Updated: 24-11-98    RTI LOTTERY AWARD 9th October NETWORK PROBLEMS Sorry if you haven't been able to get in touch. PRESS INFORMATION and print-quality image available for download. What is Redundant Technology Initiative?  RTI is a new, non-profit arts organisation based in Sheffield, England. It has a simple basis - it lets artists loose with redundant computer equipment discarded by business and industry, then exhibits the best of what they create with it.  Redundant Technology Initiative challenges the idea that you can only be creative with the latest technology.  Why?  In 1998 over 1 million PCs are scheduled to be dumped by British businesses. As it stands most of this equipment will end up in landfills.  Artists are the ideal people to experiment with redundant technology. While the rest of us may find that old computers won't do the tasks we want them to, artists can investigate playfully and be creative with what the machines can do, rather than being frustrated by what they can't.  Artists should be making work that's relevant to what's going on right now. But many of them aren't getting involved with information technology because it's expensive.  There's been a lot of media attention given to artworks that use the newest, most expensive computers. But many of these artworks seem less like works of art than like advertisements for the latest technology.  We Need Your Help!  If you or your organisation has any old computer equipment, then we know how you feel! It's not good for anything you can think of, but it's too good to throw out. The standard response is to store it for a few years, then once it's so antiquated that it's not worth a second thought, trash it! That way nobody has to take a positive decision about it - though you do lose a storeroom (or a corridor, or an office...) and you don't help to save the planet.  Do something constructive by donating the machines to RTI. We're confident that our artists and technologists can find creative uses for any machine, however low its specification. As long as it still works, we want it. If a computer has a 3.5 inch floppy disk and a hard disk (any size!) then to us it's first rate - it'll be really useful. But we can often make use of older machines as well. At the moment we're particularly looking for 486s and 386s, earlier Macs (Classics, LCs etc...) Amigas, Ataris, and so on. We're on the scrounge for peripherals and monitors, too - even those horrible green-screen ones! What You'll Get Out of It  So, helping to save the planet and supporting the Arts isn't enough for you, eh? Fair enough - if you're donating computers on behalf of an organisation we'll tell people about your postive, green, creative attitude by featuring your organisation on this website and thanking it in our exhibition catalogue and other publicity. If you're an individual donor, we'll invite you to our exhibitions and performances. Either way, not a bad deal for getting rid of your IT trash!  What We're Doing Right Now Currently we've announced a new recovery campaign centred on Huddersfield at Kirklees Media Centre, which will culminate in an art event planned for January/February 99 in Huddersfield as part of the TEST project. So far press response to our appeal has been excellent, and we've had several really useful donations of computer equipment from the Huddersfield area, including a fantastic Apple Mac controlled solid-state sound mixing desk. Now we just need to find out how it works! We've also received some very positive press interest from the visit of HRH Prince Andrew, who saw one of our installations when he visited the Media Centre. What We've Done Already Manchester Action 98 Over the Summer of 98 RTI recovered computers in the Manchester area as part of the city's Digital Summer with the help of Cyberia and many others. We constructed the installation "Low Tech" at the Green Room, which we then reconstructed in two different guises at Kirklees Media Centre to publicise our new, Huddersfield recovery campaign and exhibition as part of the TEST project. (Of which more later). James Wallbank gave a presentation about RTI at ISEA 98, and immediately after that we ran an ASCIIart project at ISEA Revolting investigating new potential for this fantastic, optimised backwards-compatable image file format. Scan our Manchester Links page for more information about the events we participated in over the festival period. Redundant Array + Hard Copy Over April 1998 RTI occupied a warehouse in the centre of Sheffield and accumulated computers for our largest installation to date - Redundant Array. This piece has developed out of two previous installations, James Wallbank and Redundant Technology Initiative's "Falling Down" plus "The Deconstruction of New Technology" by Paul Matosic with John Denaro. We had planned that the piece would make use of one hundred donated computers, but in the event we used nearly twice as many, more than 50 of which were active simultaneously! The piece was open to the public as part of the Lovebytes digital arts festival. As Paul Matosic and James Wallbank constructed the installation in Sheffield, John Denaro made a parallel installation in Loughborough's Gallery of The Future. This