The idea for this journal came from the writer/painter Alasdair Gray's response to a question at a recent talk at Stirling's Smith Museum and Art Gallery. He was asked to what he now thought of his late 1980s venture into promoting a touring exhibition of his own and others' paintings. He listed the problems afflicting any cultural initiative in Scotland as
We have been involved in previous attempts to break out of this. These are usually defeated by a lack of resources - basically, the requirement for premises, for print-run, etc.
Perhaps there is some scope here to change that (setting aside scepticism that the web encourages window-shopping rather than a discursive mentality) ...
This set of web pages should allow us to create something different: a journal which changes over time, without the need for substantial print-runs. It also allows incremental changes - no need to do an entire new issue in order to feature one new article. This should enable us to feature critical articles on events, exhibitions or what have you, whether within or outwith Scotland.
Click here to read a more detailed introduction perspective piece, dealing with the issue of cultural metropolitanism and attempting to deal with the technical remoulding of our towns.
Karen Strang's "Ricky 1963: Wound, Strap, Watch, Table" (March 1996; art work on several pages, total size 34K incl. graphic)
"A Sense of Place": S.S.A. in Stirling [February 1996; size 2K]
Scottish Society of Artists: Smith Museum exhibition [February 1996, size 4K]
Scottish Society of Artists: Cowane Centre exhibition [March 1996, size 4K]
Lorna Wilson's Cowane Gallery exhibition (April 1996, size 2K)
Peter Russell's "Building 2000" exhibition review (March 1995, size 2K)