It has been said that the practice of digital and web-based arts far outstrips recognition by the arts establishment. Electronic media and the electronic generation of material have been practised in the arts since the early 20th century, but access to the World Wide Web for both creators and audiences has meant a change in perspective
Online projects within New Audiences fall roughly into three overlapping categories: marketing, the creation and distribution of digital art, and using the Net as a digital educational resource. Chatrooms are also being used as forums or reporting arenas for participants, limited to a specific group without access being allowed to the wider public. Content is often cutting-edge, as is the extent to which participants are able to take a full part in the creative process. Yet it is also as a relatively simple communication tool that online work has been explored.
The marketing tool
The Reading Room was an online literature project developed by Audiences Yorkshire, which used a special website to attract readers to live events. They worked in partnership with both local reading groups and small bookshops, and also carried out research into the way other organisations used their websites for promotional purposes. The website succeeded in receiving 42,175 hits between May and August 2000, while questionnaire feedback suggested that most of the respondents had attended live literature events.
Kate Wafer of Audiences Yorkshire says that it was a seminal project for the agency. “It let us explore the options for online activity and information. It has led to http://www.digyorkshire.com, which is an online magazine including listings, editorials and reviews. That’s been going since September 2002. It’s been very successful in terms of building user numbers, a database and a community of people interested in the arts.” The agency is now exploring other services they can provide through the website.
Digital creativity
Many organisations seized the opportunity to work with digital artists, or to distribute the work of their artists more widely. The Library of Babel is a major Internet work commissioned by the Focal Point Gallery in Southend from artist Simon Biggs, and was launched in July 2001. As well as the site (http://www.babel.uk.net), a series of interactive installations were displayed in libraries around Essex. The piece creates ‘a site-specific work for a non-physical site’, and employs the Dewey Decimal numbering system, used in the cataloguing of library contents, as a metaphor. The three-dimensional site also functions as a web-browser, so that the user finds him- or herself entering the websites of libraries around the world, from the Louvre to an American high school.
Every hit on a website can be counted by integral software, and the amount of time a browser spends on the site can also be recorded. From July 2001, it is known that an average of 2,000 visits were made each month to the Babel website.
Online interaction
Shooting Live Artists was a joint commission from Arts Council England and the BBC, which explored how live artists could reach new audiences. Six commissions, created using a variety of media and methods, were made in 2002 and a further six in 2003, of which the most lauded was the BAFTA-nominated and Ars Electronica award-winner ‘Can you see me now?’ by Blast Theory. The most controversial was ‘Skin/Strip Online’ by Claire Ward-Thornton and Pau Ros, which invited the public to contribute anonymous photos of their own bodies. Interestingly, this had an impact on the statistical analysis of traffic on the websites, with a huge peak in visits just after the work had been denounced as ‘pornographic’ by the Mail on Sunday and the Sun.
Targeting a defined audience for web-based work is often not feasible. The breadth of possibility concerning who might log on is potentially huge, though it may also be tiny. This mirrors the two salient features of web-use: by the masses, and by small interest groups linking up over long distances. Many Internet-based projects include both virtual and actual events, with linked exhibitions, launches and interactive happenings.
Educational resources
Online educational resources have received Government backing, and the use of the Net as a reservoir of source material is well-known. The Institute of International Visual Arts’ (INIVA) digital art resource for education (DARE) was piloted and evaluated with two London secondary schools. The website, which was developed in collaboration with Middlesex University over a five-year period, made available the work of a diverse group of contemporary artists from different cultural backgrounds. The schools took an active part in monitoring and documenting the project, as well as testing the use of the site.
It is also through their websites that many New Audiences projects have enabled their audiences to gain access to information, interact with or contribute to archives, reviews, diaries or artworks, and to become part of a virtual arts community.
Beyond the Page
For further resources including reports and links to online projects, visit http://www.newaudiences.org.uk
Feedback to Essential Audiences can be sent to audiences@artsprofessional.co.uk
Essential Audiences is compiled and written by Catherine Rose. For more information about the New Audiences Programme, contact the Arts Council England, 14 Great Peter Street, London SW1P 3NQ.
t: 020 7973 6497 f: 020 7973 6791 e: newaudiences@artscouncil.org.uk textphone: 020 7973 6564