Welcome to 2009 as we celebrate ANAT’s 21st anniversary year. ANAT has evolved a great deal from its 1984 origin as a research-based project of the Experimental Art Foundation, to becoming a legally and financially autonomous national arts organisation in 1988. 
Today, following rapid growth over recent years, we are an integral part of the flourishing global Media Arts arena.
The founding rationale of supporting new artforms developed and exhibited by ANAT and like organisations has changed. We now do so much more than run programs that redistribute government funding. We develop partnerships and sponsorships across academia, community, culture and industry and are pursuing financial sustainability strategies which will eventually lead to ANAT becoming self -supporting.
To enable ANAT to better resource our future growth (and to better support practitioners working with emerging technologies and using current technologies in innovative ways) we will be undergoing various structural changes in the coming years. Our focus for 2009 is on profiling our Media Art and Emerging Technology sector as a whole, in which artists, as well as writers, curators, administrators and producers, are of vital importance.
During 2009 ANAT will be hosting a series of exemplary events across the country, with masterclasses, symposiums, exhibitions and touring nodes in Adelaide, Darwin, Melbourne and Sydney. Throughout the year, we will continue to provide you with the highest quality art writing, critique and design in our Filter magazine, produced in print and from this issue forward in an innovative online format. Visit filter.anat.org.au to contribute to the discussion.
Our website brings you all of the information you need on ANAT and Industry news and events, with a curated selection of wild, whacky and wondrous snippets from around the globe. RSS feeds enable you to get the information as it appears, or alternatively, stay in touch via our Facebook group, follow the progress of our current residencies via our Blogs, or read up on other members’ experiences at international events in Travel Tales. And remember – our members who have profile pictures get more views!
This issue of Filter is particularly relevant in charting the fascinating history and diversity of the moving image. By engaging audiences in both intimate and public space (sometimes simultaneously), the conceptual and physical conditions that define “art” as an elite activity are demolished. Embedded and portable screens such as architectural facades, mobile phones, site-specific interactions, sound sculptures and laneway projects have now become an integral part of our cultural landscape. ANAT is proud to have been an initiator and enabler of much of this screen culture that we take for granted today in Australia.
Thank you most gratefully to all of you who have supported us from those very early first steps in 1984, and for your ongoing support in our 21st year. ANAT will continue to bring you the latest and best in emerging technologies and new creativities throughout 2009 and beyond.
Melinda Rackham
Melinda was the Executive Director at ANAT from 2005 to 2009.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Australia.