second installation, "Hard Copy" was made up of images of the developing "Redundant Array" sent to him via a continual stream of faxes. John, with the aid of a photocopier, transformed these images, pasted them into "Hard Copy" and faxed them back to "Redundant Array" - creating an installational, multipley redundant, obsolete technology feedback loop! Now we're looking into ways of developing this networked way of working for furture projects. As well as the three artists involved, substantial credit should also be given to Tony Goddard, who did the "C" programming for the piece, and to Alex Atken and Chris Moxon, our TriTec work placement students, who got the computers up and running. Size Matters RTI's pilot project helped to define a new idea of what an art exhibition can be. Size Matters was not just a show but the focus of a programme of networking through which computers were diverted from the landfill and turned into art. The event attracted a huge amount of media coverage proportionate to its size, being featured on BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat, BBC Radio 4's Afternoon Shift, in the Daily Telegraph and on YTV News. The show itself featured works that dealt with technology both works made with (or out of) old computers and works made in more familiar media that reflected each artist's reactions to technological developments. The works were all selected because of their imposing physical presence. We wanted to counter the widespread tendency of so-called "digital art" to function solely as image. What RTI's Planning Next Currently we are planning an open access cyber-workshop called Access Space, where artists and members of the public will be able to get on line and be creative with our redundant computers for a very low cost, realising our aim to increase access to information technology. We've just received confirmation that the National Lottery's Art 4 Everyone scheme is pledging support for the project. Read more in this news announcement. Now if that wasn't enough, we're also involved in the TEST project at Kirklees Media Centre during early 1999, followed by another recovery campaign and exhibition project at South Hill Park Arts Centre in mid 1999. We'll give you more information on these projects as soon as we have it. Frequently Asked Questions  Following Redundant Technology Initiative's recent media exposure, lots of people have written to us asking questions. Here are a few popular ones.  Do you sell computers? No. Redundant Technology Initiative does not sell computers, monitors or bits of anything we've been given - if we can't use it for our arts projects then we pass it on to the recyclers.  Would you collect my redundant computer(s)? Yes, please! As long as it works, we want it! However, please do bear in mind that RTI is a small organisation with limited resources, so although we'll be happy to travel anywhere in Britain to pick up a van-load of complete and functional systems, we will be tempted less far from our planned travels by a single 086. I have a single 086, shall I scrap it, then? Please don't! At the moment we have a map of Britain on the RTI office wall with lots of dots on it, marking the locations of PCs which people have offered us. As clusters emerge, we'll arrange to come and collect them. So as long as you don't mind hanging on to it for a few weeks, please contact us if you have an individual machine you'd like to donate, and we'll do our best to take it off your hands if it's at all feasible.  Can you give me a PC? Sorry, no. At the moment we are trying to put in place robust systems which will increase access to information technology, specifically so that people can use low cost and no cost computers to be creative and make art. We intend to use any 'spare' computers, that we're not creating artworks with, to be available to the public in our planned Access Space, (see "What RTI's Planning Next") and we're also looking at future projects which involve many more artists. Not even if I'm a good cause? I'm sure that you are a good cause, but the answer's still no. RTI is an arts organisation, here to generate art. We intend the images that come out of the project to catch the imagination and focus the attention of organisations much bigger than ourselves about the unresolved issues of accelerating decrepitude, inbuilt redundancy and techno-waste. In this way we will have helped to make those organisations that dispose of very large numbers of redundant computers more likely to donate some computer equipment directly to you. Remember - computers are being trashed at the rate of around 2700 per day in the UK, so there are plenty of other machines for you to get! Why don't you have a flashy website? This is lowtech.org and we don't like flashy, high-tech websites; we'll have none of your new-fangled frames and fancy Java code around here, thank you very much! Seriously, though - if you want couch potato entertainment, forget it. But if you want interactivity, then RTI provides more of that than any Java-driven web page. Get involved! Dive in a skip and grab yourself a piece of the action! Donate some old PCs and watch them go at our exhibitions! Or have a go yourself, do something creative with ancient equipment and tell us about it - we're always interested. That's real interactivity!  