, and that the Australia Council initiate partnerships with other
key stakeholder agencies to further research the development of a proposal for a
national review of media literacy education in schools that establishes the status and
quality of teaching in this area. Further research would build upon the findings of the
National Review of Education in Visual Arts, Crafts, Design and Visual
(Donovan, Lally, & Miller, 2006).
The initial component leading into the research stage of the New Media Arts Scoping
Study was the Vital Signs: creative practice and new media now conference, held by
analyze1 Media literacy is the ability to communicate competently in all media forms, including print and electronic, as well as the
ability to access, understand, analyze and evaluate the powerful images, words and sounds that make up contemporary mass
media culture. It has resonance with the concept of visual communication.

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
21
the School of Creative Media at RMIT in Melbourne on 7-9 September 2005.
The conference was hosted at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. 39 papers
across 15 different panel sessions were presented covering a wide range of new media
arts practice and issues. 193 people attended the conference. Conference papers and
debate at the conference formed an early part of the research process for the scoping
study and can be found at the Informit Library website www.informit.com.au.
The Australia Council’s scoping study arose from a direct call by those attending the
Vital Signs Conference to examine and assess the prospects for ‘New Media’
following the proposed withdrawal of direct funding for New Media.
The New Media Arts Scoping Study Report to the Australia Council for the Arts of
September 2006 made recommendations including;
Communication.
2.6. National networks
Improve sustainability by strengthening national networks, with the most appropriate
model and process to be developed following discussion with key stakeholders across
overlapping professional spheres, including the visual, media and sound art fields. The
next step is then to determine the most appropriate role and nature of a peak body to
support the development and growth of media arts in Australia.
2.7. National archive committee
That a national committee be established to steer the development of a research project
into documentation and archiving that addresses long term needs in this field. The
committee would comprise representation from artists, major collecting institutions,
libraries, universities and other relevant agencies in Australia.
(Donovan, Lally,& Miller, 2006, 27)
The Australia Council’s concerns mirror those of funding bodies, practitioners,
educators, academics, curators and artists, aware of the speed the discipline changes.
The Australia Council further stated that ‘New Media Artists’ are “not described as
content providers” where their practice is considered as ‘artist driven’ rather than
ascribed a more commercial label. This distinction is understood and accepted within
traditional models of art schools and universities providing Visual Art courses.
Neither the Vital Signs Conference of 2005 nor the Australia Council’s New Media
Scoping Study defined or acknowledged the key role universities have played in the
evolution of media arts.
The New Media Board’s closure, followed by its report, has continued to be a
reference point for researchers, citing its many statements regarding the contribution
Media Arts make to the Australian economy through innovation, collaborations and
resourcefulness. Despite the demise of the New Media Board, the Australia Council
has been lauded for its initiatives and investment in the encouragement of media arts
and the integration of technology within Australian contemporary arts
practice.(Haseman & Jaaniste, 2008).

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
22
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The project team consisted of:
Dr Paul Thomas (Project Leader)
Director of Centre for Research in Art, Science and Humanity
Co-ordinator Master of Electronic Arts
Curtin University of Technology
Website: Visiblespace
Short bio:
Paul has been working in the area of electronic arts since 1981 when he co-founded the group Media-
Space. Media-Space was part of the first global link up with artists connected to ARTEX. From 1981-
1986 the group was involved in a number of collaborative exhibitions and was instrumental in the
establishment a substantial body of research. In 2000 he founded the Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth.
Paul is currently the co-chair of the Re:live media art history conference 2009.
Eleanor Gates-Stuart
Head, Centre for New Media Arts (CNMA)
Convener, New Media Arts & Technology Postgraduate Program
Convener, BA Digital Arts and BA New Media Arts.
Website: http://www.eleanorgatestuart.com.au
Eleanor is a media artist and well-established printmaker. A prolific artist, having received numerous
awards, grants, and commissions in her career. She maintains an active international artistic profile
continuing her own research and roles such as curator and director of new media arts events.
Eleanor also has a significant reputation in Australian education, with a strong belief and commitment
to pedagogical development in the creative and new media arts. She is a regular contributor to
numerous professional associations, having published since 1985 and presented papers at various
conferences in the UK, Taiwan and Australia. Eleanor is widely regarded for her professional
experience, and for her vision and direction at the Centre of New Media Arts at The Australian
National University.
Her interests firmly crossover arts, science, communication and media.
Vince Dziekan
Deputy Head Multimedia & Digital Art
Faculty of Art & Design Monash University &
Convener, Omnium Research Network. Chief Investigation (CI): Research, development and
implementation network.
Website: vincedziekan.com
Current research focuses on curatorial design forming part of an ongoing interdisciplinary project
negotiating the impact of digital technologies on curatorial practices and the implications of virtuality
on the art of exhibition. Recently completed PhD on ‘Without Walls: Virtuality and the Art of
Exhibition’, investigating how the intersection of new technologies with exhibition space offers new
possibilities for aesthetic experience. The concept of the multimedial museum is translated through
practice-based research focused on the curatorial design of a series of original exhibitions.
Published, in relation to these research topics, in various peer-reviewed journals and presented at
numerous refereed conferences, nationally and internationally.
Dr Brogan Bunt
Head of School and Coordinator Media Arts
School of Art & Design
Faculty of Creative Arts
University of Wollongong

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
23
Short bio:
Brogan is Head of the School of Art and Design, Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Wollongong.
He teaches within the Media Arts program and has a particular interest in computational media. He has
produced documentary and experimental art projects, as well as a book on the field of software art
(Risking Code: The Dilemmas and Possibilities of Software Art, VDM Verlag Dr. Muller, 2008).
Professor Julian Knowles
Portfolio Director Music and Sound, Communication Design/Visual Arts, Dance
QUT Creative Industries Faculty
Queensland University of Technology,
Short bio:
Julian Knowles is a musician, media artist and educator. In recent years his music and audio-visual
work has been presented at ICMC2008 (Belfast), ICMC 2006 (New Orleans), the San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art, Experimental Intermedia NYC, the Seoul International Performance Art
Festival, What is Music? Liquid Architecture, Australian Perspecta, and the Melbourne International
Film Festival. Julian also has a background in the Australian and UK independent music scenes. Julian
is a Professor in the Creative Industries Faculty and a member of the Institute of Creative Industries
and Innovation at Queensland University of Technology.
Jeremy Blank (Chief researcher)
Co-ordinator Media Arts, WASADM, Central TAFE, Perth WA
Jeremy Blank is a media artist and educator working across performance, video, photography and
painting. A curator of ‘Distributed Difference’ stream for the 2004 Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth,
recipient of 2005 Emerging Curator travel Award from the Australia Council to Venice & Europe.
Jeremy is currently working on his doctorate at Curtin University where the focus is on the integration
of Electronic arts within core Visual Art curricula. Jeremy is also establishing a new art gallery
venture in Perth WA.
Julian Stadon (Project administrator)
Julian is a PhD student who completed a BA. (Art) at Curtin in 2005, followed by an M.E.A
(Electronic Art) in 2007. Julian’s research has included residencies with the Interface Cultures program
in Linz; Salford University, Manchester; Human Interface Technologies Lab, New Zealand
(HITLabNZ), and at The Fogscreen Research Centre, Finland. Julian is a member of the Centre for
Research in Arts Science and Humanity (CRASH) and in December 2008 he received the Curtin
Research Scholarship (CRS) and the Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) for his PhD studies. Julian
lectures first year electronic art, is the Web Developer for the BA (Art) Online degree run through
Curtin, a research assistant for the National organization of New media Arts Database (NOMAD), and
the director of Dorkbot Perth.
Research support from Ruth Cross ANAT, Tim Maybury COFA and Hugh Davies
MONASH.
Ruth Cross
Ruth was born in England, but has lived and worked in a variety of capacities within the media
industries throughout the world. Her encounters with diverse perspectives combined with her work as a
curator specialising in contemporary Asian cinema inspired her commitment to documentary practice.
She undertook an MA in Documentary Production in Manchester UK and subsequently directed and
produced her Cuban feature documentary Tres Pesos funded by the Channel 4 BritDoc Foundation.
Ruth has recently worked as a programmer for the 2009 BigPond Adelaide Film Festival and she
currently balances work for the Australian Network for Art and Technology, the Australian
International Documentary Conference and her own documentary practice.

