My latest 3 articles + other links

My latest articles to be published include an academic book review and two opinion pieces/reports about a film festival panel and a new media art panel I participated in.

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My review, in the latest issue of Cyberculture Studies, covers Anne Friedberg’s very interesting book about the history of windows, screens & frames in film, art, architecture & philosophy: The Virtual Window: From Alberti to Microsoft. The review is also graced with a response from the author: Anne Friedberg. As an extra note, the man behind CyberCulture Studies — David Silver — included the online augmentation to my essay on Tiering & ARGs (and Sean Stacey’s article on ‘Undefining ARGs’) as reading material in his class on Digital Literacies, which was guest lectured by Bryan Alexander. Ah, the world is getting smaller and smaller.


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I participated, chaired & organised a few panels last year, and as I intimated in an earlier post, I was commissioned to write opinion pieces on two of the panels I participated in. The first is a short review/opinion piece about the ‘cyber-born film panel‘ at Megan Spencer’s Destination Film Festival. Here is the blurb about the panel:

The revolution will be downloaded… It’s an exciting time in filmmaking right now. Using Four-Eyed Monsters as a starting point – the superb ’YouTube feature’ – our panel will explore how online and digital culture has r/evolutionised and challenged traditional means of production, distribution and exhibition. Has the internet made these conventional methods all but redundant? How? And where are things moving to? A range of viewpoints will be heard across the spectrum – from filmmakers and producers to artists and web designers.

The article, Cyber-Conceived/Cyber-Birthed Films: Christy Dena on Making and Distribution at DestFest’ has been published in RealTimeArts (an Australian arts magazine) and has been edited somewhat. Of particular significance (regarding the editing) is the listing I included of all those who participated in the panel. So, here it is: This panel was organised by film critic, journalist and director Megan Spencer. The panelists included Arin Crumley of Four Eyed Monsters fame (via video Skype); remix artists Dan & Dominique Angeloro of Soda_Jerk ; highly regarded film producer Rosemary Blight; Rachael Lucas, the director of cult hit Bondi Tsunami; DOP, Producer/Cinematographer Streetsweeper Toby Ralph; director and composer Jason Sweeney and me.

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The second article in the same issue of RealTimeArts and is an opinion piece/review of the panel ‘What Happened to New Media Art?’ from the 2007 Australasian Interactive Entertainment Conference. Here is that blurb:

So was it the mobile phone or changes at the OzCo? Why has new media art apparently disappeared from the cultural landscape? Key cultural institutions such as ACMI have made the transition from pixels to Pixar. Games criticism is thriving at a time when discussions of media art histories recede into the background. Or do we need to revise our definitions of what is new media art? Does anyone really care about interactivity any more? In the age of machinima and Second Life, is there still a place for “new” media art?

In this panel discussion key media artists, curators and writers will debate these issues.

Interactivity may, or may not, be present during the discussion.

For those interested in a bit a background to the debate: recent notable essays & discussions include Steve Dietz’s 2004 ISEA essay ‘Art After New Media’ and 2006 Olhares de Outono Symposium essay ‘Just Art: Contemporary Art after the Art formerly known as New Media’. In 2007 Steve Dietz was in Australia and continued the discussions there (here): ‘A Meeting with Steve Dietz’. For an Australia-specific (though internationally relevant) article about Art & funding bodies etc, see Keith Gallasch’s (the editor of RealTime) 2005 essay: ‘From Art in a Cold Climate’.

So, in light of such history new media arts critic, academic and educator Darren Tofts organised the ‘What Happened to New Media Art?’ panel. It included educator, critic and curator Shiralee Saul; director, critic, writer and curator Philip Brophy; new media artist Marcia Jane and myself.

My article on the panel is now online: ‘Playing the Moon: Christy Dena on the Fate of New Media Art’.

As an added bonus, a participant on the panel and long-time (well for me) colleague of mine Shiralee Saul also has an article about game art in the just-released: SwanQuake: The User’s Manual. Also, one person who was in the audience of the panel (but who participated in the panel I organised for Interactive Entertainment 2007) — Christian McCrea — is participating in this months’ empyre discussion ‘Game Off’:

Whether we play or not, whether we live in the moneyed west or not, games occur.
Using the rubric of ‘game off’, our stellar guests will tease out and map intertwined threads of play culture, game art, game theory interrogating the frictions and fissions of experiential pleasure, avatar uprisings, the game engine medium, collection and archiving, futility and joy. Join Marguerite Charmante, Daphne Dragona, Margarete Jahrmann, Max Moswitzer, Julian Oliver, Melanie Swalwell, David Surman (and maybe Helen Stuckey) in multi-streamed dialogues moderated by Christian McCrea and Melinda Rackham.

Empyre is an interesting new media arts listserv that I had the pleasure of participating in as an invited guest about Second Life art a few months ago. Ah yes…cyberspace can seem really small at times. Then I wake up. There really is no end of the Internet, though the idea is funny.

Anyway. Enjoy the finger-linking-goodness!