Long overdue

Yesterday I received the book A Guide to Good Practice in Collaborative Working Methods and New Media Tools Creation by and for artists and the cultural sector, edited by Lizbeth Goodman and Katherine Milton. The book was produced as a deliverable in the framework of the EU project RADICAL (Research Agendas Developed In Creative Arts Labs). The book documents the process and products of the project. RADICAL was unique in many respects:
- it brought art and design to the central agenda of European R&D;
- it included major players from the international industry alongside individual artists and SMEs;
- the project was directed by a team largely comprised of women.

The book deals with a variety of issues such as time management, conditions for creativity and issues in collaboration at a distance factored into the working methods and the results of the project. The book is a condensation of the project deliverables which included multiple live and streamed events, symposia, performances, workshops and experimental labs, where media tools were not only tested, but also reinvented and re-presented. The book offers a set of maps or guides to good practices, multiple and varied, in the emergent field of new media arts or art-tech innovation.

I also wrote a contribution for the book: Investing in New Media: Judging Criteria for Tools and Applications in the EC and International Markets. I looked up the date that I finished the text and it was May 15, 2002. Ever since, the book has been in the pipeline. The editorial team had a lot of bad luck. The printer went bust, then the UK government RADICALly defunded the second support organisation. But this book remained on the list to be printed as the only one and by the end of 2005 it was finally printed.

Of course some contributions are outdated already and need an update; my contribution needs an upgrade on the EU part. Yet, the book is long overdue in time, but also as an asset for the digital creative industry.

The publisher The Office of Humanities Communication has a snail mail ordering service. Amazon does not carry it yet. If you want to order it through a bookshop, mention ISSN 1463-5194.

Tags: digital creative industry