About
The concept of ‘ArtChaology’ was born in the outbacks of Australia, somewhere between Uluru (Ayer’s rock) and Mataranka Springs in 1992. Early multimedia artist Scot (Thrane) Refsland was traveling around Australia experimenting with traditional media and performing arts coupled with technology. His theory was, that in the digital worlds, artistic expression had a difficult time following the normal creation process of creating ‘something from nothing’ that is discovered during the creation of traditional media. Creating a painting or a performance art piece from scratch requires a very open mind and the ability to explore deeply without interruption of trying to get the tool to do what you want it to do. Mastering a complex computing platform seemed sterile and cold compared to the controllable precision of a paintbrush. There was nothing textural nor tactile about a computer either, just the cold hard keyboard.
With the computing capabilities of that day, visualising something on a computer required a huge effort and a team of computer specialists. Computing systems like Silicon Graphics could perform adequately for crunching the visualisation, but it was incredibly expensive (millions of dollars) and if you weren’t technically inclined, there was no way you could get it to do what you wanted.
Since Scot had been in the desktop computing business with Apple and PC systems, he had a natural understanding and connection with technology. Hence the pursuit at creating an integration of art and technology together. The third element, nature came from Scot’s avid interest in the outdoors and nature. But the nature element wasn’t considered a part of the elements until he read “Chaos Theory” by James Glick. That changed everything.
With the emergence of Mandelbrot’s and chaos fractals, suddenly art, technology and nature intersected nicely within the realm of creative expression.
In 1994 Scot resided in Cairns, Australia and created the first Interactive Performance called “Digital Primitive”. Held at the Cairns Civic Center and sponsored by Apple, Silicon Graphics and Macromedia, it was the first time performance artists and technologists were put in the same room to produce a full length interactive concert. Performance artists including the Jabukai Aboriginal Dancers, street performers, visual artists were given 2 weeks to concept and produce a performance piece. For 3 nights of sellout performances, audiences were treated to spatial surround sound within the auditorium, video and imagery projected on all available walls and surfaces, and an orchestra pit filled with 40 different pc, macintosh and silicon graphics PC’s to compliment and drive the performances on stage with full imagery and sound immersion.
In 1995 Scot moved to Brisbane and began the Queensland Multimedia Arts Centre, funded by the Australian Arts Council, Australian Film Commission and the City of Brisbane. It was sponsored by Acer Computers and Macromedia to provide computing systems and software to train traditional media and performance artists on a new technology medium.
In 1996, Scot began studying chaos theory, complex systems and artificial life, and created a work titled “Digital Mind, Electronic Earth” a conceptual art piece that would create and sustain emerging virtual life forms within the electronic world.
In 1997, Scot created the first electronic media festival in Australia called the “eMedia Festival”. It was a week long activity of performances, art exhibitions, dances, music and other creative expressions through a technology medium. Held in various venues throughout the city of Brisbane, it was sponsored by Macromedia (now Adobe), Australian Film Commission, Australia Network for Art and Technology (ANAT). It was a huge success and Macromedia decided to fund it on an annual basis. In 1998, eMedia Festival was changed to Multimedia Arts Asia Pacific (MAAP) and led by Kim Machan. It is still in existence as of 2009 and is the largest multimedia arts festival in the Asia Pacific.
At the same time, Scot received word that his acceptance to pursue his “Digital Mind, Electronic Earth” project through a Ph.D. was accepted at the brand new Virtual System Laboratory in Gifu University, Gifu, Japan. Scot left Australia and moved to Japan to study under the famous Prof Takeo Ojika.
Since 1997, Scot has created several research projects including ‘Virtual Kinka Kuji”, Virtual Snowshoe, and several online projects that involved complex emergent systems. During his tenure in Gifu, Scot was the Executive Officer of the Virtual Systems and MultiMedia Society, and was responsible for producing several conferences with a specific theme of emerging art and technology.
Today, Scot runs a full service interactive agency in Seattle.
ArtChaology.com is a web portal dedicated to the research, exploration and dissemination of creative expression involving the arts, technology and nature. If you have a project that you would like to see posted to ArtChaology.com, please contact us.