ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION: CAVEAT CREATOR
Saturday, March 28, 1998, 1:30-2:45 p.m.

FACILITATORS: PAMELA JENNINGS, Electronic Artist, IBM User System Ergonomics Research Lab, and MATTHEW DE GANON, Chairman of K2 Design, Inc. By: Cassie Rogers

This roundtable discussion centered on the sense of separation between the artist and their new media job, the relationship between the artist and new media tools, and the challenges caused by the rapid development of technology hardware and applications.

As most artists with “day jobs”, there is often a soul-draining focus on deadlines, budgets, client demands, and the bottom line that creates artists’ ennui. Media jobs have the added frustration of having such long hours that artists cannot find time to do their “own work.” Although media artists have found many creative ways to use new media, corporate new media jobs tend not to engage the artist/employee’s creativity. The issue of ownership of creative products was brought up because, in most situations, the corporation or university maintains ownership of any thing, process, or idea created at work.

Digital tools have created their own set of challenges for artists. There are frustrations with tools used to help create traditional art forms, tools used to create digital art forms, and tools to display those art forms on the Internet. For example, a Web developer has to make the decision to either make five versions of a Web page in order to be readable by all browsers, or to create a page simple enough to be read by any browser, or to exclude some of its potential audience. The tools for creation of images are also very limiting because they are made for anyone to be able to create images very quickly. The positive response to these frustrations is that it creates a challenge for artists to create great ideas using low-end technology that most people have access to.

Artists and arts organizations have such limited budgets for technology, and need to make very astute decisions regarding their technology purchases, yet they also have very limited access to information on how to make those difficult decisions. The rate of technology evolution, and the number of upgrades, innovations, chips, and application versions is daunting to artists and arts managers. Suggestions were made to reach out to the technology community for access to their products, leasing hardware, testing new versions of software before purchase, and finally, to try to develop the technology tools you already have instead of trying to get the bigger, smaller, better, newer, and faster tools. Jennings also commented that she thought society has become saturated with new machine technology, so the emphasis will be shifting to content. This will stand to lessen the strain of keeping up with technological change.