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
24
Timothy Maybury
Timothy is a Sydney-based emerging musician, curator and arts writer whose work primarily
negotiates the intersection between visual and musical forms of creativity and communication. He
completed a BA in Art Theory (Hons) at COFA-UNSW in 2008 with a thesis titled Sonic Youth: Noise
and Synaesthesia, examining the work of New York-based contemporary musical collective Sonic
Youth via their connections with both the visual arts as well as a broader history of experimental
sound-based practice. He currently tutors in art history and theory at COFA, is a regular contributor to
das SUPERPAPER, resident writer in the Firstdraft Emerging Arts Writers’ Program and member of
Sydney band Sherlock’s Daughter. Recent curatorial projects include Lo-Fi and Loving It: New Dogs,
Old Tricks for the Creative Sydney series at the Museum of Contemporary Art, and becoming a
member of the directorial board of Quarterbred.
Hugh Davies
Hugh is a media arts practitioner and educator. Hugh has held lecturing positions at the Adelaide
Centre for the Arts and the University of South Australia, has guest lectured at the Royal Melbourne
Institute of Technology and Carnegie Melon, and has tutored at The Royal Danish Art Academy.
!Hugh has also presented workshops on making animations for mobile phones for school children in
regional areas through the pixelplay program and set up the ABC animation training and hosting site
“Rollermache” for 8 to 15 year olds while employed at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
25
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The Media Art Scoping Study and National Organizations’ Media Arts Database
directly address significant aspects of the Australia Council’s recommendations. This
ALTC funded scoping study has necessarily sought data from a broad range of
departments, courses and individuals where emphasis on content differs immensely
from institution to institution within similarly ‘labelled’ courses or unit structures.
Media Art education has evolved from broad based approaches where institutions
have created discrete areas emphasizing specialisms from staff strengths and interests.
This approach is evident internationally where institutions have developed Media Art
studies.
Areas such as painting and sculpture have been responsible for initiating Media Art
course content. The range and variety of courses has been known of through the
emphasis of teaching areas across Australia. RMIT and COFA being two
immediately identifiable institutions in media/electronic arts while UTS, Murdoch
and the University of Western Sydney have clear differences in their provision for
film and television related studies. There has been little documentation of their
development, what has been taught, their current emphasis or facilities other than
internal asset management within host institutions.
Historically elective or subsidiary studies in visual art courses have often provided
access to a broad variety of discrete areas not within core umbrella areas such as
painting or sculpture. These extensions such as photography, performance,
installation, environmental art, printmaking and more recently video, computer based
art have offered students opportunities to emphasize or add technical, conceptual and
contextual value to their core areas of study.
National and international understandings of contemporary art practice have expanded
with technological developments and comparative ease of access to technologies,
such as digital photography, plug and play computer technology, free video, sound
and photographic editing software. Any student or lay person can produce media and
distribute it globally on the day it was created through an increasing array of online
distribution networks without recourse or reliance upon funding or nationally
established networks such as television or cinema to reach a potential global audience.
The Media Art Scoping Study perceives such availability and potential as positives
and negatives for higher education institutions offering visual art courses.
While technology and software may be easily accessed, the immediate question of
what is to be created and why still prevail for anyone embarking on media (art)
production.
Many students are fascinated and surprised by historical approaches, older
technologies and examples of audio-visual, media/electronic arts. Their exposure to
historical material offers significant and immediate contextual, technical and content
references.

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
26
The understanding of interdisciplinary approaches naturally includes historical,
theoretical and contextual elements within student centered programs of study.
Significant personalized referencing may assist a student in their research towards
developing a professional practice. Within this model students from a broad range of
disciplines such as ceramics, textiles, jewellery, painting and sculpture easily apply
interdisciplinary approaches to their work, where they sense a continuum of practice
and research yet extend their specialism beyond existent or traditional boundaries.
Media Art is a continually evolving area. Student exposure to interdisciplinary
approaches within the context of extension, technological upskilling and historical
understanding enrich the arts through the combination of broadening understanding
and deepening their awareness of a range of media potentials.
The Media Scoping Study’s work establishes dedicated websites where historical and
current contextual data is readily available for practice outcomes and teaching and
learning resources.

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
27
Figure 6. The World in 24 Hours Event Tuesday, September 28th, 1982)

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
28
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The intention of the scoping study was not to exhaustively present the media art
courses existent in the visual arts, but to establish a database of current practice and
significant historical Australian educational initiatives in the area of media arts
(www.nomad.net.au).
Secondly, to establish a database of historical and current activity in media arts
identifying key individuals, organizations and educational institutions within the
MASS website.
Issues arising from the collection of data and their statistical significance were not
within the remit of the scoping study.
The project is primarily descriptive in nature, seeking to map current and past
implementation of media/electronic arts in Australian universities and their parent art
institutions as opposed to providing detailed quantitative data on each institution.
Data drawn from interviews with individuals or institutions would not necessarily
provide a complete overview of the practice or history of that institutions commitment
or provision of media arts.
Data collected establishes documentation of the differing ways in which media arts
currently exist and have been established from across Australia. Interviews asked
specific and particular questions relating directly to the implementation of new
media/electronic art initiatives within Australia and further where they had relevance
to teaching and learning development in Australia. Many ‘early’ Australian
artist/academics have left to work in Europe and the USA, some contact was made
with internationally based artist/academics, while of those contacted some have not
worked within Australian educational institutions so were excluded from the study.
The resultant websites are not definitive in their content. Outcomes were not
envisaged to be definitive but rather to establish a foundation to build from. Take-up
from institutions has been gradual rather than immediate. The constraints of the initial
focus have provided several opportunities for the further development of the study.
The study provides the basis for an overview of current practice in media art
education in Australia: contributors can develop their profiles, and those institutions
yet to contribute may be encouraged by the content already online.
The Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network sought to
ascertain from higher education providers of Media Arts across Australia levels of
commitment to, and desire for, an online network. Initial outcomes indicate that apart
from universities, professional organizations and publications associated with Media
Arts have been keen to contribute to the study with their archives and current
activities.
The necessary limiting of focus to establish structural forms of presentation through
web 2.0 technologies has produced open access material for the stated audience and
beyond. It has become apparent that such documentation of Media Arts is being
undertaken by academics elsewhere, where they seek to retain control of their
respective intellectual property. The Media Art Scoping Study members have sought
to implement an inclusive approach to the gathering of historical materials throughout
this study.

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
29
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The Media Art Scoping Study focused upon two clearly identified objectives:-
1. To conduct a scoping study of media/electronic art teaching practices
2. To build a network and database to support curriculum development and
enhancement in media/electronic arts education at universities.
The proposed utilization of Vince Dziekan’s Omnium research materials was
amended. The NOMAD database required considerable linked options once data had
been uploaded. The selection of Transmog, a company that developed the Synapse
database, was seen as providing a more appropriate format regarding the range of
material being presented.
• A database was designed to obtain meaningful input and create a detailed
understanding of the underpinning rationales enabling media/electronic art to
evolve within the universities.
• To complement the database, a word press site was constructed to run in parallel
demonstrating major events influencing the evolution of media/electronic arts
within the Australian university structure.
The second stage was to instigate a media/electronic art scoping study symposium,
held in July 2009.
The final stage involves pursuing a range of public outcomes as an overview and
analysis of new media/electronic arts to gain an accurate and comprehensive view of
the sector in Australia.
• Presentations have been made in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney using round
table forums gathering and disseminating information.
• Papers were also given on the MASS at the College Art Association (CAA) in Los
Angeles and at Digital Media Futures in Falmouth UK. The MASS has also made
strong links with the Leonardo education forum based in America.
• The final report was presented to the LEF at the media art history conference
Re:live 2009 Melbourne in November.
• The realization of the MASS and NOMAD websites extends the scoping study’s
reach beyond that of the funded period where they continue to attract visitors and
contributions from individuals, academics and organizations in the public domain.

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
30
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The methodology selected for this scoping project provided for;
• Systematic collection of data identifying representative areas of tertiary
interdisciplinary practice contributing to the field of media/electronic art (i.e. art
& design; art & science; art & technology).
• The design and administration of a survey of resources and facilities currently
supporting teaching and learning activities in media/electronic art across
Australia.
• An accessible networked online resource, useful to academic and professional
staff, policy makers, researchers and other stakeholders in the visual arts, and
more broadly in the creative arts.
• Conduct a national forum/symposium to bring together key academics involved in
media/electronic arts courses.
• Map the national curricula in media/electronic art, particularly across postgraduate
courses and higher degree course work programs.
This provided the basis for designing and constructing relevant infrastructure. The
final stage saw the realization of a range of public outcomes where the methodology
became publicly visible through the successful implementation of the websites,
symposium, online publication of all papers presented at the symposium, associated
developments from attendees to the symposium and further nationwide ongoing
contributions to the scoping study.
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115 respondents from 43 organizations have made contributions to the research
project. Contributions to current and past institutions from teaching staff are the
essential element of the NOMAD site.
Contributions from organizations involved in the promotion, support, exhibition and
understanding of media arts made valuable contributions to the project. In particular
REALTIME magazine and ANAT (The Australian Network for Art and Technology)
made their archive materials available through the MASS (Media Art Scoping Study)
website.
The educational institutions, contributing through their staff, represent the majority of
providers in Australia for media arts. The range of provision, from institutions as
diverse as AFTRS, the Sydney Film School to the University of Western Australia’s
bio-art masters program, differ vastly from each other. The contributions to the
National Online Media Arts Database from a significant number of nationally and
internationally recognized providers have aided the establishment of a database where
current and past educational content is easily accessed as an online resource.

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
31
Contributing academic institutions and professional organizations.
Australian Film, Television & Radio School (AFTRS)
Australian International Video Festival
Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI)
Adelaide Centre for the Arts
Alexander Mackie College
Australia Council for the Arts
Australian National University
Australian Network for Art & Technology
Central TAFE
College of Fine Arts, University of NSW
Contemporary Arts Media
Curtin University of Technology
d/Lux Media Arts
Deakin University
Edith Cowan University
Electronic Media Arts Australia
Experimenta
Flinders University
James Cook University
Macquarie University
MEGA
Metro Screen
Monash University
Murdoch University
New Media Network
Perth Technical College
Qantm
Queensland University of Technology
REALTIME magazine
RMIT University
Southern Cross University
Swinburne University of Technology
Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney
Sydney Film School
The University of Melbourne
The University of New South Wales
The University of Sydney
The University of Western Australia
University of Canberra
University of South Australia
University of Technology, Sydney
University of Western Sydney
University of Wollongong
Victoria University

