CD-ROM PC/MAC
Español/English

This interactive CD-ROM, one of the most ambitious works developed by MECAD from its MediaLab, was projected in order to avoid the great lack of information about the history and the creations of electronic art in Spain.

The result presented here is the fruit of the exhaustive research that has been carried out by MECAD, with the special collaboration of Eugeni Bonet.

The CD-ROM has two main navigation routes that allow access to information: by artists and by media or technologies. The first route provides information about national artists whose contributions have been and are fundamental for the development of electronic art in Spain. The second route informs about the different specialties that compose the universe of electronic art, from experimental cinema to interactive installation or net art.

The final goal has not been to "write" a linear history of this area but to offer an open, interactive field to the user, utilizing the hipertextual language of digital media and its possibilities for audiovisual reproduction, so that each user might decide on the route to be taken through the work. ArteVisión includes the selection of more than 150 works of 83 artists.

The publication of ArteVisión has meant for MECAD an important step forward in its objective to support and promote electronic art, as well as constituting a standard for the series of publications and productions of the center. As a reference work with the idea of offering students and professionals extensive information on electronic art in Spain, this CD-ROM should contribute to a greater national and international recognition of the Spanish artists working in this field, as well as helping to awaken interest of those readers who have yet to discover the essential contribution of electronic art to contemporary culture.

With the support of:
Fundació Caixa de Sabadell; Sabadell-Barcelona
Escola Superior de Disseny ESDI

ARTEVISIÓN - A History of Electronic Art in Spain
Eugeni Bonet

Cameras, screens, computers, recorders, photocopiers, printers, scanners, holograms, magnetic products, compact discs —versatile instruments and media widespread across a now-familiar part of the contemporary landscape. The electronic and media arts are not simply by-products of novelty's seductive virtues, but rather the consequence of a responsible proximity to what is happening in the world. The arts have adopted the same set of instruments as the enterprises and industries dedicated to communication and information, only uncovering for them other functions and configurations where they might flourish as inter, multi and transmedia.

In their wider acceptance, the electronic and media arts contribute to the affirmation of the same poly-expressivity anticipated by the artists and spokesmen of Futurism, thus emphasizing the scientific and technological discoveries that had come to form part of a new set of horizons in art and knowledge. They are found at the zenith of an electrified culture of velocity, which over time has come to illuminate the era of the bit and the chip, the renewed futurism of the digital world.

The plurality and intersecting character of new media and intermedia (installation, performance, hypertext, and so on) call into question the worn-out hierarchy of the "fine arts", challenging the shrill tone of media corporativism decided on informing the masses as well. In this sense, some theoreticians and creators have promoted an aesthetic of information and communication, based upon the ongoing annexation of new instruments and languages into the territory of the arts and related fields. Regardless, the term electronic arts is here used as a polyvalent fail-safe mechanism, rather than as a marked card.

This work deals with a miscellany of practices that coincide in one way or another within a framework of layered references. In analyzing, as the title suggests, the panorama of these practices in Spain —with the inclusion as well of a troupe of globetrotters whose backroom, extraterritorial image is on the rise— it has become clear that the condition of art (whether electronic, media or technological) and those elements surrounding it (centres, organizations, platforms) is not as weak as had been thought, though the texts analyzing its different aspects do little to cover up their rough spots and weak points.

Thus the careers and work of 83 artists is dealt with in over 200 pages, which may be consulted in various manners, offering brief backgrounds on each artist and one or more works representative of their production. The works are illustrated using the very multimedia resources the media used might allow for (so that upon occasions a succinct referential fragment of the work is offered).

There are basically two navigation routes through the CD-ROM, allowing either for access to the contents via an alphabetical index of artists, or offering a second guide to media (or formats, epigraphs, areas of activity). This interface is presented simply and practically, with the primary objective of offering a synoptic reference work, rather than a treatise or omniscient encyclopedia.

The second route mentioned bifurcates into 10 epigraphs and chapters varying in details and size, enabling us to describe the concrete points of interest of the various areas and techniques dealt with: experimental film, copy art, computer art and digital animation, digital photography, holography, audiovisual installation, interactive installation, mediaperformance / metaformance, net.art and interactive media, and video.

Another section of the CD-ROM offers a kind of yellow pages or directory with information on the most relevant related centres of activity and gathering points, along with a preface offering a chronological summary of the high points and key moments of previous and current activities.

The content selection does not pretend to be exhaustive; the idea of representativity overrides any concern that the absences might be interpreted as mental slips (though indeed a number of omissions have been due to reasons beyond our control). One of the factors considered has been that of continuity, or just as well persistence in creative activity (even through adverse circumstances), in detriment to other contributions that had a greater impact in their time. Finally, the selection has been limited to those artists who began their work before and up to 1990, so that their careers might be perceived in a clearly defined profile by the end of the decade.

Credits

Publisher
MECAD\Media Centre of Art and Design

Conception and Editorial Director
MECAD

Creative Directors
Claudia Giannetti
Lilia Pérez (MECAD Medialab)

Coordination and Realization of Production, Design, Interaction and Navigation
Lilia Pérez (MECAD Medialab)

Contents Guide
Eugeni Bonet, Claudia Giannetti

Content:

Media, Artists, Artworks and Biographical Texts
Eugeni Bonet

Introduction to Holography
Vicente Carretón

Introduction to Digital Photography
Joan Fontcuberta

Introduction to Copy Art
Marisa González

Directory
Eugeni Bonet, Patricia Bofill

Bibliographies
Eugeni Bonet, Vicente Carretón, Joan Fontcuberta, Claudia Giannetti, Marisa González

Music
Eduardo Polonio

Communication and Administrative Support
Patricia Bofill, Maria del Mar Cercós ( Activities Dept., MECAD)

Image Digitilization and Video Editing
Antonio Albanés, Lilia Pérez (MECAD Medialab); Ricardo Iglesias, Heinrich Kullmann, Pere Meléndez, Ferran Soler (UDDi -Unidad de Diseño Digital/ESDI)

Production Support, and Title's Design and Animation
Ricardo Iglesias, Heinrich Kullmann, Albert Vidal (UDDi-ESDI)

Technical and Programming Support
Manuel Socarrás
Antonio Albanés (MECAD Medialab)

3D Support
Llucià Riba

English Translation
Jeffrey Swartz

Mastering and Duplication
GEMA O.D., S.A.

Graphic Design of Box and Brochure
UDDi Unidad de Diseño Digital/ESDI

Sponsors
Fundació Caixa de Sabadell, Sabadell
Escola Superior de Disseny ESDI, Sabadell

Acknowledgements:
We would like to thank all the artists for their generous cooperation. We are also grateful to the Fundació Caixa de Sabadell, for its support for its project.

Thanks as well to:
Allison Clifford, Mela Dávila, Idoia García de Cortázar, Daniel Julià, José Lasala, Montse Liria, Armand López, David Tugués.

We are grateful to all those who supplied us with documentation:
Piluca Baquero/Tráfico de Ideas, S.L.; El Imán, Cine y TV., S.A. (obra de/work of Iván Zulueta); Fundación Telefónica (obra de/work of Juan Carlos Eguillor); Galería Elba Benítez (obra de/work of Francesc Torres); Galería Helga de Alvear (obra de/work of Daniel Canogar); Galería Miguel Marcos; Esther Graciá Villaescusa (obra de/work of Fernando Canales); Eladi Martos Martínez; Antoni Mercader; Beatriz del Monte, Vicky Murillo, Pilar Parcerisas; Gonzalo Sáenz de Buruaga; Pilar Solè.

First Edition
April 2000
ISBN: 84-930164-1-1