*
CHArt Newsletter Spring 2005

Edited by Anna Bentkowska and Hazel Gardiner

ISSN 1742-3376

In this issue we announce the forthcoming, twenty-first CHArt Annual Conference, which will be held in London on 10 and 11 November 2005; Vivienne Toy reviews the 2004 CHArt conference ‘Futures Past - Twenty Years of Arts Computing’, held at Birkbeck College, University of London; and Charlie Gere, Chair of CHArt reflects upon the long association of CHArt and Birkbeck that is now coming to an end. We also bring you details of the latest CHArt publications, including the first volume of the CHArt Yearbook, Digital Art History, published by Intellect, and the sixth, online volume of conference proceedings.

Please email your comments and contributions to the forthcoming issues of the Newsletter to newsletter@chart.ac.uk.

ARCHIVE

 CHArt logo
Computers and the History of Art
http://www.chart.ac.uk/
*
CHArt @ Birkbeck
Since its foundation in 1985 CHArt has been based in the Department of History of Art (now the School of History of Art, Film and Visual Media), at Birkbeck College, University of London. Based in the sense that the first Chair of CHArt, Will Vaughan, and I, his successor, both worked in the Department, that many of the committee members had also worked or studied there and that the website has been hosted by the College. CHArt’s existence ran parallel to the School’s own groundbreaking developments in the study of computers and the history of art, including the founding, by Will, of the MA Computer Applications in the History of Art (consequently renamed the MA Digital Art History) and involvement in the VASARI and MARC imaging projects, the former of which led to the formation of the Vasari Lab, now known as the Vasari Centre for Digital Art History. The Vasari Centre continues to be an extraordinarily useful resource for the School, not just for those on the MA DAH or undertaking PhDs in digital art history. It has also housed a number of important projects, pre-eminently perhaps the AHRC-funded Computer Arts, Contexts, Histories, etc… (CACHe) project, studying the early development of computer art in Britain. I think it would be no exaggeration to claim that the School has played a very important role in developing the study of the application of computers to the history of art, and may well be unique among history of art departments and schools in its focus on this area.

It is therefore somewhat sad to report that the historical connection between CHArt and Birkbeck is coming to an end. Redoubtable committee member, CHArt Secretary and website editor Trish Cashen left Birkbeck some years ago to take up a post at the Open University. More recently Will Vaughan retired both as Pevsner Professor of the History of Art and as Chair of CHArt (though fortunately he remains an active committee member). I succeeded him in the latter role, thus keeping CHArt in Birkbeck, but as you may be aware, since January of this year I have been in the Institute of Cultural Research at Lancaster University, as Reader in New Media Research. Finally Hazel Gardiner, another vital committee member and CHArt Secretary, is in the process of leaving Birkbeck to take up a post with the AHRC-funded ICT Methods Network, at the Centre for Computing in the Humanities,Kings College London. CCH has also offered administrative support to CHArt and to host the website. These various departures mean not only the end of the long relationship between Birkbeck and CHArt, but also the end of many of the School’s endeavours in the area of arts computing. In particular the MA DAH has been suspended, pending the outcome of staffing decisions. Thus, when the CACHe project ends this autumn, it seems likely that a twenty-year history of Birkbeck’s close involvement with arts computing and digital art history will have come to an end.

As I wrote above, this is sad, certainly for those of us whose interest in this unusual area was so generously encouraged and nurtured by the School and I think it is important to acknowledge that generosity and to pay tribute to the vital role it played in helping promote the kinds of ideas and issues we at CHArt are all interested in. In return CHArt, the MA DAH and projects such as VASARI, MARC and CACHe did much to persuade those working in the history of art of the importance of new technologies and new media, not just as tools, but as historical phenomena, with important relations to art and art historical practice. It is encouraging that in seeking a replacement for my post, the School is looking for an art historian with an interest in new media art. This is a small but important victory in the ongoing battle for recognition of the close relation between art and media technologies.