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
32
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In July 2009 the scoping study held a one-day symposium at the Victorian College of
the Arts, Melbourne2 as part of a three-day series with two other ALTC funded
research projects presenting and sharing information from each respective research
project. Assessing Graduate Screen Production Outputs In Nineteen Australian Film
Schools and Future-Proofing the Creative Arts in Higher Education, Scoping for
Quality in Tertiary Creative Arts presented research, questions and data related to
research indicating several aspects of convergence.
Issues of validity of assessment pertaining to screen based media production and the
need to examine content within curricula were key elements of Josko Petkovic’s
funded research. The future proofing of creative arts research presented examples of
current creative art research and addressed issues of theoretical and practical content
and structure in the definition of visual art study in Australian higher education.
The scoping study’s fifteen presentations addressed understandings of media art, its
relationship with visual art, current research practice and examples, linkage and
historical collaborations with science, technology and the balancing of theoretical and
practical elements within media art studies. Where media art is promoted as an
interdisciplinary and core aspect of practice across music, sound art and visual arts
were crucially emphasized. Archival and presentational aspects of historical work
was considered and presented by Matthew Perkins of the Australian Video Art
Archive, a resource funded through the Faculty of Art and Design Monash University.
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Media Art histories were presented from similar technological perspectives. Paul
Brown’s keynote speech introduced an historical overview of media/computer art
history from a European perspective. Historical contextualization of computer arts in
the United Kingdom was combined with key European and American initiatives. The
privileging of United Kingdom based practice within the context of media/computer
art history was substantially bolstered and enriched by the inclusion and documented
collaborations, or awareness of, concurrent European or American research and
practice. Paul Brown’s expression of historical contextualization offered a model
easily applicable to Australian media art histories where many Australian
artist/academics have worked internationally, collaborating within science and
technology from early points in media art’s currently described history.
Stephen Jones presented an Australian model of an historical timeline linked directly
to art based practice where collaboration between visual artists and technologists was
initially encouraged within ‘the Tin Sheds’ of Sydney’s art school in the nineteen
seventies. Jones stated that such an historical contextualization is necessary for the
development of media/computer art practice and education, where a definitive history
is stated documented and published for future reference.
2 http://mass.nomad.net.au/2009/07/

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
33
Examples emphasized practice from Sydney with little reference to electronic art
practice beyond New South Wales. The presentation offered models for
collaboration based on historical best practice. Jones stated that this aspect of the
presentation was commissioned for consideration to support and inform educational
cross disciplinary practice, the already well established relationships existent between
visual arts and science and an historically relevant base for Australian students and
academics to refer to and build from.
Figure 7. Jones, S. (2006). Australia 75- Australia’s first Electronic Arts Festival.

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
34
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Paul Brown introduced an historical review of Media Art’s genesis from a UK
perspective mapping of computer integration within art-based contexts.
Brown’s documentation of UK computer arts emphasized the need for an Australian
model. Paul Brown was concerned that many artists who were involved in early
computer art production were now at the end of their careers or dead, reinforcing the
need for urgency in the documentation of Australian practitioners.
A cohesive historical timeline was presented including European, American and
particular UK practice. Brown’s presentation offered a model for Australian
documentation where key UK initiatives were framed alongside American and
European developments. The stylistic approach emphasizing key aspects of
international collaborations over other well-documented international initiatives such
as (IRCAM, France) offered a focus or filter that may appropriately emphasize similar
activities from Australian media art history.
Paul Brown proceeded to an overview of current doctorate assessment issues in
Australian and UK institutions. Brown cited problems evidenced in ‘practice’ based
doctoral projects where the degree of university understood research was lacking,
either in the depth of practical application or ‘research’. Written components were of
equal concern in addressing generally accepted levels of ‘documented’ research
models within a doctoral framework.
Brown shared his concerns regarding the appropriateness of university models of
research in creative practice based PhD’s; suggesting that such studies be more
readily situated in Doctor of Creative Arts qualifications while the PhD remain an
academic essentially written qualification. Paul Brown stated that the ‘terminal’ exit
point for studies in the visual arts should be Master of Art. This would impact upon
university requirements for a PhD as an entry-level qualification for lecturers, where
Brown voiced concern regarding the potential over emphasis of theoretical study over
practical explorations. Science based studies, where practical work is a central aspect
of coursework were cited in support of the view.
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Matthew Perkins (Monash University) presented work from The Australian Video
Art Archive. Perkins discussed issues of preservation relating to analogue and digital
formats. Emphasis on the availability and importance of access to Australian Video
and Performance work through an easily accessed portal was stated as a primary
concern.
‘The AVAA will have enormous benefits for curatorial practice and scholarship by
contributing to the understanding of this important contemporary art genre.’
Perkins, M. (2009)

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
35
The AVAA seeks to provide an educational, curatorial research portal where
historical Australian works in Performance and Video are made freely available
online.
The presentation emphasised problems related to historical (analogue) formats and
earlier digital formats, where specific digital compression codecs are no longer used
or particular software packages are effectively closed formats.
Issues of preservation and the original format’s integrity were voiced. Perkins’
presentation stimulated discussion where many delegates have access to work they
could contribute to the database.
The work of the AVAA compliments the ALTC funded NOMAD and MASS
initiatives, making visible Australian media practice from the nineteen seventies and
onwards for academic, curatorial and reference based research3.
Peta Clancy (Monash University) presented a body of work relating to her current
PhD studies, where she has investigated Helen Chadwick, an international artist,
whose analogue works from the nineteen eighties formed the basis for Clancy’s
research integrating ‘viral’ concepts within the context of bio-art outcomes. Clancy’s
work emphasizes current academically accepted understandings of research and ‘best
practice’.
Ian Haig Perspectives on Media Art studies at RMIT University.
Ian Haig’s personal overview of Media Art’s history within what is now RMIT
University. Haig indicated how the identity of the course was shaped by its
geographical location and approach to practice. Staff and critically based theoretical
course content combined with a course situated beyond the city’s centre aided in
shaping the course. ‘Establishing a more critical framework in regards to new
technologies. We are less interested in the latest developments of new technologies
for their own sake and more in the cultural histories of various technological media
and the ability to combine them with newer ones.’
The insight and knowledge Haig shared in establishing, developing, relocating and
building a nationally recognized course emphasized the importance of the Media Art
Scoping Study’s focus in facilitating an online database documenting such histories.
Ian Haig works at the intersection of visual arts and media arts. His work explores the
strangeness of everyday reality. His practice focuses on the themes of the human
body, devolution, mutation, transformation and psychopathology. Currently he
teaches a number of courses in media arts, including new genres and hybrid media in
the school of art, RMIT in Melbourne. ;++M@\\...C%$'80C%,+C84\M,$M/,\58%];851
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Brogan Bunt offered examples of ‘best practice’ within the area of media arts at
University of Wollongong. Interdisciplinary approaches across a range of media were
3Note, Convergence and or clear linkage between the AVAA, NOMAD and MASS research initiatives
would considerably aid and contextualise Australian Media Art historical documentation.

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
36
introduced with enthusiasm for art within collaborative, experimental and scholarly
exhibitions.
A further renaming of the discipline where the concept of “mediality” was introduced;
a term with the capacity to embrace an intellectual interpretation of any expression of
media activity liberating Media Art from its ties to computer based technologies.
‘In a recent blog post, Florian Cramer explains the special character of German media
theory: In the last decade, German humanities have developed a broad, general and
transhistorical notion of media as “mediality” (”Medialität”) in which any material or
imaginary carrier of information qualifies as a medium, from CPUs to angels’.
(Cramer, 2009)
“Mediality” offers a fluid open-ended definition where current and previous emphasis
of media/new media practice could exist. Potential experimental practice and
research can co-exist without further revision of the naming of the disciplinary area.
The constant renaming of the area has created historical problems within professional
funding sources around the world, while it has equally been confusing for students,
staff and administrators within education since its emergence from hybrid art practice.
Also from Wollongong Media Arts, Jo Law presented a considered argument for the
retention of the term ‘New Media’. Law emphasised the ongoing development of
media art through ‘new’ collaborations, interpretations or research integrating ‘media’
within the context of art outcomes. Both presentations from Wollongong stated a
positive and supportive environment encouraging media arts within visual art studies.
The examples indicated a positive mix of work where artistic sensitivity is supported
and tempered with a critical and analytic approach integrating high and low end
technologies in the generation of academic contemporary art practice.
The discipline has emerged from a range of initial areas ranging from photography,
film, theory, painting, sculpture, music, anatomy, performance and computing.
From the breadth of activities across many areas of practice it is evident debate on the
name of a shifting discipline will continue within media/new media arts. While
names may differ, the general understanding of the area remains fluid as to what
constitutes media/new media art practice. It is doubtful that any singular term will be
embraced by a discipline that has grown and developed through diversification.

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
37
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Presentations from members of the research group alongside other ALTC funded
research projects indicated clear areas of common ground, where issues relating to
each particular research project were of concern to the other groups.
• Assessing Graduate Screen Production Outputs In Nineteen Australian Film
Schools.
• Future-Proofing the Creative Arts in Higher Education, Scoping for Quality in
Tertiary Creative Arts
Both the above research projects focused or emphasized assessment or the validity of
study within the ‘creative arts’. The Media Art Scoping Study’s emphasis on content
defines its position, while complimenting the other two research projects presenting at
the Victorian College of the Arts in July 2009.
Attendees to the combined symposium of the three funded projects made direct
contributions across disciplinary areas and project focus contributing professional
experiences and observations within discrete focus groups. Informal interviews were
held with key presenters to the symposium with the same questions as had been asked
of contributors to the MASS website.
Within the Media Art Scoping Study’s program, Ross Rudesch Harley (2009)
presented a paper challenging educational institutions’ ability to adapt to the pace of
change being driven by open source networks.
‘The explosive growth of knowledge in the 21st century has placed a unique set of pressures
on many institutions, and in particular, on those that generate, analyse, sort and disseminate
information. While the public looks to universities as places where world’s-best practice in
knowledge management is employed, these same universities are in danger of being
overwhelmed - not only by the increase in knowledge, but by the just-as-rapid multiplication
in techniques for capturing, exploring, and distributing this knowledge. I want to suggest that
closed “Virtual Learning Environments” are not the best solution for digital-media arts
education. Instead, I argue that external “user-centric web services” should be allowed to
flow into the university web systems. In this way students and teachers increase their
participation in the broader production (and critique) of knowledge in the media arts and
other disciplines’.
Ross Harley’s observations were taken up within an open discussion group where
further support for the presentation was ascertained with a common desire to reduce
reliance upon commercial software programs and move towards open source/freeware
models. Ross Harley emphasised the creative core of Visual Art studies, which he
perceived as being directly corralled by proprietary software programs effectively
controlling and structuring student outcomes, staff perceptions and teaching as
training to an established current professionally recognised platform and format rather
than higher level computer literacy education. The concept of producing ‘flexible’
and ‘adaptable’ graduates was seen as more desirable than training students to be
reliant upon and tied to software upgrades. It was further discussed that such a move
would also assist institutions in reducing expenditure on constant software upgrades.

