Hi Simon,
Damn... you were one of the people I wanted to meet at ISEA but alas, not to be.
re, your comment here:
> On 28 Sep 2011, at 08:57, Simon Biggs wrote:
>> Re: *The Death of the Media Art Theorist: A Call to Arms *
>>
>> That's hilarious - and more than a little true! Except the diaspora to Australia seems to have gone into reverse (perhaps the over-valuation of the Oz-dollar and cessation of support for new media by the Oz Council are having their effect?).
I think its more to do with the market and less to do with the
Australia Council. I know its seen as somewhat passe to side with the
big bad bureaucratic infrastructure, but on this occasion I need to
challenge your comment that "cessation of support for new media by the
Oz Council [might be having an] effect". This is simply not the case.
Sure, the New Media Arts Board was discarded.. but that doesn't mean
they no longer support "new media". I don't have the figures to hand
right now as to the dollar spend across the various artform boards
(because they are supporting media-based practice more than they ever
did before the abolition of the NMB). But what I do know is that we've
got it a lot better here than most other places at the moment, not
least due to the work of Andrew Donovan and his team in Inter-arts.
Distasteful as it is, it comes down to how well people can sell the
importance of the sector, whether that is internally (such as Andy at
the Aust co) or externally.
Who knows how long this may last and whether we too will see the
slashing and burning evident in the UK and the Netherlands (amongst
many other countries I'm sure), but for now credit where credit is
due.
cheers
Vicki
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