Finally one of the consequences of the ‘diaspora’ of CHArt committee members from Birkbeck is that some of us are no longer based either in London or in history of art departments. Both these facts may have all sorts of consequences, both welcome and unwelcome, and may also determine how CHArt develops over the next twenty years. I encourage all members and participants to let us know how you think this may affect CHArt and to offer suggestions for how we may proceed.

Charlie Gere


*

CHArt 21st Annual Conference 2005

This year, for the twenty-first CHArt conference we have invited papers on the theme of 'Theory and Practice'. The contributors will address the relationship between theory and practice in all areas of digital media and technology in the visual arts. The subjects include new media art; development of scholarly and art historical resources; the digitised image; visual resources management; ICT in museums, libraries and galleries; the Internet, the World Wide Web and the Semantic Web; art and art history teaching; and new media theory.

The call for papers is now closed and we will announce the conference programme and confirm the London venue shortly.

*

Review of the CHArt 20th Annual conference 2004: Futures Past - Twenty Years of Arts Computing

The 2004 CHArt conference was an opportunity to step back, and to pause and reflect on twenty years of arts computing, but to do so with one eye firmly fixed on the future. A stimulating mix of papers from practitioners, academics and museum professionals inspired some lively discussion and sharing of experiences in this field.

Rather than comment on every specific paper this review gives my overall impression of the conference. What struck me the most were two issues: (1) that in this age of digitisation and preservation, there is a very real risk of losing our digital history and (2) that in some ways with the proliferation of poorly described data on the web, we have already missed the opportunity to archive many Internet resources properly.

Two papers about the origins and current work of the Index of Christian Art provided an excellent insight into the sustainability of digital projects. The foundations for the index were laid in 1917 and the project attracts subscribers and most importantly, significant funding today.

Several speakers shared their experience of digital project successes, but mainly failures - invaluable to anyone involved in this area. Christine Sundt's research into two decades of digital projects, once again raised the issue of sustainability. Of the projects surveyed, the survival rate was about 75 per cent, but few show signs of significant advancement. How do we make these projects last in a usable and accessible way?

Practitioners making creative use of the digital medium gave us an insight into the questions and issues they face. James Faure Walker shared some of his sources of inspiration - the best bus routes for people watching and the BBC newsroom. Wayne Clements presented his work, Computerized Haiku. He described this as an exercise in archaeology, recreating the original program (now lost) that appeared in the 1968 show Cybernetic Serendipity.

Mike Pringle's slightly tongue-in-cheek paper about the 'rise and fall of virtual reality' was an entertaining exercise in techno retro complete with stills from the 80s classic, Tron. His point was a serious one though – to focus on our audiences, the people using the digital projects.

With one of the speakers unable to attend, came an unexpected bonus – a sneak preview of the new and improved CHArt website. Michael Hammel, one of the CHArt committee, has redesigned and built the site. He gave us a brief glimpse, revealing what looks to be a clean, simple and usable way in to an impressive 79.9MB of information.

The CHArt AGM took place half way through the second day. It confirmed what I am sure the delegates were thinking - that the content, format and pacing of the conference, work well. In the spirit of good user-centred design, potential improvements were discussed including sources of funding, how to generate interest internationally and delegates contributing ideas for the subject of future conferences.

One of the key themes of the conference was that of failure - from the pioneers of computer art to those grappling with the complexities of current digitisation and preservation projects. I didn't leave the conference feeling downbeat however. What was clear is that failure - if we learn from it, investigate the reasons for it and intentions behind it - is a critical tool for future success. I left feeling reassured and hopeful that a large dose of realism now operates alongside the 'white heat' of technological optimism of the 1960s.

Vivienne Toye

*
CHArt Publications

We are delighted to announce that the first volume of the CHArt Yearbook is now available. See www.chart.ac.uk/yearbook1.html for the table of contents and order your copy directly from CHArt. CHArt Members and Trade £15.95, Non-members £18 (+ pp £1.50 within the UK, £4 overseas). You may email your order to publications@chart.ac.uk.

A selection of papers presented at the 2003 CHArt Conference, Convergent Practices: New Approaches to Art and Visual Culture, is now available online. For information on how to join CHArt and benefit from its membership see www.chart.ac.uk/subinfo.html.

  
*