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I have been lurking for a while so should introduce myself. I am an Australian new media artists and curator - most recently co-director of the Electrofringe - a festival of digital, electronic and new media arts aimed at young and emerging artists to further explore technology and its creative possibilities which takes place annually in Newcastle NSW. http://www.electrofringe.org I thought people might be interested in the current developments in Australia on the issue of defining New Media. In a shock decision on Tues Dec 8, the national arts funding body, The Australia Council, dissolved the New Media Arts Board which has been responsible for funding a huge amount of innovative work and allowed Australian new media artists to develop a significant international profile. Several key organisations, festivals and individual projects are funded by this body. Instead an Inter - Arts office is to be established which will deal with hybrid projects and "triage" digital and electronic media works to the Visual Arts and Music Boards. For full official press release <http://www.ozco.gov.au/news_and_hot_topics/media_releases/australia_council _plans_for_growth/> As you can imagine the ramifications of this are massive depending on how/if the Visual Arts and Music Boards are re-organised in order to deal with this area of practice. Opinion within in the community is mixed ranging from outrage to those academic optimists that believe it now means new media has become legitimised as part of visual art and no longer needs to be assisted by it's own moniker. Personally I cannot see how this action will not be devastating for the new media arts scene. I cannot see how this restructuring will be able to be set into motion without significant the sacrifices, particularly for events such as Electrofringe which operate on a project grant basis. Continuity seems impossible. There has been an excellent response by Keith Gallasch - managing editor RealTime Magazine - Australia's largest contemporary arts publication that can be found at http://www.realtimearts.net I would be very interested in responses from the international new media arts community on this issue. regards Gail Priest %)%)%)%)%)%)%)%)%)%)%)%)%)%) Gail Priest Electrofringe Co-director 2003/2004 RealTime Associate Editor sound - text - graphic http://www.snagglepussy.net