Introduction to the TISEA Proceedings

The articles included in this issue of MIA*) are all versions of papers presented during the Third International Symposium on Electronic Art (TISEA) which was held in Sydney on 9-12 November last year. Dedicated to the discussion and analysis of emerging forms of new media (such as computer graphics, interactive multimedia, artificial reality, digital audio, holography, and other electro-mechanical inventions), the symposium focused on the ways in which artists and critics are responding to the globalisation of culture that tends to come with the introduction of new electronic forms.

These papers take a critical position in relation to the technological utopianism that often surrounds popular and industrial discussions of new technologies. Rather than taking the marketing strategists of the computer industry at their word, these authors pose some difficult cultural questions, inquiring as to the purpose and effect of digital technologies. What role do artists have to play in the development of ‘cyberspace’, the electronic realm where information, ideas, and imagination link up and circulate via digital means? Is there a culture (or many cultures) emerging in this realm; how does it operate; and what assumptions about technology and society are being made? The intersection of art and ‘cyberculture’ marks the point at which these authors engage with the myriad effects of these proliferating communication technologies.