About a month ago, Hoydigiteer.org launched the FOCUS.01 call for
proposals with the principal objective of promoting young and emerging
individuals or small artists groups working in new media. Certain
conditions also applied to participate in the project, particularly that
the proposals either fused traditional practices with new media or that
the proposals explored aesthetic techniques and principles in which
culture-specificity were evident.
Seven entrants from seven different countries in the Asia Pacific region
were selected and their proposals are currently under deliberation with
the date set for the launch of the Project- July 30, 2001. But promoting
seven artists and seven viewpoints is, of course, not the only objective
of FOCUS.01.
In the deliberation of proposals for FOCUS.01, faculties from the
University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts were invited. Five
experts in the fields of the Studio Arts, Art Theory, Art Criticism and
History, and Visual Communication were given the task of looking into
the proposals for FOCUS.01. For many of these members in the proposal
deliberations, it is a first time to be intimately involved in the pre-
production and conceptual stage of new media art. This is significant
because in the road to broadening access, understanding and appreciation
of new media art forms, it helps to start from the conceptualization
stage of these new art forms. We begin by looking into the culture
behind the machine.
The machine and technological art forms generally have a built-in
requisite of some level of new media literacy on the part of the
audience and the assumption on the part of the new media artist that
such level must exist to fully apprehend new media art. The young media-
educated audience, since birth immersed in the waters (or ethers) of
technological devices, often has no qualms apprehending these new art
forms. All this inevitably becomes contributory to the reinforcement of
the electronic monastery that many new media artists, curators and
producers are now trying to bring down.
Part of the effects of the electronic monastery are seen in mainstream
art circles as the lack of serious critical writing about new media art
and the persistence of writing that used comparative analysis between
new media art and the earlier art forms such as painting and sculpture.
This could seriously dwarf critical thinking, understanding and
production in new media art by setting the same parameters and standards
for very distinct and exciting new modes of artistic expression.
In FOCUS.01, fusing traditional practices with new media was one of the
conditions in the effort to see how technological means of expression
augmented, complemented or participated in the dynamics of the long
tradition of artistic language forming. Artists, new media and
otherwise, perpetually have worked toward respecting traditional forms
whilst paving pathways for aesthetic experiences with scientific,
political, cultural, technological and social upheavals. However, some
artists, critics, historians, curators and producers also have the
tendency to make various art forms work against one another - a
situation also typical of debates and frays in physical and electronic
encounters among these groups. Using the same set of parameters for net
art and painting is an example of pushing the incompatibility. It is
also not logical.
Because no established set of parameters may as yet be said to exist in
critically analyzing new media art, it seems unavoidable that the
reliable terms in previous art forms are being used. Here is where new
media artists, critics, historians, curators and producers need to work
together towards enriching the dynamic language of art. FOCUS.01's
culture-specificity is a strategy towards this direction. Fortunately,
the academia which sits in deliberation of FOCUS.01 proposals have
always placed art discussion in the socio-cultural context and not
rigidly within the hermetic context of mainstream art.
While categorizing and naming new media art forms are still under
debate, as well as the technical considerations in the production and
presentation of new media art, FOCUS.01 pushes on with these debates by
seeing how a focus on culture outside the media may contribute to
clarifying these issues. The fact that the proposals submitted to
FOCUS.01 were mostly sensitive, almost metaphysical and were no longer
beguiled by or addicted to the technology, present how young new media
artists work with a medium they consider transparent. What brings about
greater excitement is the debate that happens when the older artists,
critics and historians in the FOCUS.01 deliberation committee look into
the proposals. Often, we may anticipate a generation gap that we think
keeps the older generation who lack the context of the new medium from
understanding new media art. They miss the point - and so do we, by
expecting new media art forms to be independent of their inception
process and socio-cultural roots. Also by first looking at proposals
rather than finished works, we critically analyze new media art forms in
the context of technology as either tool or medium. It is significant to
appreciate the difference if we expect thoughtful deliberation outside
our electronic monasteries. The medium is so transparent to us as new
media practitioners that we forget we are at a crossroads.
The proposal deliberations for FOCUS.01 ends July 14, 2001 with seven
new media proposals on the table:
Sunit S. Sehgal (INDIA), Sarawut Chutiwongpeti (THAILAND), Constantina
Mihaila (BUCHAREST), Hung Keung (HONG KONG), Eldar Karhalev (RUSSIA),
Archie Degamo (PHILIPPINES) and Kristian Thomas (AUSTRALIA).
References:
New Media Curating Discussion List, The Curatorial Resource for Upstart
Media Bliss (http://www.newmedia.sunderland.ac.uk/crumb/) Fine Art
Forum, Nisar Keshvani, Editor (http://www.fineartforum.org) University
of the Philippines, College of Fine Arts
F O C U S . 0 1 Secretariat mailto:secretariat-focus@hoydigiteer.org
Young New Media Artists F O C U S . 0 1
http://www.hoydigiteer.org/FOCUS.01/ With support by the University of
the Philippines, College of Fine Arts and SiteX.ph
