[-empyre-] Re: showing 3d art from Melentie Pandilovski

["-empyre-owner" <empyre-owner@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>]

Dear Melinda,

At 1:37 PM +1000 18/6/03, Melinda Rackham wrote:
kathy, melantie, lina and taylor,
as curators of contemporary arts spaces perhaps you could  you comment
further on this..

I am following the debate but have not entered into it yet because of other
priority activities, which we have here at the EAF. So just a brief reply at
this moment but a more elaborate one maybe at some point later.

I think that the raised questions are legitimate ones. It is very seldom
that WEB 3 D has been included in major museum or gallery program. Even
though there are exceptions.
I worked on web 3d projects by incorporating the work of the team of Van
gogh TV (led by Karel Dudesek) "Worlds within", from the start into the
activity of the Skopje Electronic Arts Fair. both in 1997 and 1998 SEAfair
took place in the Museum of Contemporary Arts. In both cases it was a mater
of using complex platforms. in 1997 there was a workshop with the artists,
and in 1998 a workshop project with the Museum professionals.  Then in 1999
I co-curated with Kathy Rae Huffman a VRML exhibition and conference in the
Museum of the City of Skopje in Skopje, and a workshop in Ohrid in 1999.
http://seafair.scca.org.mk/99/index.htm
http://seafair.scca.org.mk/99/exibition.htm
http://seafair.scca.org.mk/99/conference.htm
http://seafair.scca.org.mk/99/workshop.htm

This show did have a poster but not a catalogue.
As a curator and director I struggled between the ideas whether to have a
catalogue, which would have been potentially beneficial for different groups
of people (researchers, art historians, artists, students, etc.) or not to,
because of: 1. simple reasoning the entire project was something that was
basically intended for the net (In fact it seemed to me that the project was
highlighting the attributes of the net), 2. the conference participants
(except a few) never sent the final versions of their texts, and 3. there
were not enough funds. Finally we chose the no catalogue option.
I am still regreting this but it seems that under the circumstances we had
no other choice.



kathy wrote:
" we failed to raise significant exhibition funds to enable the show to
travel and to create a catalogue
(comments from various funding agencies were mainly along the lines that
they could not see the reason to put virtual work in a physical space, and
that the  'art' was not significant enough"

not to enter the discussion of quality of the artwork in web 3d projects, I
think that I should say that I always believed that web 3 d is worthwhile as
to be presented, that it has a significant potential, and that perhaps an
educating of the public  and the non=involved artists for these projects was
necessary (I will therefore hold a presentation/lecture in September in
Adelaide). fact of the mater stays is that the group of the artists that are
taken into consideration and are incorporated into the web 3d 2003, are more
or less the same people that have been involved into it since 1999 or
earlier. check the web sites. This means that the pool of artists has not
been widened. There are certain reasons behind this, which have to be
tackled.

Roya wrote:
"Maybe big 3D is much more of a thing for real space / gallery / museums
presentation after all? The situation is comparable with other art
(traditional/new) genres where equipment and tools become increasingly
expensive (read exclusive) in order to add 'value' to the final piece (see
Rauschenberg's Titanium paintings). I personally don't have a lot of trust
in exclusivity"
 3d art that is made within the paramenters and soft/hardware restrictions ,
and designed to be seen in the networked environment,  takes on a new
context and arua perhaps in a gallery because it commands big space for
video projection.. therefore floorspace = artistic significance and value in
the real estate/funding criteria of gallery/museum syetem.
how do you get networked works, into your gallery if they are not large
scale installations. which of course leads on to what the future of payments
to 3d onlien artists
if the work isnt showing in a  gallery or musem space? does this mean to be
paid artist must fit into existing gallery criteris that is designed to show
painting and sculpure..


I think that many of the new spaces are not designed to show paintings and
sculptures.
Take ACMI in Melbourne for an evident example. How to get web 3d recognized
in order for it to be shown in such spaces is another matter altogether and
requires a deeper study.



Melentie

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