[-empyre-] kicking off

[su b <suballard@optusnet.com.au>]

Hi everyone, and thanks for the introductions, Melinda
I think that one of the things that goes on in a small country is 
movement across and between material disciplines and boundaries. Most 
artists I know in .nz introduce themselves with a list: artist, writer, 
musician, critic, teacher… this constant movement could be attributed 
to restlessness, but I think in fact the opposite is true. There is a 
conscious positioning on the borders. This also means that definitions 
of digital or new media practice in .nz are essentially fluid as 
well. In my own work I have focused on a connection between noise (in 
sound performance and in free improvisation) and a kind of visual and 
sonic aesthetic instability which I find apparent in many digital 
installations.  This is not a specifically .nz phenomena, but one that 
does occur frequently in a .nz context. So I have begun a project which 
looks at the possibilities for discussing digital installation by way 
of its instability. This is based on three assumptions. Firstly, that 
noise (error, glitch, frequency, pattern and randomness) is material, 
and as 'stuff' these noisy materials have a crucial role in our 
understanding of digital art installation. That digital installation is 
never a finite pure closed space (or system), and is constantly 
regenerated by it's viewers. And lastly that this digital material has 
specific affects and resonance which in some way distinguish it from 
previous (non-digital) media without fixing it into a single digital 
medium.  This highlights what the digital 'does' rather than what it 
'is'. For me this is a theoretical project, one that feels located 
here, in nz … why I’m not sure, and maybe over the next month this will 
be something I find out. I think any pressures for a specific 
nationally determined aesthetic or practice find themselves tied up in 
drawing borders or boundaries … grouping works as in or out. Maybe 
there are some things going on here that are specific to our location: 
culturally, socially, politically and economically, but maybe not. My 
guess is that .nz digital and new media practice is more likely to be 
noisy than quiet, and up till very recently, more likely to be seen at 
international forums than here in nz.
.
su

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