And this is why I would have to say that, among many other things, Darren
is an artist-theorist. And by that I mean, he thinks and writes like an
artist would think and write about their own work, but not because he mimics
the process, but because he simply IS the process.
Mark Amerika , Professor of Art & Art History ,
University
of Colorado at Boulder.
Read the full text of
Mark Amerika's launch speech for Interzone: Media Arts in Australia ,
Australian
Centre for the Moving Image, 16 th December, 2005 .
LINK >>
_________________
Before Interzone there's never really been a single coherent
account of the Media Arts in Australia ... A sorely needed book.
Dr Andrew Murphie, School of Media , Film & Theatre,
The University
of New South Wales
_________________
Darren Tofts gives us the official history of (new) media art in Australia.
Tofts is the right man for the job, having been intimately involved in
the development of new-media art through channels such as the magazine 21C and RealTime .
Dr Daniel Palmer,
Art & Australia, 43, 4, 2006.
_________________
Interzone paves the way for a general audience to understand
and embrace this exhilarating artistic and social evolution.
Melinda Rackham,
Photofile , 77, 2006.
_________________
…at his best, he's exhilarating.
Penny Webb,
The Age , 14 th December, 2005 .
_________________
Interzone is a work of rigorous art-historical research. It
forensically examines a prodigious range of artworks, in the process making
sense of exactly what constitutes the titular media arts, and shows from
whence they emerged in the history of electronic artforms such as video
art, cinema, and the art and technology movement of the 60s. In so doing,
the book illuminates essential aspects of our moment in history.
Dr Annemarie Jonson,
The Weekend Australian , 3-4 December, 2005.
_________________
Interzone is the right book at the right time. A beautifully produced
volume, it takes the wisest path by showcasing the artworks themselves.
Tofts traces the history of media arts in Australia by focusing not on critical
debates, theoretical argument or funding policies, but on the artists and
the works they have produced. The documentation of artworks is lavish and
extensive, allowing readers to judge for themselves the merits of individual
works and of media art in general.
Associate Professor John Potts,
Scan
Journal of Media Arts Culture
LINK
>>
_________________
Into the interzone
RealTime 71 celebrates the publication of Darren Tofts' long-awaited Interzone —media
arts in Australia with a review and author interview (p 22-23). An opponent
of the label ‘new media arts', Darren proposed ‘intermedia art' as a more
apt term on these pages long ago. Now he argues for ‘media arts' (right
in some ways, perhaps too broad in others) and by bringing out what looks
like it could be the definitive book, for some time to come, on Australian
media arts (from inception to the near present) he just might make the term
stick. But I'm pleased to see the ‘inter' in Interzone given the extensive
hybridising of forms and practices that keeps on emerging from the evolution
of media arts. Congratulations to Darren on writing a wonderful book.
Keith Gallasch & Virginia Baxter,
Editors, RealTime
LINK >>
_________________
Tofts is well placed as an observer and commentator on the national and
international scene, having consistently written about the emergent artwork
and its issues in the local press, as a long time RealTime contributing
editor, and also as joint editor of P re-figuring Cyberculture—an intellectual
history (MIT Press & Power Publications, 2002). Having authored
a pre-history of cyberculture, Memory Trade (21.C Book, Interface,
1997), his conclusion to Interzone looks to the future: “..the
challenge is to amplify the visible and sonic presence of media art in the
ambience otherwise known as culture.
Mike Leggett ,
Leonardo Journal, 39, 5, 2006.
_________________
Looking at the book from this perspective I realise that Darren Tofts
has produced a guidebook to media art for those who aren't really locals
in this terrain. And perhaps like all guidebooks, it describes the land
not quite as it is, but as it was a few years ago. His book is an invitation
to the people and policy makers of Australia to visit this world and take
it to their heart, or as Tofts puts it: “ Interzone was designed
to be a kind of policy speech to the Australian body politic to embrace
media art as part of its national culture and not have it fade ignominiously
into a minor footnote in the history of art in this country”. Welcome to Interzone .
Lizzie Muller , Interview with Darren Tofts,
RealTime , 71, February-March,
2006.
_________________
Radio National Deep End
Amanda Smith interviews Darren Tofts and Rex Butler on media art.
LINK to broadcast
