L O G I N:
immersive residencies for artists in mid-take off

BACKGROUND
The Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) is Australia's peak network and advocacy body for artists working with technology. The role of ANAT is to advocate, support and promote the field of art, science and technology nationally and internationally.

One of ANAT's primary aims is to facilitate situations whereby artists can spend concentrated periods of time researching new ideas, acquiring new skills, forming fruitful collaborations, playing with new media and developing new bodies of work.

ANAT has received funding from the Visual Arts Craft Fund of the Australia Council to develop a series of residencies for visual artist to develop web based projects. These residencies will be undertaken in partnership with four of the members of the Contemporary Art Organisations (CAOs) network.

The online environment is currently a site of some of the most politically challenging and aesthetically innovative art projects. It's a context where traditional artforms meld and/or mutate, and where traditional notions of authorship, exhibition and publishing dissolve into and out of each other. The intention of this project is to provide emerging artists with an opportunity to explore and experiment with the consequences of what it means to participate in the connectivity of the internet. Artists will be provided with an opportunity to develop new skills, test their hypotheses, develop new processes and create new works. The cumulative effect of these experiences will be distinct projects which effect mappings of information drifts.
The pilot year of this project will initiate four online residencies/research projects for Australian artists in partnership with members of the Contemporary Art Organisations network. The host organisation will provide access to computers and the internet as well as the critical and cultural context of working with an arts organisation. ANAT will provide server space, some technical support and the context of an online community.
ANAT will also develop a web page which will act as an online 'catalogue' of the project and which will link to each of the residency projects.

RESIDENCY PARTNERS
For this project, the following member organisations of the Contemporary Art Organisations (CAOs) network will be hosting the physical component of the residencies.
* 200 Gertrude Street (Melbourne)
* 24 Hour Art (Darwin)
* Canberra Contemporary Art Space
* Boomalli (Sydney)**
** The artist selected for the Boomali residency will be from an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background.

OUTLINE OF THE STRUCTURE OF THE PROJECT
Selected artists will work at the Contemporary Art Organisation in their city of residence, but will develop work to be hosted on the ANAT web site so will therefore also be 'in-residence' online and virtually.
For the purposes of this initiative, emerging artists are defined as follows:
Emerging artists are defined as professional practicing visual artists and craftspeople who are in the early stages of their career. In most cases, this will mean the first five years of their professional practice.
Although artists selected will not need to have a high level of skill working in an online environment, it will be expected that the artists have some background in digital media. No prior programming or internet skills will be necessary.

Each residency will be based on the project described in the applicant's submission. It is expected that submissions will outline projects which directly deal with the internet as a medium for the realisation of new kinds of creative and critical practices.

Submissions will not be considered which use the internet solely as a means of displaying existing art works.

Each residency will be for a duration of 8 weeks full time (unless otherwise negotiated).

Projects which will be considered include:
* web-based interactive artworks
* virtual environments either text based or VRML
* CU CeeMe /Real Audio performance
* a web-tv program
* development of web-based software
* artificial life projects

The artists/group will receive an all-up artists's fee of $3,600 and access to $800 worth of training/skilling appropriate to their project or other technical support or backup. This will be negotiated in liaison with ANAT and the partner organisation.

Copyright of any work produced during the residency will remain with the artist, unless otherwise negotiated.

SUBMISSION PROCESS
Artists may apply for a residency at the venue in their home city.
Submissions should include:
* A description of the project you intend to undertake, including the aims and rationale behind the project and relevance to contemporary cultural concerns
* The proposed organisational host for your project
* An outline of your existing technical skills, and possible areas where training would assist your project
* a Curriculum Vitae (2 page maximum) detailing artistic practice and relevant technical/digital media skills
* relevant support material (for example slides, video/audio tape, CD-ROM, web project URL or copy of digital work on ZIP/floppy/Syquest)

The final decision on the Sydney based residency will be made by ANAT and Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative.

The projects developed during the residencies and the central site for the project will be launched in November 1998.
Selected artists will be required to write a report of the residency, which may be published in the ANAT newsletter, or other publications.

Artists should submit two copies of their proposal to be postmarked or emailed no later than 15 JULY 1998.
Contact details:
Australian Network for Art and Technology
PO Box 8029
Hindley Street
Adelaide 5000 South Australia
phone: 08 - 8231 9037
fax: 08 - 8211 7323
email: anat@anat.org.au