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
38
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• Concerns cited regarding balance and currently perceived over emphasis of theory
in practice-orientated study.
• That the now established ‘exit’ ‘terminal’ qualification and effective ‘entry’ point
of PhD for contract teaching staff directly privileges theory over practice, where
experience and traditional understandings of a practice are now validated by the
granting/award/recognition of a doctorate level qualification. This has
ramifications across teaching and learning, the particular emphasis of a school or
department and how research is interpreted and implemented within each
institution.
• General agreement in the understanding and value of art and its integration of
theory and practice across the research groups.
• Provision for a range of study areas within course structures.
• The privilege of Fine/Visual Arts in providing effective non-commercial
opportunities for interdisciplinary/media art research and practice
• Visual art research has many potential and existing issues regarding its now
established position within university environments. Justification of validity,
emphasis of theory over practice, provision for practice within the built environs
of the university, relationships within departments between media arts and silo
areas such as sculpture, painting, design, performing arts, music.
• The opportunities for interdisciplinary experiences within the umbrella of
Fine/Visual art courses to effectively serve as facility or bridge for a broad range
of students from across many disciplines, where they may explore new/media arts
and their historical/contextual relevance in contemporary art practice.
• The need for Fine/Visual art courses to significantly adapt and embrace
interdisciplinary models of teaching and learning in combination with online
resources and distribution portals.
• The realization of a national database for video art as educational/research tool.
• The need to build from initial historical data gathering and stories, told by those
involved in key Australian media art initiatives at a national level developing the
databases.
• That sound, as a distinct area of art practice, is being undertaken in experimental
and academic ways across music, performing and visual art courses.
• That Sound Art exists as a viable and contemporary art form, while its position
within the arts has effectively been sacrificed. Teaching in the area poses
significant challenges in terms of positioning, emphasis and context.
• Reliance on professional software programs, when open source freeware may
offer better opportunities for students and institutions.
• That professional software programs represent ‘training’ for market place and
industry entry, whereas open source software encourages network based
development and long-term ability to adapt rather than consume.
• The relationship between design, screen based and communications with media
arts is fluid on some levels and fixed in others across institutions, depending upon
senior staff perceptions and understanding of the area.
• To expand the disciplinary boundaries and understanding of Media Arts.

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
39
Similar debates regarding academic emphasis, parity, transferable levels of
accreditation, consistency in curricula, theory/ practice balance or mix and the desire
to retain art as a non-commercially focused research area where critical and academic
rigor is maintained, within the context of art (practice), were evident across the three
research studies presenting in Melbourne.
Figure 8. Screen grab: Links page MASS website.
http://mass.nomad.net.au/links/
The MASS website functions in effectively creating networks from individual and
organizational web presences, where contributions are made transparent within the context of
an historical timeline or organizational grouping.

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
40
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There has been no prior discipline-based initiative in the specific area of media arts.
This is most likely due to the continually evolving status of the field of new
media/electronic arts within the university sector in Australia over the past decade.
The overall lack of detailed national information concerning teaching and learning in
this specific area provided the major motivation for the scoping study.
As mentioned above, the 2006 New Media Arts Scoping Study Report to the
Australia Council for the Arts included, as one of its 10-year goals, an aim to develop
the ‘field of practice-based research and development’. This is as much a teaching
and learning issue, as it is a defunct governmental agency’s ambition. The role of
research and creative development in digital media/electronic arts practice is
understood and clearly articulated as a rigorous mode of cultural innovation relating
to a broadly constituted field. Its basis in the relatively new subject of Art & Design
research contributes different insights to scientific and academic research and
methodologies. These collaborative, cross-disciplinary explorations have been crucial
and defining aspects of media arts practice.
The NOMAD and MASS sites are perceived as ongoing, where modifications will
continue to facilitate further desired functionality. The sites have been modified after
testing where live input indicated the need for development.
The synergies desired with other ALTC funded projects were achieved prior to and
following on from the July 2009 conference held at the Victorian College of the Arts.
Commonality was established across several aspects of each respective research
project while key presenters such as Paul Brown gave addresses within two of the
research areas.
Figure 9. Screen capture from the NOMAD website, PhD Media Arts at COFA University of
New South Wales

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
41
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The scoping study and resource database together with the establishment of a network
of arts educators will be the basis for vigorous curriculum development in
media/electronic arts.
The MASS and NOMAD sites assist in facilitating access to interdisciplinary study
areas beyond specialist fields. Linked access to the wealth of ‘resources’
(information, technologies, expertise), usually exclusively reserved to particular areas
of study, is readily available in an appropriate context.
Linkage through Australian Network for Art and Technology to their Synapse
database significantly expands access to over two hundred practicing Australian
artists actively involved in art /science collaborative work. Exposure to diverse
disciplinary perspectives sharing a common interest in media/electronic art allows
viewers to explore existent or new areas of collaborative creative production. While
all areas are ‘works in progress’ and any review of their current presence is
effectively a snapshot they have generated attention, interest and contributions from
significant institutions and individuals from across Australia.
The direct connection across sites from the Media Art Scoping Study (MASS) to the
National Online Media Art Database (NOMAD) and their associated links provides
immediate cross-referencing for educational, training and professional level activities
current in Australia and beyond. Such immediate access and linkage emphasizes the
dynamism and collaborative interdisciplinary nature of Media Art teaching and
practice in Australia.
Figure10. Screen capture from the NOMAD website homepage with featured artist.

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
42
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Through the NOMAD portal the scoping study sought to present a national overview
of current Media Art provision including unit outlines and syllabus data. These prove
more challenging to achieve than data gathering within the MASS site. While
gathered data has not achieved a comprehensive snapshot of what is being currently
taught it has established a basis of historical data from artist/academics involved in
the establishment of Media Art related courses or initiating units within other
disciplines.
A review of national curriculum currently operating across the University sector
would provide an opportunity to recognize quality national practice and different
learning environments.
• A national database for media/electronic arts would provide a quality resource for
teaching, learning and professional practice environments.
• Its impact has implications for contributing institutions and individuals where
their course and unit materials would be visible online, therefore open for
appropriation, adaptation, plagiarism or theft.
• It is understood that teaching staff both own and seek to protect their intellectual
property.
• The challenge to present current teaching and learning materials, while preserving
the integrity of intellectual property ownership requires sensitivity and rigor in the
gathering and presentation of data.
The project provides support for leading Australian universities currently conducting
research, academic teaching and learning programs in new media/electronic arts.
The databases seek to become an established resource portal for teaching and
learning, while further serving as a key reference point for curatorial and academic
research in Australia and internationally.

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
43
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Media/electronic art students face the challenge of creating a syncretic art that
explores telematics (planetary connectivity), nanotechnology (bottom up construction),
quantum computing (augmented cyberception), cognitive science and pharmacology
(field consciousness), and esoterica (psychic instrumentality). (Alexenberg,. ed., 2008
59)
The above areas outlined by Roy Ascott in Telematic Embrace; Visionary Theories of
Art, Technology and Consciousness (2003) indicate the potential range students may
explore within the umbrella of media arts. Staff experience, personal emphasis and
networks may constrain or limit access for students to expand or individually focus
upon relevant research and professional levels of practice.
• The provision of a National resource through the MASS and NOMAD websites
offers students immediate and real primary source materials for them to reflect
and rely upon introducing and indicating possibilities for research and practice
beyond the immediate geographical locales of their institutions.
• Interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary practice has been perceived as a valuable
and enriching aspect within education and professional level funded practice.
• The MASS website and its links beyond provide a broad range of sample projects
already undertaken across many disciplinary areas.
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To accurately ascertain students’ perceived needs requires more contributions of
course/unit outlines within the NOMAD site. Student needs vary from year to year
and institution to institution. Perceptions of what they require may be uninformed in
their understanding of the discipline’s history and practice. Many media art facilities
often act as workshops servicing a range of related or extended areas where students
may have been advised or chosen to value add by developing technological
experience and understanding. The contextual and historical aspects of their
educational experience vary considerably, depending upon how materials are
presented within the context of practice and theory.
• There is a perceived need for integration of significant key developments in
interdisciplinary/media arts within general Visual Culture theoretical units.
This would offer students a clearer understanding of the relationship and role
interdisciplinary/media arts have played in the development of contemporary art.
• Timetabling often precludes many opportunities for students to mix and match
areas of perceived interest where choice effectively equals the lessening of
specialist knowledge over a broadening and non-specialization in their studies.
This aspect directly relates to the effective cutting of contact hours and significant
reductions in credits relating to courses when there are more choices and options
to study.
• Media Arts/electronic arts require significant student commitment in upskilling
through software to achieve professionally acceptable outcomes.

