ISEA '94: International Symposium on Electronic Art
It's the Fifth International Symposium on Electronic Art–lSEA 94, and another year has passed. Last year was Minneapolis in November, snow on the ground and sub-zero temperatures. This year it's Helsinki in late summer and idyllic evenings where the sun begins to set at 7:00pm and is still busy painting the sky three hours later. I miss the long evenings of northern Europe and it feels good to be back.
I'm sitting on the terrace of the Marina Hotel drinking expensive beer with Margaret Turner from Queensland University of Technology, Brian Langer from the Australian Video Festival and the English artist, Sue Gollifer. Sue distinguished herself earlier in the day during her presentation to the Symposium by apologising for being British, in recognition of the preponderance of Australians at ISEA.
Communication technologies have a well established cultural footprint in Australia–a vast continent with a small and widely distributed population. The Queensland and Northern Territories Air Service was the world's first commercial airline. Fax machines gained ubiquity here long before they hit Europe and have only recently caught on in the USA. So it's not surprising that Australian artists have established pioneering reputations for their work in art and technology. Or that they have a major presence at international events like ISEA.
The Symposium began in Utrecht in 1988 and continued at Groningen ('90), Sydney ('92) and Minneapolis ('93). ISEA 94 had problems. The Baltic artship MIS Stubnitz didn't arrive, robbing the Symposium of its main social meeting place as well as a performance and gallery space. The Portacabins intended for many of the interactive pieces were unsuitable and had to be abandoned. In consequence the main show, at the Museum... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline
George Legrady, An Anecdotal Archive of the Cold War, 1994. ISEA, Helsinki. Photo: Paul Brown. Courtesy ISEA.
