ArCade V

Gollifer’s research has been situated in the development and re-theorising of digital printmaking through her own practice, through speaking and through a series of curatorial roles. In 2007 she was invited by the Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth, Australia (BEAP) to curate ArCade, the UK’s Fifth Open International Exhibition of Electronic Prints. The work selected and shown at this exhibition demonstrated a significant transformation since output 2. As well as showing current 2D work by international digital artists, other work submitted included pieces that were entirely virtual and raised questions about the changing definitions of fine-art printmaking in this context or whether what had been produced might be considered a distinct discipline with its own limited editions, fields and aesthetics. Reflection on the developments through the ArCade exhibition series have seen a transference from traditional print-based media to an entirely different conception about the possibilities of digital printmaking in increasingly hybrid forms. In particular, it demonstrated possible directions for an emergent synergy between new and former processes offering the possibility of instant, digital images in previously unidentified social spaces such as those afforded by the web. Particularly innovative in this context was the ArCade V 'second life' exhibition in a wholly online virtual world, challenging as it does the need of a physical museum/gallery space, and potentially engaging the audience/participant in an area not locally bound but dislocated in time and space. There are several central questions for future developments and these will likely examine visuality and its possible relationship to digital code, to the interconnection with communication and interaction and to questions about the nature of the artistic production, about identity and about the artist.