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
44
• Opportunities for students to experience high-end professional level
media/electronic arts regularly, beyond Melbourne and Sydney, are limited in
comparison to painting and sculpture. While online portals such as YouTube,
Vimeo or Ubuweb provide current and historical references they are no substitute
for a physical experience of an installation or performative work.
• The range of opportunities within the broad area of media/electronic arts extends
far beyond that of painting or sculpture.
• While particular institutions may have reputations for figurative work or
sculptural installation, media art/electronic art in Australia is, by its nature and
historical development, rhizomal in its growth, effectively spreading as well as
separating as it develops.
Figure 11. MASS website; Role of Research
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This scoping study offers a core of new connections existing fortuitously between
otherwise separate academic departments. The MASS and NOMAD web portals will
develop beyond the timeframe of the funded period for gathering, forming and
presenting data.
This proposal is consistent with a commitment to further develop an ‘eResearch’
agenda. e-Research is the use of information technology to draw on perspectives and
resources from a range of participants to develop new insights and solutions for
complex problems. It involves the use of technology to draw people together, where
technology is the facilitator to researcher collaboration.
From a multi-national blog providing a new academic forum on art theory, to multi-
disciplinary research, drawing together databases on climate change from England,
the USA and Australia, e-research is changing the face of research around the world.
e-Research plays a significant role in the economies and culture of Europe and the
USA though still relatively undeveloped in Australia. Further investigation is
required to understand and accommodate diverse approaches by which digital
technologies and networked infrastructures support emergent ‘collaborative’ practice
in media/electronic art.

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
45
The scoping study database provides the opportunity for Deans, academics and
researchers to understand nationally an overview of developments in media/electronic
art education through emerging technologies and science. It can reasonably be
anticipated that the resulting cross-fertilization of ideas will demonstrate ‘emergent’
properties leading to new knowledge. A social network approach offers a unique
opportunity for the distinctive interdisciplinary research involved in media/electronic
arts to engage in – and contribute to - developing the overall national picture.
An historical example of e-Research is included in the MASS site and was an
initiative of Dr. Paul Thomas from 1996.
Figure 12. Terminus= was an initiative where artist educators met to investigate and discuss
theoretical, cultural and philosophical aspects of contemporary art practice. The group
included online meetings with international contributions. All members were academics and
practicing artists. The significant dates for the group’s activities were between 1996 – 1998.
http://mass.nomad.net.au/1996/12/
The symposium held at the Victorian College of the Arts (July 2009) witnessed
several presentations where eResearch significantly contributed to academic and
professional level practice within an Australian context.
• Academic staff currently utilize e-research as the basis for study and development.
• Staff link their personal, professional interests and specializations through social
networking groups.
• The understanding of e-Research is still developmental; its manifestation has
significantly altered from the dot binary groups of ten years ago.
• The presentation from the Australian Video Art Archive offered both a resource
point and significant research area in the archiving and preservation of Australian
video art.
• Specialist portals are constantly being developed where linkage offers greater

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
46
potential for distribution or access to material/data.
• Higher degree students significantly utilize e-research techniques within their
work accessing a broad range of information and current practice from networks,
peers and interest groups.
• Australian based academics and students have immediate access to a rapidly
expanding network base.
• Formal structuring of identifiable research possibilities assists students in framing
their respective research focus within a global context, this was evidenced by Peta
Clancy’s presentation of her work based on the late UK artist Helen Chadwick.
Clancy initially worked at distance from Chadwick’s oeuvre before gaining the
opportunity to visit the Henry Moore Foundation in the UK and gain direct access
to some of Chadwick’s work and working notes.
• eResearch is now the primary research point for many students. This
phenomenon has developed within the eighteen years the Internet has been
publicly promoted.
• The use of the Internet as the primary research tool is not in itself related to
media/electronic arts. This fact creates further issues in the definition of what
constitutes media/electronic artwork or research.
• The division between consumer and producer is in constant flux. Remix culture
encourages appropriation, sampling, mixing and representation of other ideas,
images, sound or vision. Online access and networking groups offer opportunities
for multiple inputs in the development of product.
Ross Harley’s (2009) symposium presentation directly addressed current concerns
and understandings of e-Research:
Many new social network services have very quickly positioned themselves in the
marketplace as brands. At the same time, we could also argue that these new entities
could be easily aligned with pedagogical principles of “learner centered”, “blended”
or “constructivist” learning approaches, which emphasize the ways students operate
in a community of peers. When students are encouraged to explore at their own pace,
reflecting on their own discoveries as part of that process, there is enormous
potential for them to learn in new ways. Utilizing the multiple feedback channels
available via social networking software and other similar tools, universities can
engage with students by entering into a dialogue with them about what they want to
learn (and what they need to learn) in this fast paced media-world.
Researchers maintain blogs and wikis, giving colleagues instant access to
experimental results. Many people at universities spend much of their time online,
trading links to media and information on every subject imaginable — via email,
SMS, Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging and so on. We all know this. The open
web is already a reality. And that is why it’s up to us, to make sure that we do
everything we can to allow our constituents to redefine the university in the light of
these new open network structures and that we join together to build the open
learning models that will benefit us all.

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
47
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This scoping study, combined with setting up virtual database infrastructure as a
means of collecting, interpreting and disseminating the outcomes, engaged with the
principles of the ALTC by:
* Establishing a network for media/electronic art (NOMAD) and a MASS portal
where artistic production from academic Media Art research has also been
significantly realized.
* Further opportunities for academic research relating to Media Arts in Australian
academic contexts being discovered within the project’s research and development
periods.
* The documentation and presentation, throughout the scoping study, of significant
historical Australian media art practice. Australian academic Media Art practice is
recognized internationally at the highest levels of professional art/science practice.
* Several presentations at the symposium where the definition and understanding of
interdisciplinary practice emerged as both fluid and also historically identifiable as an
area of academic and professional art practice.
* Linkages across several Australian professional organizations such as ANAT,
Experimenta, REALTIME magazine and the AVAA. A significant and
interconnected database now exists where previously none existed across such
databases. Such collaboration facilitates an invaluable ‘one-stop’ resource for
extended research and reference across many other linked organizations, institutions
and resources both within Australia and beyond. Linkages achieved across
universities in the realization of this scoping study emphasize a highly collaborative
focus Australia wide.
* The establishment of a NOMAD and MASS resource within the key area of
art/science collaboration and art/science academic research at institutional levels.
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Emerging technologies affect all areas within the arts and in turn other discipline
areas across the universities. The ability of art to develop inter and trans-disciplinary
approaches across these discipline areas is increasing rapidly.
The trans disciplinary approach of media/electronic art could pave the way for
participation in the world of science and technology. Media/electronic art is
continually re-delineating its definitions of materials and contexts within which it
operates.
The opportunities that come through scientific and technological research means
acquiring the skills and knowledge to allow media/electronic artists to significantly
participate in these areas. A trans-disciplinary approach constitutes an artistic
education, developing the ability to collaborate by penetrating beneath the surface of
techno–scientific presentations.

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
48
To think about unexplored research directions, unanticipated implications and learn
about the information sources used by scientists and engineers to engage emerging
fields, including academic and professional journals, trade shows, academic meetings,
Internet resources and equipment supply sources
What might be gained from such approaches to interdisciplinary practice? Focusing
on the development of social networks can further complement art &science
partnerships through the linkage of individuals sharing similar interests. Learning and
adopting methods developed from observing how such physical and virtual
communities of practice operate contributes to the evolution of a new type of
academic infrastructure supporting the distinctive methods and qualities of practice in
this field.
The virtual database facilitated by the scoping study introduces the kind of (collegiate
and collaborative) ‘culture’ required for propagating productive collaborations
between academics across disciplinary boundaries (Art & Design. Art & Science; Art
& Technology). Through promoting interdisciplinary links and exploring
complementary methodologies, it is anticipated that research alliances will be formed
between academics and across academic programs leading to viable collaborative
projects fostered through this initiative.
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Students currently work in a wide range of artistic practice including digital
telecommunications, Internet connectivity, screen-based hypermedia, digital film,
multi-media installations, intelligent architecture, smart products, robotics,
telepresence systems, computer modeling of behaviour, remote sensing devices,
cyberspace and virtual reality, artificial life, popular culture, contemporary music,
sonic art, video art and performance.
These examples from contemporary art practice explore ways in which art schools
need to confront key issues that will define their future. These concepts involve new
materials that confront the presentation of art, initiating current debates such as the
role of Bio art and new media/electronic art practice within the gallery context. The
scoping study’s symposium offered examples from art students connected to the
making and developing of new media art where theory, practice and academic rigor
are unified.
If we were to agree that fine art has come out of its radical individualisms, then what
has replaced it?
Stephen Wilson (2001, 39) states:
What must artists do differently than they always have done to prepare to participate in
the world of research? They must broaden their definitions of art materials and
contexts. They must become curios about scientific and technological research and
acquire the skills and knowledge that will allow them to significantly participate in
these worlds. They must expand conceptual notions of what constitutes an artistic
education, develop the ability to penetrate beneath the surface of techno–scientific
presentations to think about unexplored research directions and unanticipated
implications and learn about the information sources used by scientists and engineers

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
49
to engage emerging fields, including academic and professional journals, trade shows,
academic meetings, Internet resources and equipment supply sources.
To respond to these opportunities and act proactively, it is crucial that necessary
‘cultural conditions’ be established to expand the horizons of trans-disciplinary and
interdisciplinary training in this field.
Making use of emerging networked technologies exposes ‘local’ and ‘isolated’
disciplinary domains to increasingly ‘social’ spheres of practice. Embracing the
possibilities made available through online collaborative creativity provides
significant interdisciplinary practice-led opportunities for the future. Investigating
and investing in the establishment of productive, intensive physical and virtual
communities of practice is appropriate in realizing such aspirations.
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* Tertiary institutions involved in research and PG academic programs in
media/electronic art (Australia wide)
* Post-graduate students and researchers involved with new media/electronic art
practice-based research
* Academics who have established or are establishing new media courses
* The professional new media and electronic art sector
* Government and tertiary institution policy providers and curriculum developers’
new media/electronic arts
* Commercial new media service providers
A broad-based survey program engaged stakeholders from the above areas,
identifying and developing an overview of interdisciplinary (contemporary art, digital
design, science and technology) research occurring nationally across the sector.
A series of working meetings and a national symposium offered key academics, who
have established or are establishing media/electronic art courses, access to
professional, governmental, and cultural representatives concerned with the future of
media/electronic arts. The above goals were successfully achieved within the
timeline of the scoping study’s funding period. The primary readership of the report
therefore includes: the ALTC, academics in the visual arts and other creative arts
disciplines, and international academics within these disciplines.

