Dutch Digital Arts

Dutch Digital Arts (working title) is a book about digital creative expression (i.e. art using computers) in the Netherlands. It will be written from scratch from late 2015 until at least 2017.

What is this book about?

We are working on a longlist of topics to include in the book. Add your input!

What does this book cover?

• Approx. 100 highlights of digital arts in the Netherlands: important artists, artworks, organisations, movements and developments. This book is an introduction, not an in-depth historical study.
• The book consists of mostly shorter, focused articles about artists, artworks, organisations, movements and developments, probably in a chronological order. Several longer thematic essays provide broader context.
• Highlights in this book date from the early beginnings of computer arts (typically in the 1950s) till approximately 2010. The latest developments after 2010 are not covered yet, in order to keep some historical distance.
• Focus is on creative output that would not have been possible without computers. This may include creative output that is strongly inspired by the digital, but perhaps not digital in its creation process.
• The book covers digital creativity that took place in, or that was strongly influenced by, the Netherlands. This includes Dutch artists and initiatives, but also foreigners who were active in the Netherlands.
• The book aims to cover a broad selection of creative disciplines. Digital creativity is interdisciplinary by nature.
  • Visual arts - two-dimensional work, three-dimensional work, time-based works (video art for instance)
  • Music, sound art, electro-acoustic music...
  • Performing arts, including theatre and dance, and also performance art
  • Architecture and design in the broadest sense, if inspired by 'the digital'
  • Games (when artistic in nature)
  • All forms of artistic software and internet-based artworks
  • Social movements with a digital-creative aspect

Who is behind this book?

The preparation phase of this book is covered by a start subsidy (grant) from Creative Industries Fund NL. Because this is public funding, all output will - as much as possible - be published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license. Initiator and main contact for this project is Sandra Fauconnier, User:Spinster.

Workflow

All texts in this book are written by a small, independent editorial team. An advisory board of Dutch and international academics, artists, activists and other experts reviews the editorial process and gives advice.

A large part of the editorial process takes place here, transparently, on Wikibooks. For this aspect of the book, contributions, edits and input by any Wikibooks user are very welcome.

Final decisions about the contents and format of this book are taken by the editorial team, with the editor in chief having the last word.

The editorial team hold regular (mostly online) meetings with the goal to divide the work among themselves, finetune current work, and discuss and process the input from the advisory board.

Core editorial team - overall editing, short articles

• Sandra Fauconnier (User:Spinster) - editor in chief
• Darko Fritz - senior editor
• Arie Altena - senior editor
• Jurriaan Pots - junior editor

Essay writers

• Darko Fritz
• Arie Altena
• (first selection of other writers to be confirmed mid 2016)

Advisory board

Tasks:

1. Preparatory phase (till mid 2016):
   1. Provide feedback on the format of this publication
   2. Suggest and co-select the topics to be included in this publication
2. Editing and research phase (after mid 2016):
   1. Review articles and essays within own area of expertise
   2. Review articles and essays outside own area of expertise (as this might provide very fresh insights)

Members:

• Darko Fritz
• Geert Lovink
• Dusan Barok
• Prof. Dr. Katja Kwastek
• (other members to be confirmed before mid 2016)

How will this book be published?

This book has two counterparts that complement each other: a digital and a physical manifestation.

Partly on Wikibooks, Wikimedia Commons and the Internet Archive

Texts in this book are edited online on Wikibooks, if that is possible within copyright restrictions.

As much as possible, images for the book will be requested to be released under Wikimedia-compatible licenses. Not all rights holders will agree with this. As much as possible though, images for this book will be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.

Where relevant and possible (also within copyright restrictions), texts and images for the book will also be uploaded to the Internet Archive, for preservation purposes.

Partly in a hard copy book

Next to the digital publication on Wikibooks, a hard copy book will be produced, which will be more extensive and structured than the Wikibooks edition in several ways:

• More (often copyright-protected) texts and images
• Providing more context in the form of additional essays and visualizations
• Beautifully designed

Short articles in the hard copy book will probably be organized chronologically (taking the 'period of activity' of the person/organisation/initiative/artwork into account). The essays will also probably be organized in more or less chronological (and also historically logical) order.

Timeline

• Mid 2016: Definitive project plan; full grant application
• Late 2016 - 2017: Research and editorial period
• Late 2017? 2018? Publication of the hard copy book