New domains is about evolving arts content and practice
Artists are employing new technologies that invite audiences to move beyond passively viewing, watching or listening to arts content, instead encouraging them to try wearing, stepping inside and contributing to its creation.
Many artists, especially those from more traditional art mediums, are grappling with these new arts practices, content forms and new artist–audience relationships. Because of this, many artists are looking for assistance to navigate these new domains.
Our goal is to raise the profile of emerging artforms and support artists to evolve their arts practice in new domains.
Here are a few of the ways we can help:
The first hurdle to taking your practice on to new platforms is knowing that they exist in the first place. Over the last two years, the Story of the Future carved a new model for Literature in the digital domain. This blog, the twitter account, the Major Performing Arts Digital Concepts Workshop we ran back in April and the Revealing the Arts Forum with the ABC are all showcase opportunities.
The more you experience them, the more confident you will become. The motto "let's have a go and see what happens" could become the norm. Our own Geek in Residence pilot program could place a technically confident practitioner in your organisation for up to six months, working across all areas of operations, including Artistic Programming. Who knows what you might come up with. The Digital Culture Fund is expressly designed to celebrate these new realms - even we don't know what to expect from it.
As well as the ABC, many of our other Industry Partners have a dedicated focus on the unknown models of the future. MEGA is a business incubator program that supports digital startup companies, especially for the mobile platform. The Australia Council supports artists who want to develop an artistic business idea to go through the program, ending with a pitch in front of potential investors. Our funding enables MEGA artist alumni to apply for additional mentoring and prototype development grants for their artistic ventures. This year ACO signed up for the course; you might yet become a consumer of Chamber Music through your mobile phone.
The Le@rning Federation provide a networked platform to place your educational resources into the classroom. We have already helped to broker a relationship between Bell Shakespeare Company to expand their already innovative educational reach.
Other Major Performing Arts companies are developing R&D projects in this area. We will update you as these progress.
Image: "Graffiti Research Lab: Laser Tag" at Adelaide Bank Festival, 2009
