Abstract

Much work has been done over the past two decades exploring and creating
many collaborative, cross-sector environments between arts, computer sciences
and research that have supported the production of art, including: new media
labs; co- working spaces; media focused gallery spaces; electronic art festivals;
and the Internet itself. Less research has been done into the possibilities that
exist in collaborations between the arts and commercial digital industries. The
combination of two distinct and powerful hierarchical systems has forced a
revision of current working practice within each field. This research interrogates
the impact of collaborations between the arts and commercial digital industries,
and identifies the impact of those collaborations upon curatorial and artistic
modes of practice, with a particular focus on production. It identifies some of the
inherent value systems, and describes a range of collaborative modes of artistic
production that sit along a spectrum of power balances between the arts and
commercial digital industry sectors, from Brand Marketing to Artist Practice as
Business. The areas of difference in roles and working practices identified
through both case studies and curatorial projects include factors such as: Value
and Money, Time and Capacity, Crediting and Intellectual Property, and Roles
and Working Practices.
The curatorial projects include Dear Angel a commission of participatory art which
uses both digital and other media, a NESTA Digital R&D for the Arts proposal, and
for Thinking Digital Arts, a commission of an artwork by an artist/creative
technologist partnership, and a digital (art) hack production workshop. How the
curatorial role works in the interface between the arts and commercial digital
industries is analysed. The patterns of difference and the power balances identified
in the research aim to be useful to other practitioners.