My experience in the UK has led me to two odd conclusions: first, I tend often to be inspired by ‘continental’ art (from France, Germany, Austria, Italy…) more directly, intimately, profoundly, by what I find in the UK (the case of the US is less clear); the second strange phenomenon is the near-absence, in London, of any transmission, any visibility, of so much I find inspiring in Continental Europe (more so for France than Germany). As my discovery of digital practices occurred after my exile in the UK, I can safely assume that what I see as a relative ‘absence’ of such practices on the Continent is due to my ignorance, and the already mentioned lack of proper visibility of these artists here, rather than the rather broadly shared prejudice that the UK is far ahead on this front, and that these practices are yet to emerge over there.

A little research does yield a few preliminary results, perhaps most notable of all, the presence of an entire department dedicated to digital creation in Paris, founded in 1990 (far earlier than the Goldsmiths Computational Art department, if my informations are correct). Perhaps not so surprisingly, however, the web presence of a lot of what I find in France is appalling and really, really old-looking (which forces me to moderate my earlier statements: the Continent does need an upgrade on that front). The site of the Département Hypermédia and its Wiki page. As I already noticed with literary studies, a lot of the research and practices in France and the rest of the Continent is often not digitised (very ironic in the field of e-literature…): if one looks at the staff there, half of the profiles are missing, and the websites, if any, are terrible, but if one were to look at paper archives, articles, etc., one would be amazed at the wealth of creativity and initiatives that have taken place.

A far-from-exhaustive list of sources (which could also be a bestiary for terrifying web pages):