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
50
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Greg Ackland
Lisa Gye
Tracey Meziane Benson
Roger Alsop
Ian Gwilt
Adrian Miles
Keith Armstrong
Ian Haig
Adam Nash
Marsha Berry
Stewart Haines
Angela Ndillianis
Colin Black
Werner Hammerstingl
Julian Oliver
Jeremy Blank
Ross Harley
Garth Paine
Oliver Bown
Lisa Harms
Daniel Palmer
Mez Breeze
Chris Henschke
Matthew Perkins
Philip Brophy
Larissa Hjorth
Josko Petkovic
Paul Brown
Ian Hobbs
Fee Plumley
Brogan Bunt
Cat Hope
Geoff Portmann
Sian Carlyon
Troy Innocent
Dominic Redfern
Alessio Cavallaro
Jeff Janet
Malcolm Riddoch
Peta Clancy
Lyndal Jones
Melanie Rodriga
Ted Colless
Stephen Jones
Gavin Sade
John Conomos
Tom Klinkowstein
Phillip Samartzis
Martine Corompt
Julian Knowles
Lynne Sanderson
Ruth Cross
Anita Kocsis
Shiralee Saul
Donna Crotty
Daniel Kojta
Jill Scott
Sean Cubitt
Taras Kowaliw
Douglas Sheerer
Mark Cypher
Aidan Lane
Julian Stadon
Hugh Davies
Leonie Lane
Helen Stuckey
Alan Dorin
Jennifer Lade
Vicki Sowry
Vince Dziekan
Jo Law
Gaye Swinn
Pia Ednie-Brown
Gillian Leahy
Paul Thomas
Megan Evans
Brendan Lee
Darren Tofts
Chantal Faust
Mike Leggett
Kit Wise
Eleanor Gates-Stuart
Shelley Matulick
Helen Yeates
Greg Giannis
Nancy Mauro-Flude
Joel Zika
Alex Gibson
Ricardo Mbarkho
Peter Zylstra
Eric Gidney
Jon McCormack
Ionat Zurr
Peter Giles
Peter Mc ilwain
Sasha Grbich
Cam Merton

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
51
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There was no requirement for recommendations within the remit of the scoping
study’s project, however it has been apparent that need exists for authoritative ‘in
house’ developments to be maintained and continued as ongoing research and in
advisory roles.
It is clear that electronic/media arts have been significantly promoted and cited by
organizations, researchers and funding bodies to attract and justify funded research,
generate reports or papers, where they have significantly and consistently failed to
recognize the role Australian art schools and universities have already played in the
emergence, development, critical positioning and ongoing support of the broad
discipline of media/electronic arts. Ironically, academics have referenced the
Australia Council’s New Media scoping study, relying upon the opinions of the
Australia Council as definitive statements on the provision and development of
teaching and learning, where previously there existed no effective readily available
documentation of Australian electronic/media art educational archives.
The scoping study has collected significant levels of data to be further analyzed,
offering further opportunities for both expanding and deepening the degree of
available data and documentation of academic teaching and learning, research and
practice within the dynamic field of Australian electronic/media arts.
The establishment of the MASS and NOMAD websites provides a readymade
platform to build upon. In an area notorious for its lack of documentation, where the
pace of change outstrips any other area of visual arts, further research and
development of new teaching and learning related materials would prove valuable
across the general discipline. The extreme technological growth within
electronic/media arts has challenged the very status of the art school, from where it
emerged. It seems appropriate for the discipline of electronic/media arts to contribute
to the effective repositioning of Art for the twenty first century.

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K5(+)$:)5//4(+#8+5$%()
1. Screen capture: Example of educational components from the NOMAD site,
Synchrotron Residency RMIT School of Creative Media
;++M@\\...C%$'80C%,+C84\,04"8+5$%\(&%";#$+#$%]#,(50,%"& (accessed 30 October 2009) 10
2. Screen capture: Telesky@Sky Art Conference 1981: C.A.V.S/M.I.T/Cambridge
Organised by Eric Gidney. Telesky was the first visual telecommunications event in
Australia linking the Paddington Town Hall in Sydney with MIT in Cambridge
Massachusetts.
;++M@\\'8((C%$'80C%,+C84\BWUB\XW\)Daccessed 30 October 2009)))))13
)
3. Timeline for the NOMAD & MASS scoping study. 14)
4. Screen capture: Wallace, L (2003) Cross Disciplines, Experiment, Market!
RealTime Magazine, Issue 56.
Linda Wallace is a Queensland based artist, curator and director of the media arts
company, machine hunger.
;++M@\\'8((C%$'80C%,+C84\JXXL\XU\))(accessed 30 October.2009)
;++M@\\...C#,8/+5',8#+(C%,+\8#+5"/,\PS\TBPN))...C'8";5%,;4%1,#C"$'C84)) )16)!
5. The Australian Newspaper 7 February 1989 press clipping from the CADCAM
artists summer school, Adelaide.
;++M@\\...C%$'80C%,+C84\#,($4#",(\BWUW](4'',#](";$$/]M#,((]"/5MM5%1]XB (accessed September
2009). 19
6. The World in 24 Hours Event, 28 September 1982 27
;++M@\\'8((C%$'80C%,+C84\BWUJ\XW\)
7. Jones, S. 2006. Australia 75- Australia’s first Electronic Art Festival
;++M@\\...C0;4IC$#1\8#+5"/,(\BL) )
;++M@\\'8((C%$'80C%,+C84\BWTP\XL\))))) 33
8. Screen capture: Links page MASS website
;++M@\\'8((C%$'80C%,+C84\/5%-(\)(accessed 30 October 2009). 39
9. Screen capture: PhD Media Arts at COFA University of New South Wales
NOMAD website
;++M@\\...C%$'80C%,+C84\,04"8+5$%\M;0]',058]8#+()(accessed 30 October 2009). 40
10. Screen capture: NOMAD homepage featured profile
;++M@\\...C%$'80C%,+C84\) 41
11.! Screen capture:MASS website, Role of Research
;++M@\\'8((C%$'80C%,+C84\/,:a5%+,#%8+5$%8/a8#";56,\#$/,a$:a#,(,8#";\)))44)
12. Terminus= was a group committed to the investigation of theoretical, cultural and
philosophical discourse with contemporary art practice.
;++M@\\+,#'5%4(C',058a(M8",C$#1C84\))))))))
;++M@\\'8((C%$'80C%,+C84\+,#'5%4(\ 45

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
53
)
9,:,#,%",()
Alexenberg, M., ed. 2008. Educating Artists for the Future. London: Intellect Books.
Cramer, F. 2009. blog post to University of Siegen public debate,
"Medienwissenschaft – Ein deutscher Sonderweg?", http://medienumbrueche.uni
siegen.de/groups/medienwissenschaften/blog/ (accessed 26 April 2009).
Cramer, F. 2009. 14 May post to discussion thread, “Re: Political Work in the
Aftermath of the New Media Arts Crisis”. Nettime mailing list. www.nettime.org
(accessed 16 May 2009).
Davis, D. J. 1993. Art Education in the 1990s: Meeting the Challenges of Accountability,
Studies in Art Education, 34(2), 82-90. National Art Education Association.
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0039-3541(199324)34%3A2%3C82%3AAEIT1M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V#abstract
Donovan. A. Lally.E. & Miller. S. 2006. New Media Arts Scoping Study, Report to the
Australia Council for the Arts. Australia Council.
Frankham, N. 2006. Attitudes and Trends in Australian Art and Design Schools.
http://www.acuads.com.au/conf2006/att_trends.htm (accessed 19/09/09).
Harley. R. (2009) Open Learning Networks in Media Arts Education, MASS symposium
VCA Melbourne, July 2009.
http://mass.nomad.net.au/2009/07/
Haseman, B., & Jaaniste, L.2008.The arts and Australia’s national innovation system 1994-
2008. Council for the Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences (occasional paper no.7).
Manovich, L. 2001. The Language of New Media. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute
of Technology Press.
Mason, C. 2008. A computer in the art room, the origins of British computer arts 1950-80.
London. JJG Publishing.
Mealing, S. 2003. Computers and Art 2. London: Intellect Books.
Norman, S J. 2005. Transdisciplinarity In And As Strategy. UK: Culture Lab, University of
Newcastle..
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/culturelab/
http://switch.sjsu.edu/v20/Articles/newcastle/index.html (accessed 19/09/09).
Paul, C. 2003. Digital Art. London: Thames and Hudson.
Perkins. M. (2009).)Increasing Scholarship of Australian Video and Performance Art through
Internet-Based Databases.. MASS symposium, VCA Melbourne, July 2009.
http://mass.nomad.net.au/2009/07/!
Raimes, J.,& Garrett, M. 2006. The Digital Canvas: Discovering the Art Studio in Your
Computer. Abrams studio London. HNA Books.
Sholtz, T. 2005. New Media Art Education and its Discontents. Art Journal, 64(1).
The Souillac Charter for Art and Industry. 1997. France: Souillac.!
http://archives.sat.qc.ca/references/pdf/s1-eng.pdf)!(accessed 19/09/09).
Timms, P. 2004. What’s Wrong With Contemporary Art ? Sydney: University of New
South Wales Press.

