Digital Media Labs

Digital Media Labs was devised as a new model for commissioning digital public art as part of delivering a new city center Health centre for Hull. Digital Media Labs then developed into an ongoing series of research and development labs for artists working with technology to apply their processes to new contexts, to hothouse ideas and create new collaborations within a specially nominated peer group. The first Digital Media Lab was held in 2010 in Hull.

Digital Media Labs understands that today’s professional artists and makers have little time to research and develop new ideas and processes. Typically working on several projects at any one time, freelancers often find themselves having to fall back on their existing ideas to fulfill the demands of modern commissions and residencies, many of which leave little time and budget for original research and experimentation. From their own experience in managing and creating public art, the Lab’s team felt that artists can easily become overly reliant on what they already know and, that when working on a commission without dedicated research and development time, this can often to the detriment of their own creative and professional development.

This is where Digital Media Labs comes in, inviting practitioners from across a range of disciplines to develop new skills and prototype works in a dedicated environment in order to advance their practice along new lines. Part of the approach of Digital Media Labs is simply about removing the everyday obstacles that sit between focused creativity, multimedia play and new creative works. We primarily work with practitioners specialising in visual arts, sound and moving image but participants have also included makers, musicians and animators. Digital Media Labs has to date supported more than thirty mid-career and has established partnerships with over twenty UK-based arts and education organisations.

Collaborators: Glenn Boulter, Artistic Director FON; Dave Lynch, artist

Thanks to: FACT, Futureeverything, Hull School of Art and Design, Quad, Folly, MAAP, Re:Dock, Full of Noises, CRUMB, The Superposition, Sound Network, Access Space

Links further information:

http://www.digitalmedialabs.org/

Link to publication:

https://issuu.com/fonfestival/docs/dmlabs_book_18_july_proof2