How do I get one of your extremely stylish "Skip Raider" T-Shirts? Simple! If you're in the UK just send us a cheque (payable to "Redundant Technology Initiative") for £12 per shirt plus £3 for postage and we'll post one to you. (Please state Medium, Large or Extra Large and don't forget to tell us your address.) They are premium quality shirts and come in just one colour, Default Grey (of course) and feature the Recycle IT logo on the front, while the back identifies the wearer as a SKIP RAIDER. If you're not based in the UK then e-mail us if you want one, and we'll tell you about postage costs to your location and how to make payment.  I represent a big organisation that throws away hundreds of computers per year... Stop right there and phone us now. Yes, we are suggesting that you to do something more creative with your techno-trash than scrapping it. Yes, we will make sure that you are publicised for the help you give us. Yes, we can guarantee you that your data will be erased. And yes, when your machines finally bite the dust we can assure you that your machines will be disposed of in an environmentally responsible way.  Thanks  Yorkshire & Humberside Arts are supporting RTI's continuing development. The Arts Council of England are supporting RTI's continuing development. The Yorkshire Media Production Agency are funding aspects of RTI's current operations. Internet FCI generously provide RTI's internet presence free of charge. Sheffield City Council who've given us valuable practical help and encouragement. Technology Recyclers who've given us 45 386 system units (!) and suggested helpful ongoing links. TriTec whose "Installing IT Products" students are helping to repair and upgrade donated machines. Many thanks are also due to our computer donors, many of whom have never before considered supporting an arts project, and to our previous supporters, who have helped us to get the project to this stage. Thank you all, and thanks as well to all of our individual PC donors too numerous to mention here, for your imagination and your positive action! The Arts Council of England who, funded by the National Lottery, supported RTI's pilot project. Backspace who have given us help, advice and leads to many stashes of redundant computers. N.R.Bardwell Ltd. who generously donated their stock of IBM XTs and monitors. Alan Benison, Chartered Accountant who donated his Stavely practice's old network. Architechs who generously gave us half a dozen high-res CAD monitors. Birley Health Centre who donated their 486 network terminals and cabling. Black Ninja Design who tend this website and designed our logo and T-shirts. CODA Nottingham who sponsored Paul Matosic's work. Corporation Nightclub who lent us the exhibition space for our pilot project. CTS Training who donated their immaculately preserved redundant PC clones. DCE Communications who gave us a dozen 286 and 386 systems and more! Cyberia, Manchester who were our computer recovery centre during Digital Summer 98. Digital Summer 98 who funded RTI's installation and recycling programme in Manchester. East Midlands Arts supported the involvement of Paul Matosic and John Denaro in April 98. Foxland Electronics who added another monitor to our stock. Gallery of the Future who helped support the involvement of John Denaro. General Telecom who installed our phone line free of charge. InterFACE FM who donated a stack of monitors, a server and a whole load of other stuff too. David Kennedy Computer Training who gave us a pair of 286s and three monitors. Kirklees Media Centre who gave us five Video Frame Stores and two giant RGB monitors. Levenshulme High School, Manchester who gave us their huge BBC Network and many PCs. Lovebytes assisted with RTI's publicity in conjunction with the Hypertribes festival. Manchester City Art Gallery who gave us four 386 PCs packed with peripherals. Mead Estates Ltd. who donated their ancient but functional CBM computers. Midland Arts Centre who gave a dozen or more 286 and 386 systems to the project. Dominic Parkinson who donated his magnificent redundant computer stockpile. Sheffield Independent Film who donated their old office PC setup. SOLIS who helped us get the name "lowtech.org" registered. Spot Computer Maintenance who gave us three fine examples of vintage technology. St. Marylebone Housing Association who donated their old terminal network and its hub. TriTec who've given us more than a dozen Amstrad Systems and a vast number of spare parts. Vertebrate Graphics who have given us their help and advice with our publicity material. Wakeney Communications who donated their old Olivetti PC and monitor. Winterfold House School who gave their old BBC computers to us. Yorkshire & Humberside Arts who set a great example by passing their old network on to us. Yorkshire & Humberside Business in the Arts who gave us their Apricot and peripherals. Getting In Touch  Contact: James Wallbank Website: www.lowtech.org EMail: rti@lowtech.org Phone: +44 (0)114 2495522 Fax: +44 (0)114 2589962 Address: Redundant Technology Initiative, 5 Brown Street, Sheffield S1 2BS U.K. Next Update: 12-12-98