ArtLog is a collaborative project between DIT Library Services,the Digital Media Centre, DIT and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre. The objective of the project is to produce a software solution to be used in any situation where process is as important as product. While the project is currently focussed on practising artists it is envisaged that there would be applications in a Community Arts or Academic setting
Evidence of process has always been inferred from documentary evidence such as diaries, manuscripts, letters and drafts. By working through the various handwritten drafts of a Yeats poem it is possible to discern his conceptual process. However, in the modern world, there is a heavy reliance on technology which produces the perfect copy. Nowadays, a poet can move words around on a computer screen and once the desirable pattern is found, press the save button and the record of the process is lost. Providing artists with a facility to record their thoughts on their work as they develop it will achieve a number of things. Firstly, a narrative is created around the work which establishes it in time and space. Secondly the artist's own voice is reasserted and thirdly, such reflection will feed into the process itself.
The project is now live since January 2009 in the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annaghmakerrig, Co. Monaghan which is a residential retreat for artists working in all media. In order to protect the privacy of the contributors the system is stand alone and only accessible by the residents in the Centre. Access to the archive will be by written application to the Director of the Centre as it is envisaged that, over time, the archive will be a scholarly resource for researchers in the Arts. Therefore all contributions will be catalogued, abstracts provided, indexed, tagged and make capable of advanced searching.
Funding to develop the software was provided by the Arts Council of Ireland.