The Digital Surface within Fine Art Practice

This Project aims to consider the issue of the digital surface within current fine art practice, through the specialisms of three leading European research centres, Camberwell College of Arts and Chelsea College of Art & Design, The London Institute, NCAD Dublin and UIAH, Helsinki and in so doing create a European forum for the sharing and exchange of critical ideas, technology and good practice.

This project aims to explore within a broad Fine Art context, the changing nature of surface with reference to digital technology. Traditionally, artists have worked directly with surface as one of the principle indicators of meaning. How a mark was applied to a surface, whether this was paint onto canvas via a brush, or ink onto paper via a screened stencil, added a layer of meaning and revealed both the artist’s intention and personality. Within Fine Art practice, an artist's work would acquire its signature as much from the surface as the imagery that it contained. Approaches to this issue were and indeed are multifarious, spanning the cool, mechanical untouched surface of for example, the minimalists, through to the brutalised coarse surfaces of art brut. Artistic production has therefore offered a wide range of possibilities for the artist, both in terms of surface qualities and in physical presence. For the artist working with digital technology, the surface has often been the last issue to be encountered along with other issues of output.

This projects seeks to address this conflict and explore ways that these European artists engage with surface, whether on screen, projected, printed or other, when using digital technology within the production of artworks. The wide use of digital technology now apparent within Fine Art practice has created the ideal conditions for creative debate across the disciplines of painting, sculpture, installation, printmaking and video.

This European project seeks to create a forum to facilitate this exchange of ideas and skills. Each participating European institution brings to the overall project a particular specialism, UIAH: Drawing/Theory, NCAD: Virtual Reality/Installation and Camberwell College of Arts and Chelsea College of Art & Design, The London Institute: Printmaking/Installation.

The results of this project will be presented at a two-day international symposium at Tate Britain on 27th-28th June 2003 and published in the form of an accompanying CDROM.

Professor Paul Coldwell, Project Leader
Camberwell College of Arts/Chelsea College of Art & Design, The London InstituteTject has been carried out with the support of the E

This project has been carried out with the support of the European Community
The content of this project does not necessarily reflect the position of the European Community, nor does it involve any responsibility on behalf of the European Community

INDEX PAGE