Drawing The Line of Lode and The Digital Divide

Print, the forerunner of contemporary mass reproduction, unlike the digital realm,
maintains a necessary connection with physical reality. But both mechanical reproduction
and digital reproduction have their own character, their 'surface' as mediums. Although
each attempts to become perfect, it is the imperfections, the failures and glitches, that
most contribute to that character. Much of Ross Woodrows work in the past has sought to
play on the ability of digital reproduction to mimic and homogenise mechanical print
traditions while concealing its own presence and character. Here, he reverses the process
by hand printing the digitally derived images. George Petelins work on the other hand
takes images of digital images and blends them with images of physical actuality and with
entirely invented simulations of actuality.

The character of mechanical print is steeped in tradition but now, as no longer an industry
1

but solely an art, it can freely make use of chance effects, variations, and serendipities
rather than ruthless precision. In the hands of printmaker Woodrow that tradition of print
as an industry and its rich history of constructing identity is fully exploited as an art that
engages with social as well as aesthetic issues. The Line of Lode is an installation by
Woodrow in which the walls of the lower gallery space at Crane are taken as the field for a
panoramic graphic survey of historical images generated by the print industry in relation to
Australian mining. As Woodrow explains, Australia has been a great source of global
mineral wealth from gold to coal, but the colonial exchange was more than material. In
this pictorial configuration Woodrow excavates the history of the graphic images that
were transported to Australia to create the types and forms of a national identity. Mining is
both a theme and a metaphor for Woodrows artistic process as he sifts through the
imagery of history to refine gold from the dross or else, through the aura of art, to effect
alchemical transmutations.

Woodrows printing process in this work, although based on images that are now
circulated in the digital realm, draws these images back into the palpably physical. Hand

1
J. W. Shaw, Mr. Murdochs Industrial Relations, The Australian Quarterly 61, no. No. 2 (Winter), Australian
Institute of Policy and Science Article Stable (1989): 300304. The last blow to the worlds oldest industrial
profession arguably occurred in 1985 when th e Murdoch Press sacked all the mechanical print-setters who worked
on Londons Times and Sunday Times and installed digital typesetting that could be operated by journalists or office
workers.
printed onto the walls of the gallery, the series of prints still interlock process and image to
create implied narratives, but, unlike his earlier digitally homogenised compilations of
diverse printing processes, remain inseparable from the profoundly material character of
the rubber stamp on a wall.

The photographs in 'The Digital Divide' by George Petelin similarly refer to the pre-digital
traditions of the photographic medium. They are documentary in the sense that they are a
snapshot of an 'actuality', a historical moment when the divide between digital recording
and digital creation of images is blurring and the rules of engagement with digital reality
are in constant flux. For example, in one of the two digital self-portraits of this series,
although the iconicity of the image is distorted to suggest a racial transformation, the
colour balance and textures are not added to the image but are simply the result of a
changed balance within what is already recorded. In the other self-portrait, although
arguably more resemblance remains, the resemblance is obscured and problematised by
overlays of various forms of digital noise. These images play with the differences between
recording and reproducing, manipulating and constructing, mediation and 're-mediation',
and others among them play with the implications for copyright, as distinct from 'originality'
as critiqued by postmodernism, of the ambiguities in these distinctions brought about by
digital technology. At the same time, the images document a sense of catastrophe: the
failure of not only society but of the technology itself to keep up with its exponential
growth.

The hyperbole that accompanies technological development always seems to promise
more than can be delivered. For example, we are sold faster broadband on the promise of
seamless reception but very soon the volume of use catches up, bandwidth shaping
becomes introduced; the user base becomes stratified and divided once again among the
haves and the have-nots. Not unlike Woodrows mechanical images of the early to late
industrial age, Petelins digital images are records of something that has become the past,
albeit more rapidly than the past referred to by Woodrow, while informing an ideology of
the present. But if it is in the moment of catastrophe, the failure of the medium to live up to
its promises, that the medium reveals itself, will the character of this failure be stuff of
future nostalgiathe character of an era of innocence when this technology was in its
pioneering days in the manner of modernist documentation? Or does it signal a more
terrible general catastrophe that awaits us?