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Trend, D. 2001.Welcome to Cyberschool, Education at the crossroads of the information
age. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
Wilson, S. 2002. Information Art: Intersections of art, science and technology. Cambridge,
MA: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.

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!MM,%053B@)?!77)7&'M$(54')=#$1#8')
9.00: Introduction Paul Thomas
9.05: Welcome Su Baker
9.15: Keynote Presentation by Paul Brown
10.00: 20 Minute Break
Session Chaired by Paul Thomas
10.20: Presentation 1 Matthew Perkins
10.40: Presentation 2 Peta Clancy
11.00: Presentation 3 Ian Haig
11.20: Presentation 4 Stephen Jones
11.40: 20 Minute Break
Session Chaired by Vince Dziekan
12.00: Presentation 5 Malcolm Riddoch and Cat Hope
12.20: Presentation 6 Roger Alsop and Marsha Berry
12.40: Presentation 7 Brogan Bunt
1.00: Presentation 8 Jane Quon
1.20: 40 Minute Break
Session Chaired by Ross Harley
2.00: Presentation 9 Jo Law
2.20: Presentation 10 Vince Dziekan
2.40: Presentation 11 John Conomos
3.00: Presentation 12 Joel Zika
3.20: 20 Minute Break
Session Chaired by Brogan Bunt
3.40: Presentation 13 Colin Black
4.00: Presentation 14 Gaye Swinn and Jennifer Lade
4.20: Presentation 15 Nancy Mauro-Flude
4.40: Presentation 16 Ross Harley

Scoping Study for a National New Media/Electronic Arts Network
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!MM,%053)J@)?!77)7&'M$(54')!I(+#8"+()
!
Paul Brown Keynote: Hollow Promises
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
In the 1960’s and 70’s, early in my art career, I was an ardent proponent of critical theory and
art-as-research. Back then they were pretty thin on the ground. Some of my contemporaries
were amongst the first artists to be awarded doctorates for their work. Now, in the twilight of
my teaching years I find myself more and more concerned about the preponderance of these
aspects of art education. Or, to be more precise, concerned that theory and research –
scholarly approaches to the arts – have usurped the teaching of art as an intuitive, studio-
based and non-verbal activity. By doing so they have disenfranchised many gifted but semi-
literate students who in the past were able to participate in the tertiary education process and
attain significant qualifications and reputations in the arts. In this talk I hope to address the
historical reasons that have led to this undesirable state of affairs and also suggest possible
ways of redressing a more balanced curriculum. In particular I would like to focus on the role
of the oxymoronically titled ‘new media’ (that are now some 70 years old!) as one of the
major causes of this undesirable situation and how they might also be one of its possible
solutions.
Presentation 1 Session Chaired by Paul Thomas
10.20: Presentation 1 Matthew Perkins
10.40: Presentation 2 Peta Clancy
11.00: Presentation 3 Ian Haig
11.20: Presentation 4 Stephen Jones
Matthew Perkins: Increasing Scholarship of Australian Video and Performance Art
through Internet-Based Databases.
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
Video and performance art are highly visible in contemporary art and artists, curators,
students and academics at all educational levels are responding to this trend through their own
work. The difficulty in Australia is that there is very little access to historic and contemporary
Australian video and performance art so students and academics find themselves looking
overseas for inspiration.
The Australian Video Art Archive (AVAA) was founded in 2006. The aim of the archive is to
provide an on-line educational hub which showcases new and historical Australian video and
performance art works in the form of a database. These works can be viewed on-line or rented
for educational, research and exhibition purposes. The lack of knowledge of Australian video
and performance art is predominantly due to the scarcity and fragility of documentation but
we have found that this documentation can be collected, archived and disseminated.
This paper will summarise the development of the AVAA highlighting key works in the
database. The AVAA will have enormous benefits for curatorial practice and scholarship by
contributing to the understanding of this important contemporary art genre.
[http://www.videoartchive.org.au/]
Peta Clancy: Porous Boundaries
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
This paper will discuss shifting perceptions of biological boundaries. In order to solve the
problem of development molecular genetics has focused on the genetic material thereby
disregarding the rest of the cellular material such as the cytoplasm and nucleus. Bodily
boundaries, at all different levels, are perceived as static borders between inside and outside.
Whereas according to ideas in relation to Developmental Systems Theory (DST) this

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understanding of boundaries is problematic because bodily boundaries are active and never
sealed. It is necessary for bodily boundaries, on a multitude of levels, to permit different
degrees of communication, as Evelyn Fox Keller argues, “cells need to communicate with
each other through intercellular signalling.
DST offers ways for understanding development without relying on notions of gene
dominance by proposing that in order to understand the organism it is necessary to investigate
beyond its boundaries. This paper will draw on these conceptions of biological boundaries to
discuss both my body of work Visible Human Bodies (2005) (created as artist in residence in
the Cell and Gene Therapy Laboratory at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute) and
Helen Chadwick’s photographic works Viral Landscapes (1988-89) (from my original
research held at the Helen Chadwick archive at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, UK).
Through this discussion of these works I intend to explore the notion of biological boundaries
as active and permeable as well as evoke notions of the boundary between the interior of the
body and the exterior environment as ambiguous and constantly shifting.
Ian Haig: Media arts
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
I plan to discuss the history of one of the most unique and dedicated media art courses in the
country ‘media arts’. Originally established in
1978 in the outer Melbourne suburb of Bundoora as Preston institute and later Philip and
now currently at RMIT in the school of art.
I will discuss current challenges of media arts within a traditional fine art school and issues
surrounding multidisciplinary practice and approaches. I will also talk about the history of
media arts and its development as one of the first screen based art courses prior to the
explosion of ‘multimedia’ and digital technologies and also how our sensibility as a course
area operates in relation to these technologies.
In particular by establishing a more critical framework in regards to new technologies. We are
less interested in the latest developments of new technologies for their own sake and more in
the cultural histories of various technological media and the ability to combine them with
newer ones.
I will discuss the all too common utopian mindset of the wondrous possibilities afforded by
digital media which endlessly regurgitates the marketing rhetoric of Apple Mac. Where by
creatively is locked into the world of software and the computer lab opposed to an awareness
of older, vintage technologies whereby students can achieve outcomes that one can’t in
current software.
Stephen Jones: A Systems Structure for Understanding New Media Practice.
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
The production of new media artworks involves a complex network of artists, technical and
other collaborators (eg, sound and/or choreographic), technologies, funding institutions,
curators and exhibiting structures all functioning concurrently in a context of cultural,
political and technological strata. The people involved become a network consisting (in one
language) of nodes and inter-connections. The operating process is a communicative activity
best described through Wiener’s cybernetics and the indication of the circular causal loop
structure of a system. The connections of the network consist in these feedback-loop
structures. They are dynamic yet can develop an intrinsic stability through their capacity to
handle variety and perturbation. When they function adequately they can become autopoietic
and thus self-generating and self-sustaining. The system of interconnections is rhizomic in
general and it is driven or motivated by desire in one or many of its multitude of types.
This analysis is very important for providing an adequate basis to the historiography of the
media arts. In this paper I provide a basis for pedagogical curricula and presentation that uses
the framework to bring to the students’ attention the wide range of interconnectedness of the
study and practice of the new media arts.

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Session Chaired by Vince Dziekan
12.00: Presentation 5 Malcolm Riddoch and Cat Hope
12.20: Presentation 6 Roger Alsop and Marsha Berry
12.40: Presentation 7 Brogan Bunt
1.00: Presentation 8 Jane Quon
Dr Malcom Riddoch & Cat Hope: Programming Musicians: a New Approach
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
In 2007 WAAPA began a new music course that tied a thorough traditional music training
with computer programming. The Music Technology Major in the Bachelor of music aims to
produce students who can not only program interactive or compositional projects, but have a
full capability in a more traditional musical background of aural training, harmony, history
and performance. After initial learning in acousmatics, spatial music, recording, mixing and
mastering music, students are introduced to programming through composition and
interactive projects using MaxMSP and Jitter, moving on to C sound and the programming of
Arduino’s, as well as realtime internet performances. The project based teaching and
assessment structure encourages collaboration and performance in the public arena, creating a
foundation for a performance research ethic beginning at undergraduate level.
This course is the first of its kind in Australia, and is developing exciting outcomes that may
finally solve the sound art vs music debate, developing learning strategies that combine
musical and scientific approaches for a range of artworks with sound as a foundation. The
paper discusses the design of the course and how it differs from others, and provides detail
on the way programming is taught within a music framework, and some of the outcomes to
date.
Roger Alsop and Marsha Berry: Sound Design Skills: Exploring a Blended Learning
Environment for Developing Practical and Conceptual Skills
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
The performance arts are an area where many media based and human based art practices
collaborate and collide to form cohesive works. When developing skills in students, practical
knowledge bases are required in order to develop and express concepts. Studio models are
often seen as the most efficient and practical teaching methods, but the efficiency of this
process is being questioned as student diversity is being acknowledged. Computers and
networked technologies are normal tools of performance arts, and, while current students
enter university with high levels of computer literacy, they need to learn how to apply these
tools within complex cultural contexts and productions.
This paper will discuss the on line course ‘Sound Design Skills’ as a system through which
technological skills and advanced conceptual skills are introduced to students at
undergraduate and postgraduate levels. ‘Sound Design Skills’ will be considered as a case
study that explores media as a tool for developing practical, technological and conceptual
skills in a blended learning environment that explores concepts of sticky knowledge within a
networked media based studio model.
Brogan Bunt: Media Art, Mediality and Art Generally
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
In a recent blog post, Florian Cramer explains the special character of German media theory:
In the last decade, German humanities have developed a broad, general and transhistorical
notion of media as “mediality” (”Medialität”) in which any material or imaginary carrier of
information qualifies as a medium, from CPUs to angels. (Cramer, 2009)
This paper considers how the notion of mediality, as an expanded conception of media,
affects the notion of Media Arts. If the concept of media arts practice was once chiefly
concerned with modern technological forms of audio-visual representation (photography,
film, video, etc.) and then, under the guise of ‘new media’, developed a primary concern with
the implications of the digital (electronics, computation and networked interaction), then

