New digital awards?

Perhaps two new digital awards could be introduced - a Digital Preservation Award (for digital surrogates) and a Digital Literature Award (for ‘born digital’ content) in order to further promote our lead role in the digital preservation of Queensland’s documentary heritage. These awards would highlight the twin focus areas of the Digital Preservation Strategy – the preservation of digital surrogates; and the capture of ‘born digital’ content.

The Digital Preservation Award would be awarded annually to a private sector, non-profit or cultural heritage organisation initiative addressing the long-term preservation of creative Queensland content in digital form. The award would focus on the preservation of digital surrogates including photographs, cartoons, motion pictures, sound recordings or video games created by or about Queensland and/or Queenslanders; and would include hosting of the successful recipient’s project within State Library’s Queensland Digital Library.

The Digital Literature Award would be awarded annually to a Queensland fiction, non-fiction or screen writer or poet employing digital technology in the production of his or her work.

Virtual residencies

Virtual residencies are becoming increasingly popular in today’s climate of multi-disciplinary projects, with their inherent technological challenges and complexities. In contrast to more traditional fellowships and residencies, a virtual residency can better accommodate the realities of contemporary networked practices. The work produced during a virtual residency is published, updated and offered up for comment on the web as a ‘work in progress’.

Virtual residencies commonly offer:
· a residency of at least 8 weeks duration;
· a resident’s fee;
· a pre-determined number of hours of technical support (45 hrs +);
· access to the host organisation’s equipment and resources;
· the opportunity to participate in group workshops; and
· a working space for the resident.

In return, the host organisation typically disseminates the resident’s project on its website, with a presentation following completion of the project. For remote participants, the presentation may take place online via streaming or a chat session. Virtual residencies generally incorporate a combination of 'real' visits and extended contact on line.

The Australia Council has recently introduced a Second Life Artist Residency (http://www.ozco.gov.au/grants/grants_new_media_arts/second_life_artist_residency/) which invites artists and writers to explore the possibilities of inter-disciplinary literary, music, art and digital visual media practices. The main objectives of the program are to provide opportunities for artists and writers to develop art that challenges and explores the aesthetic, social, political and cultural realities of Second Life; and encourage collaborations between artists and writers working across literature, music/sound art and digital visual media to develop high quality, experimental arts practices in Second Life.’

Awards 2.0

Residencies, awards, internships and fellowships are nothing new in the cultural sector. Many have been around for years, and most are fairly traditional in terms of their format, remit and endowment structures. But how has Web 2.0 altered the awards sector? What are the possibilities for virtual and Web 2.0 residencies? What would be the benefit of such residencies for cultural organisations and their clients?