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The Australian Centre for the Arts and Technology, (ACAT) was established by the Institute of the Arts at the Australian National University in 1989 for the teaching, research,  recording and publishing of music and dynamic visual arts made with new technology. It was disbanded in 2004, to be replaced by the Centre for New Media Arts, which was disbanded in 2008 with the remnants absorbed into the department of Photography and New Media Arts in the School of Art.

ACAT provided a unique environment in Australia for the artistic use of computers and a focus for the education of multi-disciplinary artists interested in using new technologies as expressive tools. ACAT was important in the development of the electronic arts (electroacoustic music, computer animation and multimedia) education in Australia for the way it courses crossed the audiovisual border with ease...combining...influences from mathematics, philosophy history, and cultural studies and calls upon technological and scientific praradigms..

This article documents the history and development of the Centre, its educational philosophy and courses and some of people who were involved as staff and students, who continue to play important roles in the electronic arts internationally.

Early History
The nature of ACAT's interdisciplinary activities associates it with other centres within the ANU such as the Centre for Information Science Research, the Supercomputer Facility and the CSIRO's Division of Information Technology.

Educational Philosophy
Artistic Practice The principle philosophy of the Centre can be characterised by one word: Techné; briefy, rational methods involved in producing artistic objects. Techné resembles episteme in the implication of knowledge of principles, although techné differs in that its intent is making or doing, as opposed to "disinterested understanding."

Artistic practice at ACAT involves the development of aesthetic and technical principles and practices, especially as they relate to the use of new technologies,  for artistic expression. Particular emphasis is given to works which explore three-dimensional space and real-time composition /performance involving both music and animation. In order to assist in the realisation of these ideas, staff have designed and built a multi-channel portable geodesic dome performance space in which they perform such works and with which they tour. .c2.3.2. Scientific Research Scientific research in the Centre is focussed on, but not restricted to, developing new techniques for effective visual and sonic representations of complex numerical and procedural models made possible by today's computer technologies.

This research involves the application of psychophysical and other data to software design for sound and image synthesis on a wide range of computers from conventional architectures to supercomputers and parallel and cellular processing machines. A computer model for the concurrent visual and aural perceptualisation of complex (multi-dimensional) events is being devised.

The aim of this research is to develop: (a)	interactive (real-time) techniques for establishing general principles for complementary sonic and visual representations of numerical models in space and time,   and (b)	synthesis methodologies for procedural models.

As well as the use of the results of this research for the production of computer synthesised and controlled (simultaneous) sound and light compositions, this work has significance in interactive modeling and simulation (sonification and visualisation) for science, government and industry.

ACAT has been successful in attracting research funding for a number of projects and it is anticipated that the MA(EA) will encourage further funding for this work.

Courses
Studies in computer music and computer animation at ACAT can be undertaken at non-award, undergraduate and graduate levels with the primary focus on graduate study. A limited number of places exist in some ACAT subjects for suitable persons not undertaking formal study towards a course. Prospective graduate students who are missing some prerequisite use this Program to increase their technical or aesthetic competence and demonstrate their ability to deal effectively with the issues inherent in their proposed discipline studies.

ACAT currently teaches in the undergraduate programs for the Schools of Music and Art: (a) Bachelor of Music: composition major and other music technology electives and (b) Bachelor of Arts (Visual): computer animation as a Sub-Major, Minor and Additional Studies. In addition, a limited number of places are available for cross-institution enrolments. The part-time and full-time graduate courses offered are the Graduate Diploma and Master of Arts in Electronic Arts, the Graduate Diploma of Music (Computer Music), and the Graduate Diploma of Art (Visual, in Computer Animation) and Phd.

Physical Facilities
ACAT is housed in a separate building on the Acton campus within the Institute of the Arts. It operates on a seven-day/24 hour access. This "never closed" policy is an important feature of the Centre - it supports those who wish to work out of hours and gives those in daytime employment the opportunity to make maximum use of the resources. 3. Technical Facilities 3.1 Computers 3.2 Special Hardware 3.3 Software 3.4 Networks 3.5 Studio Equipment Staff 4. Research 5. Programming 6. Music 7. Teaching 8. Performances 8. Performance Space. 9. Conclusion

.c1.2. Educational Profile of the Centre .c2.2.1. Undergraduate Teaching Programmes

.c2.2.2. Graduate Teaching Programmes

.c2.2.3. ACAT Single Studies Programme

.c1.3. Research & Practice Profile of the Centre

Research at ACAT is undertaken in both artistic and scientific areas.

.c2.3.3. Educational Research The Centre is currently developing an interactive system for the computerised indexing of video taped materials and the systematic compilation of specific course materials from them. The prototype will assist in the generation of lecture materials for Anthropology 1 in 1993. This project is funded from the CEDAM innovations fund.

.c1.4. Facilities ACAT moved into a new transportable building in May this year.

The music studios house a range of historically interesting as well as up-to-date sound synthesis, sampling and recording equipment for electroacoustic music composition. Animation is currently taught and produced on Amiga computers whilst music (and administration) is undertaken with Macintoshes.

A small Appletalk network provides some shared facilities and is currently being upgraded for connection to the ANU Computer Services Centre via ethernet.

In addition to the new Macintosh multimedia suite of six machines (funded through the FCC earlier this year), ACAT has two small Unix workstations (Sun SLC's), and a Silicon Graphics Indigo multimedia workstation. This latter machine is part of a small visualisation laboratory currently being established for ANU graduate students as an intermediary facility to the ANU Supercomputer Facility's Visualisation Laboratory.

.c1.5. Staff There are currently four academic staff: � 	David Worrall, Head & Senior Lecturer in Computer Music Composition �	Stuart Ramsden, Lecturer in computer animation �	Tim Kreger (B.Mus.), Lecturer in music composition �	Chris Caines, Lecturer in animation and multimedia (PT, casual)

Technical assistance in the Centre is presently limited to sharing the skills of a Technical Officer with the SofM (not more than two days a week), together with some part-time hours for basic maintenance. Most of the current technical officer's time is spent in servicing existing equipment with almost no involvement in research and development. Current administrative staff consists of one overworked and under-paid full-time Executive Assistant (ASO-3), Julie Henderson,  whose skills and abilities to keep the place running have to be experienced to be believed!

Historically, the Centre was formed out of the Electronic Music Studios of the Canberra School of Music which was established in the 1970's by Don Banks. One notable contribution of these studios was to the development of the Fairlight CMI through the QII hybrid synthesiser. (Negotiations are being undertaken with the Museum of Sydney to house and provide proper upkeen of such "gems" - important items in Australia's musical history.

I’d like to explore some of these ideas by looking briefly at the way that the Australian Centre for Arts and Technology (ACAT) developed into the Centre for New Media Arts (CNMA). When the Australian Centre for Arts and Technology (ACAT) was established in 1989 at The Australian National University, it was the first of its type in Australia for teaching, research, recording and publishing of music and dynamic visual arts made with new technology. In 2003, ACAT reported that, ‘Its strength still lies in its reputation for originality, innovation and artistic experimentation’, strengths and beliefs that seeded future direction of today.