Art Practice in a Digital Culture

Much as art history is in the process of being transformed by new information communication technologies, often in ways that are either disavowed or resisted, art practice is also being changed by those same technologies. One of the most obvious symptoms of this change is the increasing numbers of artists working in universities, and having their work facilitated and supported by the funding and infrastructural resources that such institutions offer. This new paradigm of art as research is likely to have a profound effect on how we understand the role of the artist and of art practice in society. In this volume artists, art historians, art theorists and curators of new media reflect on the idea of art as research and how it has changed practice. Intrinsic to the volume will be an investigation of the advances in creative practice made possible via artists engaging directly with technology or via collaborative partnerships between practitioners and technological experts, ranging through a broad spectrum of advanced methods from robotics through rapid prototyping to the biological sciences. Such advances are by their nature less readily definable or quantifiable than equivalent research in the humanities. This volume will provide a platform for practitioners to demonstrate their research processes and findings and show how their practice has been supported and developed in ways which would otherwise not have been possible. The contributors to this volume are practitioners and theorists at the forefront of contemporary art practice. The introductory essay and concluding chapters will respectively, set the scene for an analysis, exploration and understanding of contemporary technology-based art practice and, drawing on the intervening chapters, put forward considered projections and new questions for the future. The final chapter will also provide a curatorial perspective, addressing the long-term management and sustainability of technology-based works, many of which are ephemeral.