About the Edinburgh International Internet Festival
 The
first Edinburgh International Internet Festival was launched
back in 1999 as a freely provided gift to the online
international creative community from Edinburgh based artist and
self taught web designer PóL Steele.
A community worker for almost 20 years,
PóL turned to his art after becoming disabled in the
early 1990's. In 1998, following prolonged ill health
which included a two year period of being almost totally
housebound, PóL came to realise that the Internet
offered the best possible opportunity for personal
development with regards to both his artwork and perhaps
even a return to some form of employment.
In June 99', having only used a computer
for the very first time the previous January and
designing his first webpages only few weeks earlier...
PóL founded what was soon to become the largest annual
online international arts project ever to be held in
Scotland.
It all began at the beginning of May
when, with a new website to feature his own artwork and
illustrations, PóL went looking to see what online and
'real world' resources were available for visual artists
in the forthcoming Edinburgh festival 1999.
 To
his immense surprise he found there was absolutely no
provision within the festival for the online creative
community... And almost no representation of the visual
arts at ANY level within ANY of the multitude of events
which made up that year's Edinburgh festival season!
With only a matter of weeks before the
launch of the Edinburgh festival PóL decided to send out
a few invitations to some of his own personal favourite
artistic websites.
The aim was to host a 'prototype' online
festival during August aimed at providing not only a desperately
needed platform for the visual arts during the Edinburgh
festival.... But also to create an Edinburgh based 'Digital Hub'
for the online creative arts.
"As we had very little time to get the
festival together and find artists, galleries and
creative websites to participate." Said PóL "I thought
we might be lucky and get 20 or 30 participants in
total." However, the idea seemed to capture the
imagination of the online artistic community and over
the next few weeks news of the event spread rapidly.
"The final 24 hours prior the to the
event's opening are something I will never forget!" PóL
has said. "My e-mail programme was set to check for new
messages every 15 minutes and every time it connected
there were 2 or three new applications to join the web
festival. I was totally stunned, delighted, ecstatic and
scared utterly witless!"
 The
first Edinburgh International Internet Festival launched in
August 1999 featuring artists, galleries, writers and online
resources from over 40 nations. The event also provided a
cross festival 'Digital Hub' featuring a
wide selection of locally produced content including
festival news and reviews, festival photo galleries, an
international reading room and online theatre.
At an international level the event was a
massive success with the festival receiving enthusiastic media
coverage from New York to Hong Kong. More importantly, those who
had participated also seemed delighted over it's success with
the event being described by one participant as "An unofficial
ambassador for Scotland's arts" -: John Horne USA.
Why had the festival been such a
success?
...PóL is perfectly clear on that score "It
was purely down to the assistance, advice, co-operation
end encouragement of those involved in the event who
were willing to freely give of their greater web
experience and the faith, trust and enthusiastic
response of everyone involved."
At the end of the first web festival,
PóL did a typically Scottish thing... and invited
everyone involved to gather again in order to celebrate
the forthcoming millennial Hogmanay (New Year's Eve
1999).
"It had been a fantastic experience!"
PóL said. "During the festival I kept in touch with
everyone involved via a regular news bulletin. As
I was putting together the final update on the final
day, I was in an extremely happy but also (I freely
admit) in an extremely tearful state. However, before I
had finished, a few close friends arrived and my partner
of the time surprised me with a bottle of champagne. By
the time the news bulletin was sent off, during the
closing minutes of the event, I was... errr... a little
merry and raring to go again! I closed the final update
with a suggestion that we could have another event over
the New Year holidays to celebrate the dawn of the new
Millennium."
That casual suggestion was to lead to 'The
Gathering:- Scotland's Millennium Arts Project'. Initially
intended to last for a six week period over the new year holiday
season, the Gathering proved so popular with visitors and
participants alike that the event was extended to cover the full
year.
 55
nations were represented within the year long gathering which
also included the second Edinburgh Internet Festival. However,
thanks to the hard work and commitment of Pat Elliott Shircore
of Hong Kong's Opus Gallery who acted as Area Co-ordinator for
Asia during the Internet Festival and The Gathering... By far
the greatest response came from the online creative communities
of Hong Kong, China and throughout Asia.
In order to share the special new year
celebrations with the people of Edinburgh, the Hung Li Gallery
and the K.M.NG Gallery brought together a selection of China's
finest artists and calligraphers in two remarkable online
exhibitions under the combined heading of 'The Gathering -
Asia'. Later in the year, the Hung Li Gallery's online summer
exhibition was a highly popular inclusion in the Edinburgh
Internet festival 2000.
 Also
featured in the Gathering and the festival 2000 was a specially
produced online exhibition and review based around the 'Exposed'
exhibition hosted at Edinburgh's Queens Hall by the photography
students of Stevenson College.
The students participating were fully involved
in the exhibition's design and layout and the online event was
co-produced by the Internet festival and photographer Andrew
Ansell in co-operation with the Photography Department of
Stevenson College.
 In
2001 inquiries into a possible venue for a benefit night in support of the E.I.I.Festival lead to the founding and hosting of a five week long combined
arts and music festival at 'Whistle Binkies' one of Edinburgh's most famous live
music venues.
