Andre Stitt Large banners including artefacts used in Andre Stitt's performances, produced with Tim Long's collaboration.

The Centre for Research in Fine Art: A brief history
Tom Piper, July 2002

The Centre for Research in Fine Art was established in 1994 with a set of research aims that included creating opportunity for the School of Art staff to experience digital media. The first project called The Electric Lunch was based on a ISDN computer network of European Art colleges involved in InterArc, an EEC funded initiative. Art school staff and research fellows participated in a series in online projects and web conferences and exhibitions in the Electric Lunch years.

The Cardiff Digital Portfolio, was one of a number initiative underwritten by the Centre for Research in Fine Art and began in 1998. At that time plans were completed for a research venture that would investigate the feasibility of producing works of art by combining traditional practice with digital technology. Tim Long was appointed as a fellow in digital fine art and school staff were invited to contribute to the Portfolio. The Digital Portfolio has developed through three phases, taking advantage both the new technology and the concept of cooperation in the production of Fine Art Prints.

As this period finishes and plans for the next phase of the digital portfolio and other projects are in early stages it is important to put down a marker.

Thanks are due to Professor Glyn Jones, former director of Research and Enterprise Cardiff School of Art and Design for his enthusiastic support of these projects over the years. Thanks to Jim Noble, former Research Assistant through the Electric Lunch period, and thanks to Tim Long for his hard work and creative contribution on all aspects of the Cardiff Digital Portfolio.
Tom Piper

Director: Centre for Research in Fine Art 1994-97
Project manager: The Electric Lunch and The Cardiff Digital Portfolio 1994-
Watch this space for links to more research

Tom Piper, the introduction to the The Research Fellowships in Fine Art at UWIC

Tim Long, Research Fellow in digital Fine Art media

Quicktime movies about the Cardiff digital portfolios

Statement from Terry Setch

Tim Long, Research Fellow in digital Fine Art media

As research fellow in digital Fine Art media over the past four years I have continued to learn about the roles various technologies play in the creative process.
The collaborative nature of the work I have been involved with has brought me in contact with numerous artists: this has helped me to observe the broad range of aproaches each person employs when using any process to make work.

In my role as printer, facilitator and problem solver for the digital portfolios, I have encouraged lively discourse about the role digital media can play within creative practice.

Artists are curious, eager to try out new techniques and methods and challenge assumptions about the nature of the creative impulse. The computer is another tool amongst a whole array of tools available to artists, who have always wanted to experiment and play with technology.

Claude Lorrain used a small, blackened piece of glass to reduce the tonal range of landscapes reflected in the glass; Hans Holbien held a sheet of glass in front of his sitters to outline thier features before off-setting the lines from the glass onto paper.
Marcel Duchamp parodied scientific procedures by recording the profiles that lengths of string described when dropped to the ground.
Each artist has engaged with technology in a different way.
At the same time they have each played with the tools available because process and engagement with materials comprise a bridge between ideas and their physical manifestation. This action of 'playing' with technology creatively is important, because artists are aware of the constraints that technique and process place on pure imagination.

From the experience gleaned from my work at UWIC, I have identified two distinct approaches to the use of digital media.

Firstly, the artist who seeks to replicate their existing work methods. This is the most immediate application of digtal media. For example, Alison Marchant used digital print to enlarge still shots taken from a super8 film.

Secondly, the artist who selects an aspect of digital media which is the most appropriate tool for the ideas they wish to explore.
For example, with my assistance, Andre Stitt created a series of large digital prints made up of the artefacts used in his performances. Feathers, dildos, written scores, clothing and weapons were combined and overlaid with radical changes in contrast and scale. No other process could have been used,

Broadly speaking, digital technology can be used to replicate other processes like photography, or act as a springboard for developing ideas which could not given form elsewhere.

The malleable proporties digitised images have and the ease with which all parameters can be adjusted opens out the creative possibilities in making work.