The pictures in Digital Divide entwine three themes: that of the inability of social
institutions to keep up with the exponential growth in complexity of a digital world, that of
the growing interdependence of physical and cyber-reality, and that of the possibility that it
will all come crashing down in a some kind of Apocalypse.

One of the social institutions that struggle to cope with digital reproduction is copyright law
with regard to images. The sheer ubiquity of image reproduction and distribution in the
digital realm is both arguably desirable
2
and beyond policing
3
, yet both Digital Right
Management (DRM) technology
4
and legislation attempt to restrict it. In the crossfire of
this contest between an anti-copyright public and commercial interests, art with its
traditions of homage, criticism, parody, and appropriation risks transgression of legality
and even litigation. In fairness, litigation of artists seldom occurs unless they are of the
financial stature of Jeff Koons
5
, but the ambiguity and context dependence of legal criteria
leave anyone commenting on a contemporary mediascape (which is fast becoming
almost the whole of reality) vulnerable to censorship.

To interrogate the limits of avoiding copyright breech, several images in The Digital Divide
incorporate aspects of an image by outstanding Australian photographer Bill Henson.
They question, for example, whether portraying the digital code that underlies a
completely unchanged jpeg image of the photograph is an illegal appropriation of the
image; whether, although most of the image is digitally erased, its essential originality can
still be said to have been appropriated, whether it can legitimately act as an incidental
background, and so on. In Australian copyright law, any copied image is a breech unless it
falls under one of the laws exceptions
6
for fair dealing. One of these exceptions is
copying for the purpose of research and study; another is for the purpose of criticism and

2
Copyright Law Is Wrong, accessed September 11, 2010, http://detritus.net/vircomm/projects/anticopy/.
3
Critical Art Ensemble, The Financial Advantages of Anti-copyright, in The Electronic Disturbance (Autonomedia,
1993), www.critical-art.net/books/digital/tact8.pdf.
4
John Cahir, The Moral Preference for DRM Ordered Markets in the Digitally Ordered Environment, in New
Directions in Copyright Law, vol. 1 (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005), 2453.
5
Art Rogers Vs. Jeff Koons: Observatory: Design Observer, accessed October 31, 2013,
http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=6467.
6
Copyright Act, (Cth) Amended to 2010 (Attorney Generals Department, Canberra, 1968),
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca1968133.
review; another for the purposes of parody and satire. However, further allowances are
also made on the grounds of whether the copying has been substantial. What can be
considered substantial is left up to the discretion of the court. As we have all learned our
craft from images we have seen, no work that refers to Western culture can be said to be
innocent of copyright breech until tested in a court of law. What is more crucially important
is to avoid infringement of another artists moral rights. In this instance there is nothing that
could be construed as derogatory or damaging to the artists reputation and any parody or
satire is firmly directed at the laws and not at the artist whose work is appropriated, who
has himself fought against crude censorship. Nor, as the Berne Convention recommends,
do these works conflict with a normal exploitation of the work or unreasonably prejudice
the legitimate interests
7
of the artist. However, questions may remain about whether the
detail frequently appropriated in these works constitutes an aesthetic criticism, an
homage, the appropriating artists personal fetish, or the essence of the work
appropriated.

Significantly, and this may be the most important point these pictures make, their digital
reproduction yearns for, but cannot match, the image resolution or physical presence of
Hensons sublime individually-printed analogue photograph Untitled 1985. Ultimately,
these cannot be said to be copies but merely allusions to what cannot be reproduced.

The growth of digital technology has come to characterise our age. More so have the
future promises of this technology. But we have also felt the glitches and shortcomings of
this technology.

