Media Arts has long been regarded as a niche within the contemporary art discourse, secluded from the art market and from the public alike. As technology becomes more accessible, these former boundaries erode. While the art market slowly starts to embrace new media artists, local communities show a renewed interest in the power of technologically-facilitated art, due to its participatory nature. How do professional media artists make a living outside of the constraints of the contemporary art market? How can local communities and the public profit from media art? Media art. Networks. Art in Flux. Community art. Community engagement.
This paper explores the historical discourse around migrant voices within British art history, why now is the time to address these subjects and how through the use of participatory digital art it is possible to educate for social change. The paper will focus in particular on shemza.digital, a digital and interactive participatory art project created by Aphra Shemza and Stuart Batchelor. The project was funded by Arts Council England and based on the work of the British/Pakistani painter Anwar Jalal Shemza. Digital art. Participatory art. Generative art. British art history. Decolonising art.
1.INTRODUCTIONIn the last ten years there has been a rethinking of the place of migrant artists within British art history. Artists who came over to the UK in the 50s & 60s such as Frank Bowling,
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