Artists' Moving Image Research Network

The moving image medium has become ubiquitous in contemporary art. It is difficult nowadays to find an exhibition or art event that does not, in some way, feature moving images. Although artists have been making films at least since the 1920s, the medium was long considered marginal relative to painting and sculpture. What is new in contemporary art is the predominance of dynamic screen-based media, often eclipsing by scale and degree more traditional forms in the gallery.

Recent works, in combination with historical precedents, now constitute such a large body of practice as to deserve extensive study. The Artists' Moving Image Research Network will examine this proliferation of screen art and lay the groundwork for the launch of MIRAJ: Moving Image Research & Art Journal, the world's first peer-reviewed publication on the subject.

The network gathers together an international and cross-generational group of leading theorists, artists, curators and archivists to discuss pressing questions that will go forward for elaboration in the pages of MIRAJ, and thus set the terms of debate. Meetings held across two years will be devoted to raising key questions: How can we account for the explosion of screen-based works? How do the contemporary works relate to historical precedents? In what ways do artists' works replicate the ubiquitous spectacle of visual media in the wider culture? What can we learn from productive tensions in cross-disciplinary practices?

The turn to the moving image in contemporary art is a global trend and the network will be sensitive to local differences and geographical disjunctures between the metropole and the periphery.

Over the years, the moving image has been used by artists for myriad creative projects and the network will consider two currently distinctive applications. Firstly, the adoption of ethnographic and documentary techniques; secondly, the forging of identity though an active engagement with place, ecology and the aesthetic dimensions of landscape.

The broad reach of our network themes requires input from practitioners and scholars representing a range of approaches and academic disciplines. By its nature, the study of moving image art straddles two principal disciplines-fine art and the field of film and media studies. The network will engage these two disciplines in the first instance but it will also draw in participants from anthropology and geography in order to illuminate particular trends in recent moving image art. A wide range of cultural practices will be represented in the network by leading academics from across the globe such as Thomas Elsaesser (Amsterdam), Sean Cubitt (Melbourne), Maeve Connolly (Dublin), Catherine Russell (Montreal) and A.L. Rees (London); curators from major galleries such as Stuart Comer (Tate Modern) and Elisabetta Fabrizi (BFI), writers and distributors such as Mike Sperlinger (LUX) and Steven Bode (Film & Video Umbrella) as well as international artists such as Shirin Neshat and Isaac Julien. The network will also include younger researchers from all fields working in the UK and Europe.

MIRAJ is the principal means of disseminating the network's research. Our commitment to making research widely available to the public is also reflected in the dedicated interactive network website. Individual members of the network are involved in the journal and other participants will make major contributions over the years. MIRAJ will provide legacy for the research undertaken by the network, to be sustained and developed well into the future.

The network will benefit a wide range of individuals outside academia: curators, artists, archivists, critics and publishers. Non-academic institutions represented within the network will enhance their respective profiles as a result of their participation. The wider public will have the opportunity to access the new research and benefit from it.

EDUCATION
There are educators outside the university as well as inside: in galleries, archives, and arts agencies. The network includes representatives from cultural institutions-TATE, BFI and LUX-that support or are directly involved in education programmes. Participation in the network will benefit the pedagogic endeavours of delegates from these institutions by ensuring that their educational programmes are up to date with the latest debates. In addition, the network will generate valuable teaching material, especially in the form of the papers and articles that will eventually be published in MIRAJ, but also the interim material that will be posted on the project website.

MUSEUMS, GALLERIES, ARCHIVES
Several leading museums, agencies and galleries are represented on the network: Tate Modern, (Stuart Comer), BFI Southbank (Elisabetta Fabrizi) and Film and Video Umbrella (Steven Bode).The network will benefit these institutions by fostering the high-level debates about moving image art and its contexts that are needed to nourish new curatorial initiatives.

Important archives and distributors are also represented including LUX (Mike Sperlinger); the British Artists' Film and Video Study Collection (David Curtis, Steven Ball) and Anarchive in Paris (Anne-Marie Duguet). These organisations will benefit from the network's emphasis on a re-reading of the history of artists' moving image.

Private and public galleries that are linked to the market for moving image exhibits will see an uplift in the capital of the work they promote as broader cultural interest is cemented through the outcomes of the network. The journal and online presence will provide a current and consistent showcase for moving image artists, and so generate economic as well as cultural capital for their galleries.

All institutional participants and their representatives will profit from the chance to share outcomes of recent projects, to pool resources, and to form new collaborations.

PUBLISHERS, AUTHORS, ARTISTS
The network will enrich the quality and quantity of research material available for publication. Intellect Books, the publisher of MIRAJ, will be a direct beneficiary. Intellect is already planning to use MIRAJ as a case study for more sustainable marketing and distribution strategies (see Impact Plan).

Art writers and critics will profit from their participation in the latest debates. They will increase their knowledge and enrich the quality of their art criticism. MIRAJ will offer ongoing opportunities to publish their writing.

Moving image artists will benefit from fresh interest in their work generated by the seminar discussions, and from the development of a theoretical context to support their practice. Artists will also have the opportunity to discuss their work with curators and distributors, providing an additional promotional and economic benefit.

THE WIDER PUBLIC
The wider public, including non-specialist gallery-goers, will benefit from the web-based dissemination of knowledge and from engagement with the debates elaborated in MIRAJ, the network's main outcome. The journal will be widely distributed and will emphasise clarity and accessibility without compromising scholarship. The mix of academic research and more generalist articles will ensure that the wider art public will have access to knowledge forged in the network and developed in the journal.