Digital technologies will play an increasing role in creative practice as the techniques become integrated with the existing, more established processes. Artists will continue to use the techniques most appropriate to thier objectives.
This might be a piece of glass, a pencil or a length of string.
Or it might be a computer.

Tom Piper filmed for 'High Performance' at the Cardiff Bay Arts Trust Gallery, October 2000 (Quicktime 4.2mb)

Tim Long filmed for BBC Wales 'High Performance' at the Cardiff Bay Arts Trust Gallery, October 2000 (Quicktime 4.5mb)

Introduction:

The Research Fellowships in Fine Art at UWIC
Research has been a tradition in the School of Fine Art. The Senior fellowship programmes have been recognised as an important contribution to visual culture in the U.K. Cornelia Parker, Mona Hatoum, Graham Crowley, John Mitchell and Barry Cooke are a few of the many artists who have used the fellowship programme for personal research in recent years. Mariele Neudecker was the most recent senior fellow.

The M.A. Fine Art Programme, established in 1985 in the School of Fine Art has a national reputation for cutting edge visual and theoretical investigation.

C.R.F.A. The Centre for Research in Fine Art was established in 1994 to provide a focus for projects, advanced degree work and creative research in the School of Fine Art. The Centre is housed in a purpose built room (nicknamed the Chapel) designed especially for work with computers and digital media.

Early projects in the C.R.F.A. involved the use of fast link ISDN lines for a number of ventures involving network collaboration with European partners in INTER-ARC, for instance, The Electric Lunch (an international conference and series of demonstrations on ISDN networking, screen sharing, etc.). In 1995 C.R.F.A. was invited to participate in the Vigo Multimedia Exhibition in northern Spain. In 1996 the Centre was among a group of International artists and institutions to participate in the Poitiers video conference and network collaboration called The Virtual Odyssey.

The C.R.F.A. and the research committee coordinates research initiated by members of the Fine Art Staff and Research Community. Many research projects, exhibitions, catalogues and conferences have been funded totally, or in part, through the research committees auspices.

Research programmes established with the National Museum and Galleries of Wales such as the recent conference on voyeurism designed around the exhibition of Edward Lear Photographs are important activities in the region. The C.R.F.A., the research committee and the H.T.A. section of the school foster advanced degree work to the level of PhD and Mphil. The higher level degree work takes the form of a practice and theory based fine art combination and pure theoretical thesis based research. Past and present research fellows and research assistants include: Jim Noble, Emma Posey, John Purnell, Wierd Sterk, Tim Long, Hugh Evans and Jessica Shaw.

Some of the projects and research initiatives under the direction of the C.R.F.A. currently are: The Digital Portfolio, based on research and investigation into large format digital printing and collaboration. The Fine Art Research World Wide Web Site; an electronic venue to profile activities in the C.R.F.A. and school. See Tim Long's web site.

Cardiff Art in Time (CAT show) a week long international conference and exhibition of performance art, video and new media. New Opportunities. A series of conferences, exhibitions, seminars and publications based around international possibilities for the presentation of artists work in the new media age.

These pages will be updated on a regular basis. Please return for more detailed and current information. Members of the Research Committee: Glyn Jones, Director of Research and Enterprise, Michael Hose, Director of post degree studies, Patrick Hannay, Hugh Adams, Alison Taylor and Tom Piper, project manager Cadiff Digital Portfolio.

Tom Piper July October 2000.

Terry Secth comments on his work process and involvement with the internettide@ projects

Images of abandoned rubbish, flotsam and jetsam and the plastic detritus found on my local beach are the source for my art. I layer found objects into my paintings using binding materials as a metaphor for the tide carved and washed beach.

‘Beach combing’ the world through email, collecting together to embed in ‘internettide@’ images of found and created objects, shrank the world. The observations and thinking of image makers, unknown to each other, were united in art as disparate objects are drawn and thrown together by the tides and deposited in unison on the beaches of the world.

The internettide@ and internettide2 projects were a unique experiment with my work. The harmony of the electronic
communication process with my working and thinking processes was innovative. The result of the project is profound and durable within my creative thinking.