Foreword
Caroline Turner
Art changed dramatically in the late twentieth century with the emergence of new technologies and
new media and at the same time globalisation and geopolitical change led to a shift of gravity from
an art centred in Europe and America and towards regions such as Asia, transforming our world in
the twenty-first century.
MAAP – Media Art Asia Pacific has specialised in ‘mapping’ contemporary media art in Australia
and the Asian and Pacific region since 1998, the first organisation in the world to do so and, in
the process, created an extraordinary artistic network with cross-cultural projects and partners in
many countries. Working with over 500 artists as well as numerous institutions, MAAP has become
one of Australia’s most important art connectors to the Asia-Pacific.
I became aware of MAAP when we collaborated on the
Third Asia-Pacific Triennial
in 1999. I was
Project Director for the APT at that time and had approached MAAP’s Director KimMachan because
I believed we needed to include new media art in an exhibition with the theme ‘Beyond the Future’.
The highly successful ‘Virtual Triennial’ revealed new media as a dynamic new source of art and
f the first art museum exhibitions of its kind. As
spaces for art:
AAP does superbly throughout its projects in the
region: genuine partnership based on mutual respect, in-depth research, support for artists and
experimental practice, critical and scholarly publications, exciting art that allows a fluid dialogue
to emerge from audience engagement and a dedication to audiences. Cross-cultural dialogue is not
easy. While new media techniques may be understood across countries, especially among those
with high tech backgrounds and training, there are aspects of culture that require translation in
local situations. I very much admire the way that MAAP has engaged with very broadly based
audiences. The use of libraries as a venue for the brilliant bilingual
Light from Light
project in China
and Australia reflects a depth of commitment to public art. The Shanghai Library, one of the venues
and which receives over 2 million visitors a year, states on its website that the library ‘… styles itself
in the shape of pyramids with escalating cubic blocks, which symbolizes the solid foundation of
cultural heritage and the endless efforts by [the] human being in pursuit of knowledge’. Libraries
are focussed on communities and knowledge sharing. The embedding of light-inspired and light-
generating art in library spaces is a fascinating idea, combining as it does the concept that libraries
are sources of enlightenment with the power of art to touch and inspire the individual imagination
and to create cross-cultural dialogue.
Dr Caroline Turner is a Senior Research Fellow in the Research School of Humanities and the Arts, Australian
National University and previously was Deputy Director of the Queensland Art Gallery and a co-founder of the
Asia–Pacific Triennial.
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