Media arts: in search of history and legitimacy

Australian media artists have a strong reputation as being amongst the most active, creative and innovative in the world. these artists and the infrastructures that support them have created a strong community of practice that has influenced both art making and art institutions here and internationally. Locating the exact time and place when this began is almost impossible. However, it is clear that since the early 1990s, the digital turn heralded by the emergence of the personal computer and the internet has led to an explosion of diversity in art practices. Tehse practices have not only created a breadth and depth of media art but along the way have tranformed many more traditional artistic forms from dance to painting to scultpture.