Digital Tarts a Feature by van (Vanessa Sowerwine) violet from digitarts talks about the digital revolution, getting grrls onto the internet and computer nerdism. Front page of grrowl 3.5 From the digitarts website (digitarts.va.com.au) (submitted by van.) Front page of grrowl 3 From the digitarts website (digitarts.va.com.au) (submitted by van.) Lisa Burnett (aka violet) is the co-ordinator of digitarts, an organisation based in Brisbane that does all sorts of cool net stuff for grrls. Digitarts has been running since 1996 and more than 100 women have been involved in the various projects it runs. I interviewed violet via email and this is what she had to say: What is a digitart? That's always such a hard question to answer...we're all so different...We're pretty much a bunch of intelligent, hard-working, self-directed individuals with too, too, too much to do. I've recently come to the conclusion that we've mostly got four things in common: 1: a need to know and understand what 'the digital' can do for us. 2: a desire to have our views creativity represented. 3: a love of food - any variety. 4: we're all chicks. What do digitarts do? As a collective/organisation we: produce a semi-regular ezine called grrrowl [digitarts.va.com.au/grrrowl]. run a workshop program that has, in the past, covered web design workshops for beginners, advanced web development, screenprinting, digital animation and electronic music. eat lots of biscuits. will be running beginners classes in the first half of '98 in three places. One class will be in Brisbane with the other two held in regional centres of Qld. We're still deciding which ones, but we've got our eyes on Townsville, Cairns and Toowoomba. What inspired you to start up digitarts? Was it difficult to do? My first experience of the internet was working as the designer on the now defunct Perfect Strangers [an Australian youth arts and culture site]. It was an initiative of Contact Inc (a Brissie based youth arts company) funded by the Australia Council. Up until that point i'd only been using 'puties for DTP [destop publishing] and word processing. The internet consultant on the project, Paul Brown, gave me an intro class, a booklet on HTML and a copy of Netscape Navigator (version 1.0 I think) and that was it, slam, another computer nerd comes out of the closet!...I *really* quickly became 'webmistress' on the project, working with a team of three blokettes. Afterwards I got to thingking, wouldn't it be nice to work on stuff like that with chicks, so, with some support from Contact, I put in a couple of grant applications to kick it all off...and we got one of them! The Community Cultural Development Board of the Australia Council funded us for our first year as a 'one-off project' and we've managed to keep going since then. Getting the first grant was the easy part - since then it's involved a *lot* of work and sometimes that's difficult, 'cos its always twice as many hours as what you're paid for and that makes it really hard to find time to do stuff for yrself (like washing!). How did you get people involved at first? I did a press release and bulk flier drop at cafes and unis and had about 30 women turn up to our very first meeting...I'm still amazed when i think about it, it was such a fantasic turn-out for a minimal amount of work. Were you a computer nerd at achool? I don't think anyone would say that i was, it wasn't cool to be a computer nerd at school, especially when yr a girl. Looking back now i think i was in denial - there were signs if i'd cared to look - i was an ace at BASIC and solved Zork (text based adventure game) with my friend, crid, when we were in grade 10. I was actually more of a maths nerd...i did Maths I and Maths II just because i liked them. In those days (we're only talking ten years here) computing wasn't seen as a subject that would boost your career-options in the same way that the maths and sciences were...seems stupid to me when i think about it now, especially considering I'm about to begin an advanced diploma of engineering in computer systems at TAFE next week! Do girls need modems more than boys? Nah, they just need to be encouraged more to get them. I could be wrong about this, but as a woman it seems that there's so many ways in which you have to measure up - yr appearance, yr behaviour, yr relationships, they're all expectations placed on you by other people that aren't placed on men to quite the same extent and they each drain a bit of time and a bit of energy, they distract you from thinking about a lot of stuff that would actually be really useful. I think in yr late teens/early twenties you start to recognise the demands being placed upon you and start looking around for other ways of being / other choices / other options. I think that for a lot of grrrls, being a computer nerd just hasn't been a visible or attractive option and i think it *needs* to be. We need to make sure that the producers of the digital content that we consume are just as diverse as the end users or it will just be same old, same old, all over again... Are we really in the middle of a digital revolution and will it change the world? see below... What would you say to people who argue that the internet is an inherently priviledged medium, which you need money to access, so that trying to achieve any kind of social change on the internet is already acting in a very exclusive area? ...okay, yes the internet is to a strong degree an exclusive area - unless you understand english and can get access to a computer, which costs a hell of a lot more than any