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where are we now? What are the artistic traditions, forms of practice and bodies of
theoretical understanding that lend disciplinary coherence to Media Arts? My particular
interest is in how Media Arts is positioned within the Australian higher-education context.
More specifically, how does it relate to the apparently more general field of Visual Arts? Is it
better regarded as a distinct entity or as crucial new perspective within a mainstream Visual
Arts education? I am leaning towards the latter view, partly because the ‘medial’ conception
of Media Arts practice lacks general currency within Australia. There is the awkward
assumption that Media Arts study will focus narrowly on conventional media and the
teaching of industry-relevant media production skills. The field of Visual Art is at least
slightly insulated from these expectations and may provide a better umbrella for experimental
media arts practice. These issues are considered in relation to the development of the Media
Arts program within the Faculty of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong.
Session Chaired by Ross Harley
2.00: Presentation 9 Jo Law
2.20: Presentation 10 Vince Dziekan
2.40: Presentation 11 John Conomos
3.00: Presentation 12 Joel Zika
Jo Law: Media Arts: a Multidisciplinary Approach
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
This paper addresses the symposium’ theme of ‘media arts in the context of contemporary art
education’ by presenting an approach to teaching media arts curriculum informed by
experimental screen arts.
This approach is founded on the following considerations:
- Media arts are an evolving arena; it is open-ended and engages with many areas and
established disciplines.
- I see these characteristics as strengths - ones that engender exploration by students to
discover what media arts means to them and their practices.
- It precludes medium specificity, technological determinism, and the perceived needs
of industry.
- It is project-based and informed by history and theory.
- It is necessarily experimental.
- The subjects I teach are uniquely positioned in the Faculty of Creative Arts (University
of Wollongong) where students come from a broad range of study areas including, visual arts,
media arts, graphic design, music and sound composition, performance, journalism, and
creative writing.
Media arts draw upon diverse areas including experimental film, performance art, installation,
sound art, and new media arts. In contrast to a method that seeks to define the field, my
approach makes use of this open-endedness in giving students the freedom to explore and
discover, as practitioners, what media arts is for them and their practice.
Vince Dziekan: Preview: Programme Architecture
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
The synthesis of exhibition-based spatial practice and digital mediation is becoming
increasingly influential to our understanding of art today. By effectively structuring the form
through which viewer experience, interpretation and interaction with art is entered into, the
exhibition acts as the interface that actively mediates between physical properties and social
space, producing protocols for viewing and routines of audience engagement. What my
preceding interdisciplinary research has referred to as curatorial design proposes a
programme for how aesthetic experience might take shape at the intersection of new
technologies and exhibition space.
This short paper will position upcoming research on curatorial design and emerging forms of
programme architectures. Titled Edge Blending, this project will investigate how concerns

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relating to the blending of spatial practice and digital mediation characteristic of new media
exhibition extend to the construction of encompassing curatorial programmes. In order to do
so, the research (which has been supported by a British Council Design Researcher Award)
will focus its study on approaches to structured artistic programming recently implemented at
FACT, the Foundation for Art & Creative Technology based in Liverpool. By defining the
term programme architecture, this paper aims to draw attention to the interdependence
between the character of given creative approach (or programme) and the processes
(development, design, evaluation) and systems (institutional, organizational, technological)
employed in the realization of exhibition projects.
The transformative impact of digital processes on practices associated with artistic
production, curation and audience is distinctive of the continued evolution of the
media/electronic arts.
John Conomos
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
I shall argue in my paper that the autonomy of the contemporary art school or college has
become progressively compromised within its larger context - being a critical part of today’s
corporatised transnational university. This has happened for many reasons, but primarily
because of the ‘globalisation’ of tertiary education, teaching and research. In a word,
arguably, artists who teach the new media arts face cultural, historical and pedagogic
situations that are foisted upon them because their institutions have been absorbed into the
contemporary bureaucratised Euro-American university system. As a result, the radical
pluralism of contemporary art is being seriously threatened or homogenised by the aesthetic,
cultural, managerial and pedagogic values of our universities.
Furthermore, practicing artists who specifically teach contemporary art, media and
technology are daily challenged by the shifting social role of the university in society and its
internal systems of managerial rationalism, its literal, anti-metaphorical art education speak
(especially as it pertains to artistic creativity) and its blinding cardinal institutional and
pedagogic belief in the exploitative logic of global capitalism and media celebrity culture.
This is further complicated by the fact that contemporary artists who do not submit to this
complex economic and cultural zeitgeist of tertiary education for global niche markets
become, because of their personal and professional convictions and values, hermeneutically
critical and suspicious of ‘the administered world’ (Theodor Adorno)
Contemporary art, ideally speaking, as an act is controversial by nature; it is, according to one
of its (post)modernist lodestars, Georges Bataille, in opposition to the status quo. So,
fundamentally, we need to ask ourselves: What kind of education will suit this specific type
of art? Can art schools merging
Joel Zika Creative practice as research in new media:
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
This research paper examines the reconfiguring and re imagining of the cinematic scene into
physical experience. Practice based research leading to the development of studio works
which engage the iconography and atmospheres of cinema in new spatial contexts.
Historical research examines the origins of popular cinema; the period between the Lumière
brothers’s Cinématographe in 1894 and the first feature film in 1906. This is an era important
to the new media discourse in which this research and studio practice finds its context.
Cinema at this time had a strong relationship with the amusement park, the fairground and
exposition. Illusionistic cinematic devices bore great resemblance to the carnivalesque
sideshows which had existed for centuries prior. The aesthetic content of these scientific
spectacles can be attributed to defining the popular ‘look’ and dark thematics of early film.
This can be seen in the ghostly apparitions of the Phantasmagoria in theatres and the use of
the Peppers Ghost in haunting Cabaret.
As well as detailing studio practice by Zika, this paper will examine field research undertaken
to a range of historic sites throughout 2007. Through documentation and experience of more

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61
than 20 examples of the earliest immersive popular entertainments (from the period 1906-
1940) it was possible to see the effects of spatial design on the way one reads a narrative.
Session Chaired by Brogan Bunt
3.40: Presentation 13 Colin Black
4.00: Presentation 14 Gaye Swinn and Jennifer Lade
4.20: Presentation 15 Nancy Mauro-Flude
4.40: Presentation 16 Ross Harley
Colin Black: RADIO ART: AN ACOUSTIC MEDIA ART FORM
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
It seems obvious, if you take radio out of radio art then you have a sound based art work that
is not broadcasted, unicasted and/or multicasted; conversely if you take art out of radio art
then you have radio …
This paper explores the idea of radio art as a media based acoustic art-form and argues that
the Australian works Journal (1969) by David Ahern’s and Quadrophonic Cocktail (1986) by
Chris Mann are forms of acoustic media art.
Further to this it examines the absence of radio art as a formal course of study in Australia
(especially for under graduates) and argues for the need to include radio art and its vibrant
Australian history to be acknowledged within formal academic institutes.
Gaye Swinn & Jennifer Lade:
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
Games art will be seen by some of the largest audiences in all of the history of art or of
media. Yet as a representation of human civilization at the end of the 20th Century and into
21st Century there can be few media examples that so comprehensively fail to evidence the
hopes, expectations, aspirations or even the existence of large sections of society.
This paper chronicles the development of RMIT’s three games programs, the attempt to
provide for an industry still emerging from its modest home-base beginnings, to provide
graduates with a broader art historical perspective than was then evident in the genre and to
insinuate into the venture a greater respect for digital art and some of its emerging protocols.
The authors then review the first iterations of the programs, from the response of the media to
their launch, through the vested interests of existing structures and disciplines. With five
years of experience to draw upon we consider the development of cross disciplinary
collaborations between schools, between members of staff and between students and we map
the changing landscape across that period.
The authors also chart the deepening of commitment to the discipline of games evident in the
evolving student body and consider both theoretical and practical protocols for developing
and extending creative conceptual thinking in an on screen and technically driven
environment.
Ross Rudesch Harley: Open Learning Networks in Media Arts Education
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
The explosive growth of knowledge in the 21st century has placed a unique set of pressures
on many institutions, and in particular, on those that generate, analyse, sort and disseminate
information. While the public looks to universities as places where world’s-best practice in
knowledge management is employed, these same universities are in danger of being
overwhelmed - not only by the increase in knowledge, but by the just-as-rapid multiplication
in techniques for capturing, exploring, and distributing this knowledge. I want to suggest that
closed “Virtual Learning Environments” are not the best solution for digital-media arts
education. Instead, I argue that external “user-centric web services” should be allowed to flow
into the university web systems. In this way students and teachers increase their participation
in the broader production (and critique) of knowledge in the media arts and other disciplines

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!MM,%053)L)RH?!`)G)?!77)(5+,)08+8)
NOMAD site traffic data as of October 2009.

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MASS site traffic as of October 2009.

NATIONAL ORGANISATION OF MEDIA ARTS DATABASE:http://www.nomad.net.au
MEDIA ARTS SCOPING STUDY: http://mass.nomad.net.au