The event which became known in its own right as the 'Flipside Festival'
featured over 80 bands and musicians over 55 performances and became the quiet
success story of that year's festival season.
 During
August 2002
PóL was able to co-produce the real world premiere of Glass Hero by Jim
Grover of Naked Theatre. Glass Hero was the first play written live over the
Internet and featured online during the original E.I.I.Festival back in 99'. The
' premiere was held at the historic Dalry House during the Edinburgh festival
2002 as part of the campaign to save the 16th century manor house as an arts and
community resource for the people of Edinburgh.
The
E.I.I.Festival 2003 once again featured a combined arts and music event
alongside a wide selection of locally produced online content.
While largely concentrating on the visual and digital arts,
the festival hosted at New Dalry House also included a wide
selection of musical performances including a series of concerts
by Planet Woman 2003 featuring Lorraine Jordan and Gill Hunter
from Scotland and Manuhiri from New Zealand and Australia.
In 2004 PóL decided to take a two year break from hosting
the Internet Festival. Despite the event's success at an international level and
all the hard work and dedication of those involved in the event...
To date
Pól's work has been ignored by the Scottish Arts Council and all major
funding agencies within Edinburgh and across Scotland. This resulted in the
outrageous fact that between 1999 and 2008 PóL was forced to cover all costs relating to some of Scotland's largest online
arts events out of his own disability benefits!
 While
the Internet Festival was on a break, PóL remained far from idle.
For a number of years now he has provided a wide range of digital and web related services to those working
within the community infrastructure of Edinburgh.
As
an award winning volunteer Web Designer and Creative IT Consultant with one of Edinburgh's
leading charity's, he has for some time been deeply involved in the formation of new community
strategies aimed at providing socially excluded groups with access to digital,
multimedia and online expertise alongside web related training and instruction.
Arts And Community - Fusing It All Together!
- From the very beginning, the main objective behind the
E.I.I.Festival has been to encourage international artists
to exhibit their work within Scotland. Since 1999
PóL
has campaigned at an international level for greater
recognition of the visual arts and artists during the
Edinburgh and Winter Festival seasons.
- SDCA:- Scottish Digital Community Arts was founded by
scotfestival in 2003 with the aim of extending and
encouraging the use of web and digital and multimedia
technology within the local community. Since it's launch
SDCA has provided free advice and services to a wide range
of community based arts and social inclusion projects within
Edinburgh and beyond.
With the return of the Edinburgh International Internet
Festival in 2006, PóL was able to combine
both elements of his work. The local with the international...
and the creative with the community. "Throughout the
2006 Festival the intension was to bring together some of
the international online community's finest creative talent
- However, from the 'Snapography of Edinburgh' to the ACE IT
People's War Group special exhibition 'U-Boat Fleet
Surrenders'... I am delighted to be able to say a
significant proportion of the 2006 event was produced from
Grassroots Edinburgh."
-: PóL Steele. 2006
 The
E.I.I.Festival 2007 launched on the 1st August with the now
traditional coverage of the annual Edinburgh Festival and
Festival Fringe. The wide range of free services available
to festival performers was extended to cover online video
production and streamed music players. Visual arts also made
a prominent return with a special online
photo-review produced in association with the Randolph
Gallery. Established in 1996 and based at the heart of
Edinburgh's gallery district, the Randolph is one of the
capital's leading supporters of
the work of Scotland's leading contemporary realist and surrealist painters.
Over the course of the autumn and winter - the E.I.I.Festival
went on to work closely with a selection of artistic and
community based organisations from across Scotland and beyond
with the aim of showing how the internet and digital technology
could be used to create and develop initiatives aimed at breaking
down barriers and overcoming social isolation within
communities.
In 2008 the festival's commitment to community web
development reached even deeper levels with the launch of...
- UC-Edinburgh (United Communities
Edinburgh)
- A proposal for a combined training provision and community
web development project centred around a new online
community information, advice and news website - produced
and maintained by a team of disabled and socially isolated
individuals working through the UC-Edinburgh initiative to
develop new skills with a view to getting off incapacity
benefits and obtaining full time employment.
View Proposal
- The GD - Gorgie Dalry & Edinburgh Westward
- Produced and supported by local residents aiming to
promote the arts, entertainments and local communities of
the area The GD was a new initiative hosted by Scotfestival
designed to provide material for a permanent online presence for Gorgie
Dalry & Edinburgh Westward!
Visit The GD
2009 –
A New Direction
Sadly due to the lack of available funding support, the 2008
event was to be the last such event to be hosted for the
foreseeable future under the banner of the Edinburgh
International Internet Festival. Having entirely funded the
Internet Festival from out of his own disability benefits since
1999, Pol was unable to continue to cover the rising costs of
hosting the annual event in addition to the expense of providing
the basic equipment and hardware required.
However…
This is far from the end of the story!
After a short break to recharge the batteries –
Scotfestival will be re-launched in autumn 2010 with new aims
and objectives
"I look forward to seeing you
then!" - Pol Steele. 2009 |
