SUBMERGED, IMMERSED OR DROWNING ?

 A PROGRAMME FOR SEARFAIR 2000 BY
MIKE STUBBS

 We live in a society driven by desire and consumer pressure.  This has become a global goldrush not distinguishing between traditional national boundaries or economies.  Like governments and economic development agencies do artists need to to keep up with technological change and development.  A new upgrade is always available and the specific area of computing and virtual reality promises so much.  A growing interest in media art, the web and most aspects of digital image production across a spread of emergent sectors ranging from the entertainment industries to fine art galleries has led to a flurry of opportunism alike the like the Dot Comm stock market phenonema where both ameteur and s investors could make a fortune; are artists part of some virtual gold rush? Do producers of new media art feel pressured into keeping up with the latest technology or is it natural and part of the evolution of art that artists want to experiment with the latest kit they can get their hands on ?

 SUBMERGED plays on the themes of immersion or immersive technologies to question the emergence of a 'new society' with all of its virtual possibilities.  As artists begin to experiment with technologies such as WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) and network process art becomes established the artist more than ever can be viewed like the rest of individuals in a society immersed in a network or now popularised 'matrix'.  The spectaclised version of the immersive world through computer graphics and projection techniques which 'naturalistically represent' our world more thoroghly than previous mediums, is perhaps only part of the picture. Artists are part of the process of of Identifying and experimenting with the changing definitions of private and public space and signposting that some of those intimate zones are now public.  The artists have been selected on the basis of there need to explore new technologies but from a long standing interest in immersion as a concept and a need to find new ways to realise those interests.  Traditionally artists are good at discovering the parameters of new technologies and working on a 'needs must' basis (Luc Jerram). All the selected artists are part of a process to shift the audience - away from a passive consumer relationship often associated with media art or to push the limits of what is acceptable in terms bombarding an audience (Granular Synthesis).  Perry Hobermans Systems Update begs questions around the real world copying the virtual and like most of his work invites us to quietly laugh in the process.