Hi,

Sarah asked me to post this offline message to the list...

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I am not a contributor to the list, but read it from time to time. As an artist and academic I am interested in relation between art and media / post media landscape, but not so much in the distinctions of new media specifically...[text removed]

As an artist researcher working within 'The Media School' at Bournemouth, I am surrounded by Television Production students, researchers and theorists often working with the major UK  & International Broadcast channels, TV production, news organisations and major regulatory bodies. I also, sometimes incidentally, attend TV conferences and have some insight into the framing of the idea of Television. As one element of my work at the University is developing applied research, I have commissioned small pilot research examining the potential of new models of distribution of artist video work, from archives (led by Helen Sloan of SCAN, with Don Forrestor's  ideas), and we have examined emerging models through practice, including a recent commission for 'Field Broadcast' with whom I continue to work and whose work I presented recently alongside Roger and the artplayer.tv. Here we were trying to engage artists in social models of creative citizenship, developing approaches that allow a form of citizen media for artist and artist organisations using platforms developed by artists - so all can share in revenue. Some of the projects that SCAN worked on whilst here were also in this area.

We have also examined how to bring artist into TV models, from using our own HD broadcast facilities to our experiments with very high speed 'live' performance networks. In fact , a future event, recently posted here under the title of LIVENESS, is a response to some of the questions we have been examining through practice research strategies. That is, one of the defining propositions for the future of television, proposed from television itself, resides in its potentiality to broadcast 'live' images - TV still represents a unique latform in that respect. Almost all of digital media is currently pre-recorded, at this time.

I have a personal interest in many of the models that have been proposed and in terms of historical precedents, we pay respects to many of those artists.Others we are following alongside others mentioned in this thread would be tank.tv and Laure Provest who is making significant waves in the artworld at the moment, as well as Lucky PDF - who are also in the Samsung art Prize - both for good or ill!

As someone surround by TV people, I am forced to take note of how Television is framed not by the qualities of it aesthetics, platforms or production, but in its regulatory control, that separates from other forms of non-broadcast media. Colleagues in the Broadcasting History group explore these issues and in examining these specific issues, Digital Britain and Space are significant. We have been warning our colleagues (as we are Interactive/ Digital Media people) for some time about developments leading to the transformation of television in this area  - including Kangaroo, that led to Canvas - which basically mean the browser will be king in all kinds of ways - especially when it is running on the TV. TV is struggling to keep a hold but through BBC and Ofcom has significant establishment power, so potentially will remain in position despite a shift in the consuming platform (Notice with iplayer you are supposed to have a TV license even if you are using a laptop). However, a shift from mass to 'mass-less' (thanks Sarah , I use that a lot) will be driven by changes already happening in states with platforms like Hulu - which cable tv use to release new series of very popular programmes BEFORE TV. Here , they can control advertising directly though user profiling and the 'digital dimes as opposed to analogue dollars' and revenues. So it means they are able to generate good returns revenue for the production companies as well as the channels. Without being too cynical I think this is where Arts Council see an opportunity with SPACE, so they can scale down funding direct to major players and organisations in the Arts (as opposed to small media arts organisations that they mainly stopped funding) by allowing them to generate their own digital dimes, by selling archived or live material direct into living rooms with subscriptions. TV meanwhile continues, and the buzz has moved from 360 degree programming to dual screen programming (watching tv over the top of your laptop).

I continue to work in this area and to subvert where possible any initiatives in favor of the artist (Field Broadcast over artplayer or SPACE), as I am one first and foremost. At heart I am also a phenomenologist interested in event structures, I still believe in the power of space and materiality, and of time. In the Experimental Media Group (Emerge) that I direct, whilst we are dealing with some of these issues, we are also trying to create a space through which to engage political and aesthetic change at the level of global systems of exchange - and perhaps that is either new media or post-media, but fundamentally what I would term as 'structural aesthetics'.

Best regards,

Neal White

Associate Professor - Art and Media Practice
Co-Director - Emerge (Experimental Media Research Group)

The Media School - Bournemouth University
Tel: 0044 (0)1202 961452
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