Novel arts experiences using digital technologies and live audience engagement are now emerging across Australia with the help of the Digital Culture Fund from the Australia Council for the Arts.

With applications now open for another round of funding, the first round of the Digital Culture Fund supported seven projects across gaming, performance, mobile, digital technology, zines and sport.

This Saturday 9 October in Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion artist Linda Dement and her collaborators will present Bloodbath, which uses an all-girl roller derby game to explore art through human collision and sport. Sensors attached to the player’s heads, knees and elbows will send information to create a digital artwork, developing the work literally blow-by-blow!

In Perth, the PVI Collective recently won the Best Game Writing award at the Free Play Independent Game Festival 2010 for their Digital Culture Fund project, Transumer. Armed with customised iPhones using audio, video, GPS mapping and interactive layers, players were encouraged to view the streets through new eyes and to virtually tag actions to counter our consumer culture.

In Adelaide, the artists from Format Festival have just launched the ‘zino-o-tron’ iPhone app for making digital zines. Enthusiasts can download this free app and invent your own DIY mini magazines. They may be racing against the clock to take photos, finger paint or upload content for their zine creation, and then share the zine creation online.

“We’re really thrilled with the success of this first round of projects,” says Andy Donovan, Director of Inter-arts at the Australia Council. “They provided some real fun and creativity but they also pushed artistic boundaries, giving us a glimpse of how digital technology might shape our culture in the future.
I can’t wait to see where this next round takes us.”

The Digital Culture Fund invites proposals from artists who are digital natives working with a mix of visual, sound, performance, literary, interdisciplinary arts, artistic games or transmedia experiences.

Emerging or established makers can apply for up to $40,000 as individuals or as a group.

“Artists in the digital era are expanding arts and cultural engagement through emerging technologies”, says Andy Donovan. “Instead of showing their art in galleries or theatres, these artists explore how digital technology makes us rethink what an experience of art can be – their work crosses over into the worlds of cyberspace, mobile devices, networks, games, urban space and interactive technology.”

“The Australia Council’s Digital Culture Fund embraces this. There’s a real focus on the creative process, particularly participatory processes where artists and audiences ‘co-create’ or make art together.’’

Applications for the Digital Culture Fund close Monday 22 November, with the project required to be completed between March 2011 and 31 December 2011.

Media contact: Cameron Woods, 02 9215 9030, 0412 686 548   c.woods@creative.gov.au