Several images here refer more directly to digital dysfunction by recording the graphically
distinctive breakdowns in digital media operation whose intrinsic beauty we however
overlook because of a frustration we wish to forget. And some of the images are relatively
un-manipulated shots of an unnatural natural event, a totally uncharacteristic dust storm
that hit Brisbane in September 23, 2009
8
. Reported to have originated from far-western
New South Wales and the drought stricken Murray Darling basin, the storm carried 16

7
WTO | Intellectual Property (TRIPS) - Agreement Text - Standards, accessed October 31, 2013,
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/t_agm3_e.htm.
8
Australia Engulfed by Dust Storms | World News | Theguardian.com, accessed October 31, 2013,
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/sep/23/australia-dust-storm-sydney.
million tonnes of dust 1000 kilometres from the deserts of central Australia across its cities
on the east coast
9
. In Sydney, the sky took on an eerie red glow; in Brisbane, at one point,
one could not see across the road as a yellow-orange haze enveloped everything. In
contrast, building interiors took on the turquoise glow of a cathode tube. What is
particularly disquieting is how these images can sit so comfortably next to a totally
constructed photoshop-manipulated fantasy Aramageddon. Environmental catastrophe
can serve as a metaphor for digital catastrophe in these works and vice versa.

This inter-changeability may portend parallels in lived experience. Mere dependence on
large systems connected through the Internet poses the greatest potential for
catastrophe. The everyday functioning of all institutions from banks to universities is
increasingly impossible without being connected. As medical emergencies become more
and more reliant on digital communication, as natural disasters such as flood, tsunami,
earthquake, eruption, fire, and drought come to rely entirely on warning systems through
the Internet, the greatest threat becomes the failure of the medium through which all these
are delivered.

The exponential growth of these dependencies is of course accompanied by the
exponential growth of demand for bandwidth. But indefinite exponential growth is a
mathematical impossibility
10
. What happens when the bandwidth runs out? Or the
undersea cables snap? Or when your cloud provider decides to switch off? What aspects
of the present network are most vulnerable to collapse? What cultural changes might we
have to face as the digital age nears its twilight? Woodrows insistence on a return to
physicality in this exhibition seems timely advice.






9
Dust, Dust and More Dust | CSIRO, accessed October 31, 2013,
http://www.csiro.au/resources/dust-storm-animations.
10
Want to Impress Your Friends? Tell Them Internet Growth Is Sigmoidal, Not Exponential | Technology |
Guardian.co.uk, accessed March 6, 2011,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2007/nov/26/wanttoimpressyourfriendst.




Bibliography
Art Rogers Vs. Jeff Koons: Observatory: Design Observer. Accessed October 31, 2013.
http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=6467.
Australia Engulfed by Dust Storms | World News | Theguardian.com. Accessed October
31, 2013.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/sep/23/australia-dust-storm-sydney.
Cahir, John. The Moral Preference for DRM Ordered Markets in the Digitally Ordered
Environment. In New Directions in Copyright Law, 1:2453. Edward Elgar
Publishing, 2005.
Copyright Act. (Cth) Amended to 2010. Attorney Generals Department, Canberra, 1968.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca1968133.
Copyright Law Is Wrong. Accessed September 11, 2010.
http://detritus.net/vircomm/projects/anticopy/.
Critical Art Ensemble. The Financial Advantages of Anti-copyright. In The Electronic
Disturbance. Autonomedia, 1993. www.critical-art.net/books/digital/tact8.pdf.
Dust, Dust and More Dust | CSIRO. Accessed October 31, 2013.
http://www.csiro.au/resources/dust-storm-animations.
Shaw, J. W. Mr. Murdochs Industrial Relations. The Australian Quarterly 61, no. No. 2
(Winter). Australian Institute of Policy and Science Article Stable (1989): 300304.
Want to Impress Your Friends? Tell Them Internet Growth Is Sigmoidal, Not Exponential
| Technology | Guardian.co.uk. Accessed March 6, 2011.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2007/nov/26/wanttoimpressyourfriend
st.
WTO | Intellectual Property (TRIPS) - Agreement Text - Standards. Accessed October
31, 2013. http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/t_agm3_e.htm.