A History of Telematic Art - the Australian Connection
The website, A History of Telematic Art - the Australian Connection was produced in 2001 to show the ways pioneering Australian work in Telematic Art linked with international developments.
Annmarie Chandler (UTS) and Eric Gidney (COFA, UNSW) were both involved with this node of activity in Sydney, and with the explosion of art, activism and new media that accompanied the arrival of portable video and accessible telecommunications technologies in the 1970s and 80s.
Reflecting on these activities in 90s, Annmarie was aware that much of this period, even at an international level, was being forgotten. At the same time, the social and aesthetic challenges that inspired this transformation of communication media into media art were reiterating through the work of a new generation of artists fascinated with the possibilities of the Internet.
Thus this website acted as an initial stage of documenting and reflecting on some selected projects that engaged Australian participants. Its production lead to the desire to research and edit a book covering a much broader perspective of the period. This was realised in 2005 with the publication of "At a Distance, Precursors to Art and Activism on the Internet", (MIT Press), which Annmarie co-edited with Norie Neumark (UTS).