ANAT’s ninth summer school focused on Internet Design and Web Authoring and was held at the IMAGO Multimedia Centre/ Film and Television Institute Digital Arts Studio in
Fremantle from 13 – 31 January 1998.The School is the only intensive training program in Australia designed specifically for artists. The 15 artists selected to participate in the 1998 National Summer School were:
Keith Armstrong, Brisbane, QLD
Isabelle Delmotte, Sydney, NSW
Leah Irving, Perth, WA
Robyn Backen, Sydney, NSW
Joy Hardman, Alice Springs, NT
Jun-ann Lam, Melbourne, VIC
Di Ball, Brisbane, QLD
Timothy Hancox, Brisbane, QLD
Brian Martin, Hobart, TAS
Lisa Beilby, Darwin, NT
Simone Hockley, Adelaide, SA
Paul Thomas, Perth, WA
Tim Burns, Perth, WA
Teri Hoskin, Adelaide, SA
Trevor van Weeren, Darwin, NT
This year, the tutors for the school were Lloyd Sharp, Francesca da Rimini and John Tonkin, three of Australia’s leading new media artists who fully comprehend the profound conceptual challenges and desires for artists who are driven to ‘bend’ the technological tools to achieve their artistic goals.
To coincide with the school a satellite event was held on January 21. The event, Quick and Dirty, provided an opportunity for local artists to look at a range of work, talk about ideas and meet with the artists attending the school. The evening was launched by Dr Margaret Seares, Chair of the Australia Council, who spoke of the importance of training for artists in this field and the benefit of enabling connections and collaborations for artists working in this area locally and nationally.
The evening combined a series of presentations and artists’ vignettes, with an opportunity to meet the summer school participants and to view work-in-progress being produced at the school. Presentations were undertaken by Kathy Bowry, a new media legal specialist, nervous_objects, graduates of the 1997 Summer School, who have gone on to work collaboratively, Perth based writer Josephine Wilson, Perth based artists Paul Thomas and Vicki Wilson and artists and tutors of the school, Francesca da Rimini and Lloyd Sharp.
Ccommenting on the experience of the Summer School, Adelaide based writer Teri Hoskin says “the intensity has been invaluable and the new connections with other artists will be very fruitful. As far as my work goes, it was important for me to keep things simple to optimise the speed of the work, and I like simplicity too. I’d like to think I have made something that avoids some of the whiz bangery of the web, whilst still using some of that javascript stuff to make things a lot more flexible and rich.”
Joy Hardman, an artist from the Northern Territory who works in video installation adds: “I knew very little about working online, but have learnt so much. Though I have missed seeing the sun for the last few weeks! I also think that the connections that have been made over the last three weeks will assist to break down a bit of the artistic isolation of living in Alice Springs, where there aren’t too many artists using technology. Everyone has totally enjoyed the cross-continent connections. It has been fascinating to see how different places and practices are.”
ANAT’s 1988 National Summer School was supported by: The Queensland Government’s Office of Arts and Cultural Development through Queensland Artworker’s Alliance; The New South Wales Film and Television Office; The Minister for Education and the Arts through Arts Tasmania; The South Australian Government through Arts SA; The Federal Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
The school also received support from the state based multimedia centres: IMAGO in WA, eMerge in Victoria and QANTM in Queensland and the Northern Territory.