other communication device, you're locked out of interacting with a hell of a lot of stuff. But the internet is different to television, print and radio as it allows for two way communication. Instead of being a passive consumer you can actively participate. The internet combines information with interaction and, because of the buzz surrounding it and the prohibitive cost, equality of access has made it onto the agenda with a lot of individuals, organisations and governments. You *don't* see studies about improving the equality of access to television for women in rural and remote areas, but you *do* see studies about improving their access to the internet...it's because of the 'value-added' personal interaction it allows for...it's what makes the internet different from other forms of the media. With television we get 5-6 watered down, well-packaged views of the world *if we're lucky* but the internet offers us millions of variations...it's much easier for people to have a say (get their views heard) if they don't have to go through the domain of media-moguls to do so... Hmmmm...any kind of media based activism is going to exclude someone - television, radio, the internet and print all have boundaries, whether they're language, finance or geography. It's people, not the medium/media that are the catalyst for change. A positive (or negative) interaction can change someone's views indefinitely...that interaction doesn't have to be 'in real life' it just has to be touched by the personal. Like, the more Wik becomes a battle between politicians, the less personal it becomes and the less likely we are to see the views of the people it affects most represented. I doubt that the internet will make [more than a] little difference for most people, but for those who do use it - its capacity to personalise our interactions in a way that other mediums simply haven't allowed is undeniable. It's kinda funny, 'cos the internet is often seen as an anti-social space! ha! it's an ultra-social space that cuts across geography, race, age and gender. Where else are you going to find that? So, back to the question, sure it's an exclusive space if you consider yourself a consumer, but it's an inclusive space if you consider yourself a creator, producer or agitator...does that make sense? Is the world going to be divided into two groups: those who have a computer and those who don't, and what are the implications of this? It's already divided into those that have a stable power supply and those that don't, those that have televisions and those that don't, those that have a telephone and those that don't, those that understand english and those that don't - as far as i can tell, it's just going to maintain that status quo ie resource-soaking, english speaking countries will continue to dictate how things happen...sorry, not feeling very optimistic today... Will books become obsolete? Only when we run out of things to make them out of... Do you identify as a feminist? Yes...do you? [van says yes] If you had a dinner party and could invite anyone you wanted, real or fictional, dead or alive, who would you invite? eeeekkk, a dinner party...i love to cater, but i'm not much good at being sociable...i'll give it a try ... nini - my great grandmother the brother and sister from brisvegas' best cafe/patisserie: 'let them eat cake' - to bring dessert of course (a stack of chocolate shortbread stars with lemon marscapone cream - yum! jesper, danny and marcus - all friends from faraway places deborah conway - i suspect her mouth may be even bigger than mine wendy - as played by toni collette in Spotswood skipper - barbie's flat-footed cousin ester williams - the underwater swimming sensation polly and debbie - from The Bill the Minogue sisters' parents - aren't you just a wee bit curious? an orchestra and chorus - to do Burt Bacharach tunes all evening wally the dog - to deal with the leftovers What do you think of Barbie? it's funny i always remember wanting a brunette barbie, she seemed more exotic than the platinum blondes... Is it hard to get funding for the sorts of projects digitarts runs? Almost all of our funding thus far has come from arts funding bodies and it hasn't seemed too hard to get their support but we are going to have to start shopping around for other places to get funding...increasingly the funding bodies are including 'innovation' as one of their key selection criteria and unfortunately basic beginners classes aren't 'innovative', even though that's what the majority of people want...so there's this constant struggle to create an 'innovative context' for beginners classes, which is a bit of a strain after a while. If you were Prime Minister for a day what would be the first thing you would do? Introduce some really simple waste reduction and recycling measures - like having deposits on bottles, implementing programs for the reuse (instead of recycling) of bottles, having to pay for plastic bags in shops, making the companies that make stuff responsible for the disposal of their excess packaging...just a few simple things that work at a micro level to make both producers and consumers more aware of their place in the world and the responsibilities that come with that priviledge... How can women get involved in digitarts? visit our site become a member get onto our [snail] mailing list contribute to the grrrowl ezine or, if they're in sunny Brisso, they could stay tuned for workshop info Related Web Site Created on Wed, 28 Jan 1998 and last modified on Wed, 28 Jan 1998.

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