Macromedia's Flash is a much maligned piece of software. According to the usability guru Jakob Nielsen, "99% of the time the presence of Flash on a website constitutes a usability disease." For Nielson, Flash has encouraged "gratuitous animation" that has caused sites such as Boo.com to be such a disaster.
But Flash has developed a loyal following among media designers, animators and art students. Now, Flash animations are to be given a new dimension, one that attempts to take their work seriously as art.
Last week the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London hosted the first episodes of Map 50 - an online "soap" set in the north-east quarter of the captial. In all, 63 episodes - nine from seven different groups of artists - have been produced. Every Friday, seven concurrent episodes are launched at www.map50.com.
Each episode takes place at a specific grid reference taken from a page of the London street atlas, one grid reference an episode. The story follows a homeless woman as she attempts to cash false giro cheques around Hackney and Stoke Newington. Using elements of documentary, CCTV footage and photography, the story unfolds into what its makers describe as a catalogue of "petty fraud, substance abuse and bloody violence". This is no cute animation.
The effect is undeniably gritty, but one imbued with a clear social agenda. Map 50 has been plotted by Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy of the Desperate Optimists, an Irish-born partnership that settled in London a year ago. The pair have backgrounds in performance art, but they began experimenting with Flash two years ago. Now, all their work is online.
"Flash is really powerful," explains Molloy. "You have to get over that. Then you can make work that shows what you can do, rather than trying to find the limits of the program."
"But that's just a symptom of software being used in its early stages," continues Lawlor. "The main advantage, for artists, is that you don't have to spend years at college learning code. That makes it very attractive."
The makers of the Map 50 project come from an arts background and the work is sponsored by the Arts Council. But commercial designers are making equally challenging work using Flash. Hi-Res, an Anglo-German design group based in east London, has made commercial websites for Sony and the Beatles.
Last summer Hi-Res burst on to the scene with Soulbath.com , a site that spread like wildfire among the design and animation communities. Soulbath acted as a calling card and a call-to-arms. It offered state-of-the-art Flash animation, and it had no commercial client.
"It was a very special experience," says Alexandra Jugovic of Hi-Res. "We just put it out there and we got back tons and tons of email." Among that response was an email from Darren Aronofsky, the director of the critically acclaimed Pi. Aronofsky immediately commissioned Hi-Res to design the site for his latest film, Requiem for a Dream (now on current release). The site mixes up elements from the film with influences from net.art projects and what Hi-Res calls "the beauty of malfunction." The result was one of the most original film websites ever produced.
"We are completely aware that a site like Requiem for a Dream is a marketing tool," admits Florian Schmitt of Hi-Res. "But there's an artistic sentiment to everything we do. We were never asked by Darren to compromise."
The groups have followed up the success with another film website for Wayne Wang's forthcoming Centre of the World. The film tells of a tech stock speculator who cashes in on the market and embarks on a trip to Las Vegas with a stripper - a kind of Leaving Las Vegas meets Last Tango in Paris for the dot.com generation.
Wang filmed special footage for the website so that Hi-Res could recreate the atmosphere of a strip joint. From a design point of view the result is spectacular; a glossy, rather than sleazy, representation of the film's twilight nature. The site even includes a secret entrance to the girls' dressing room where a chatbot - with whom the user can communicate - reveals elements of the story.
Next month, the Lux Cinema in London will host the first FlashLights prize. The entrants will be shown on screen and £1000 will be awarded to the winner. Some of the work will be from designers and some from fine artists, although telling which is which is becoming increasingly difficult.
"Its really important to look at Flash in the context of the arts," explains Lena Russell of Pandemonium - the group hosting the prize. "It could easily be seen as just a tool to sell things. But the design and animation communities who have been making it their own are really vibrant and strong. We now want to place them alongside artists of other disciplines."
Five flash Harrys
www.once-upon-a-forest.com
Joshua Davis's celebration of what the web is meant not to be. No easy navigation, no faqs nor help. But you will find poetry hidden in the source code, sublime use of sound and visuals to die for. One of the most beautiful sites on the web.
www.digital-experiences.com
East London's Digit are among the rising stars of new media design. Last year they won a Bafta for their work for MTV, but here they offer a peek at their ideas before they go through the corporate mill.
Witty, New York-based site that describes itself as a "high bandwithanimation tunnel". Great music and bleeding edge visuals.
Kooky Californian designers who make some lovely Flash work for a number of corporate clients. However, their home page is as gratuitous as it is fun.
Virtuoso performances of Flash art. New material often added daily.
New episodes of Map 50 will be launched every Friday until April 6.
Hi-Res will be part of Arts Online Emerging Technologies Commissions: 52 Hoxton Square 2 on March 9.
The FlashLights Prize will be awarded at the Lux Cinema, London on March 8.
