record – LABS

Thesis Info

Thesis Title: Burning the Interface : artists' interactive multimedia 1992-1998

URL where full thesis can be found: www.library.unsw.edu.au/~thesis/adt-NUN/public/adt-NUN20040519.115928/

Abstract: 200-500 words: The thesis describes the development during the 1990s of visual artists' utilisation of computer-based interactive multimedia and the production internationally, with a focus on Australian artists, of artworks on the CD-ROM media format. Earlier parts of the author's research led to the co-curated exhibition, Burning the Interface - International Artists' CD-ROM, opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, in 1996, before touring to Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide. The thesis surveys the range of practice by artists working with digital media and the opportunities for exhibition in the public spaces of museums, galleries and the street, and advances scenarios for the exhibiting institutions to respond to the vigour with which Australian artists represented their work and ideas at this time in national and international forums. Four published artists' work on CDROM are analysed in detail, and a concluding chapter about interactive multimedia and its usefulness as an art medium to the artist introduces the studio practice component of this MFA submission. This takes the form of a prototype experimental version of an interactive multimedia work on CD-ROM, Strangers on the Land, a copy of which is contained in a pocket at the rear of the bound version.