So Channel 4's digital fund (for making new kinds of media, not for making telly on the web) announces it's first 'big' project. 'Central Station' is an online artists resource merged with a soap opera based in Glasgow School of Art.
Oh, and there's a social networking element, "Central Station will make publishing original art on the web much easier and more commonplace".
It's almost impossible at this stage to work out quite what sort of a beast this will be. There are plenty of venues for artists to upload their work to, but most of them stagnate in a flurry of art-like dross. And none of them have their very own soap opera.
Quite what the point or value of a soap opera about second year art students has to a social network for artists is, we'll have to wait and see. I'd guess that the soap opera element will act as a huge disincentive for artists to engage in a serious manner with Central Station. On the other hand, it may well act as an incentive for a certain type of creative individual to engage. And seeing as the key aim of this project is to find new Banksys, that might be a workable proposition.
God knows, I did my first online artists network back in 1991 (UK ArtNet, Arts Council funded, bulletin board based). I'm still a fan of the concept. Looking forward to it.
Glasgow School Of Art Is The Setting For New Online Soap (from Sunday Herald)
Told through YouTube-style video, photo sharing site Flickr, and social networking sites, Central Station will portray the lives, loves and artworks of three fictional second-year art students.
But like the best art, Central Station has ambitions beyond the superficial gloss of teen soaps. Channel 4's new strand for digital content, 4iP, hopes that Scotland's first web drama will act as a hook to draw real-life artists into a new online artistic community, and "discover the new Banksy or the new Warhol" in the process.
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The three main characters in the web drama will be: Nikki, a 19-year-old textile student from Chester who sings in three bands and, according to McIntosh, "lives her life as if it was a pop promo" and is "loved by men and resented by women"; Con, from a wealthy family but with a radical social agenda, who uses portraiture to rail against modern injustices; and Sam, an ambitious 20-year-old Glaswegian studying environmental art who, in a similar vein to Tracey Emin, uses her art to explore personal issues such as self-harm.
The online community begins earlier in the year, however. Going live in spring, there will be monthly calls to action to encourage artists from around the world to post their work online. The best will be rewarded with prizes including studio time and arts-based trips abroad, culminating in "the world's largest and first social media art prize".
A team of professional artists will act as mentors to the online community. 4iP and ISO, the Glasgow-based independent company producing the project, are currently engaged in discussions with several high-profile GSA alumni.
Channel 4 hopes Central Station will make publishing original art on the web much easier and more commonplace.
"This is an attempt to reverse the lack of creativity that young people show online, which has been romanticised," said McIntosh. "Young people tend to upload a lot of snaps to their photo albums, they co-ordinate their weekend activity on their walls', but they don't tend to create art, original authored film or photography. This is something I hope Central Station goes some way to improving: it's going to be a space where people can be inspired, inspire others and have their creativity recognised."
Central Station plans to run for 18 months with a £750,000 budget.
