Three-day Lab To Provide Road Map For Virtual Arts

Three-Day Lab to Provide Road Map for Virtual Arts

A cutting edge initiative to help promote and build artworks in virtual environments begins with an intensive three-day art lab at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image on 1820 February 2010.

Ten Australian artists have been selected to participate in the Australian Centre of Virtual Art (ACVA) Lab, a nine-month program of experimentation, creation and mentorship in virtual environments such as MMO games, Second Life, VastPark and Unity platforms, plus a mix of social media and digitally networked environments.

The lab's outcomes will be used as a road map for the future of virtual arts in Australia, with documentation and case studies made available over the course of the project.

Each artist is a leader in their own field ranging from sound, performance and visual arts practices through to community engagement and Indigenous media arts. The artists are: Andrew Burrell, Glyph Graves, Aroha Groves, Ian Gwilt, Michaela Ledwidge, Nancy Mauro-Flude, John Power, Christian Ramillo, Lachlan Tetlow-Stuart, and Kit Webster.

ACVA Lab is supported by the Australia Council for the Arts in line with their commitment to building arts content for the digital era. The initiative aims to raise the profile of emerging virtual artforms and support artists practising in these new domains. It will provide research, development and workshops for artists who are creating content for digital platforms such as virtual worlds and video games.

'A key priority for us is to help artists working with digital technologies to develop quality, cutting-edge work for the digital era,' said Andrew Donovan, Director of Inter-Arts at Australia Council for the Arts. 'This Virtual Art Lab brings artists together in an exciting hothouse environment where they can inspire each other and workshop all that is possible.'

Presentations from prominent digital media arts experts will take place over the course of the lab. They include: artists Adam Nash, John McCormick and Troy Innocent; academics Dr Justin Clemens, Dr Melinda Rackham and Kate Richards; Fee Plumley, Digital Program Officer for the Australia Council; Gillian Raymond, Online Manager for the National Portrait Gallery; and Christopher Dodds from the marketing firm Icon.Inc.

Christopher Dodds, Adam Nash and Greg More are coordinating the Lab. Dodds and Nash established ACVA in 2007 after their Babelswarm project won the inaugural Australia Council Second Life Artists in Residence grant.

The project can be followed via www.acva.net.au

For further information please contact:


Christopher Dodds
Australian Centre of Virtual Art
[email protected]
+61 (0)412 517 795

Cameron Woods
Australia Council for the Arts
[email protected]
+612 9215 9030


SOURCE: Australian Centre of Virtual Art