Based in Paris, France, Annick Bureaud has been involved in art, science and technology for many years as an art critic, researcher, teacher, curator.

How long have you been with fAf and in what capacity?
I discovered fineArt forum (fAf) in 1989. I was starting the IDEA (International Directory of Electronic Arts, http://nunc.com) project on paper then, no Internet for me at that time. fAf was such a resource, I could not believe it.

The following year, after ISEA (1990) in Groningen, I had a meeting in Utrecht with Roger Malina, Denise Penrose and Ray Lauzzana, the founder of fAf. We had a wonderful brainstorming session, leading to millions, trillions of ideas blossoming. One result was that I became President of ASTN (Art, Science and Technology Network), the parent organisation of fAf.

What motivated you to work for fAf?
I felt I’d gained a lot from fAf and that it was my turn to give a little bit back.

How has your role in fAf changed over the years?
I have been the President of ASTN for many years, and I think, I still am, as nobody really took the time to renew the Board! I continue to do as much PR as I can for fAf, as I always have, especially within the French-speaking community.

When Paul Brown took over the mantle of editor, he took fAf to new heights. And now with Nisar Keshvani, it is clear that a new dimension and dynamism is being brought to the e-zine. So my role has become less and less important. I see myself more as an "advisor" and a "link" with the past and the history of fAf.

How are you, yourself, involved in the community that fAf serves?
My main “hats” are:
:: director and project manager of Leonardo/Olats (the French web of Leonardo);
:: art critic (Art Press, a French contemporary art magazine),
:: teacher in various art schools in France with some guest teaching abroad.

I am co-organising in Paris an international symposium "Artmedia VIII - From Aesthetics of Communication to Net art" and developing online documentation for it on the Leonardo/Olats web site (http://www.olats.org).

Recently I co-authored a book on a similar subject - "Connexions : art, réseaux, media" published by the Press of the Paris art school; and I am also co-project manager of a new project developed jointly by Leonardo/Olats and the Ours Foundation called SpaceartS. As the name suggests, it will be an online database about space art.

Is there anything in particular you love about fAf?
What I like about fAf are its broadness, its international scope (many editors from different countries have now taken care of fAf), and the fact that it is free and "communal". It was the first electronic newsletter in our field and it is still there, going on with the same spirit and I just love that. Oh, one more thing: it is done entirely online. The board members are spread all over the planet, and we sometimes held "hot" discussions online about what we should do and how, and that was great-

What particular memories would you like to share?
One memory was a consequence of fAf’s "online process". We were in Helsinki during ISEA. It happened the night of the opening of ISEA. We had had an earful from the local VIP and a bunch of people gathered around a large table to have dinner. Just in front of me was an artist I had never met and whose work I found challenging. So I introduced myself and asked him about his work and so on. After a while, a man beside me said : “Hi Annick, I am Paul Brown.” It was just amazing and so wonderful. I had been exchanging emails with Paul for so long about fAf and it was the first time that we met.

It might sound like one of those nice stories circulated on the Internet about coincidences, but it is a wonderful memory for me, meeting someone for the first time and having this feeling of "knowing him".

Now that fAf is run from Singapore, I have this strange feeling that a new "wing" or an "extension" into the East has been added to my Paris office. It broadens my view of the world and again, I just love that.

You have seen fAf grow, what do you see in fAf's future, and what is your take on its role or place in the new media/art/technology community?
The key questions at fAf have always been: How can we serve the community? What can we provide that others don't? I guess, the future will not change the mission, and clearly fAf does provide something that others don't. The new generations will have new ideas, hopes, and ways of dealing with "new media art" and fAf is addressing their needs. Also, I predict that in the ocean of e-publications, fAf will become the portal to the art/science/technology community.

Biography
Annick Bureaud was born in Limoges, France, in 1958. She moved to the capital at 22 and has been a consultant in the field of art, science and technology since 1985. Ms. Bureaud is the director of Leonardo/Olats, Observatory for the Arts and Techno-Sciences, the French Leonardo web site, and the founder and editor of the IDEA (International Directory of Electronic Arts).

She is also an art critic (member of the Leonardo Editorial Board, ART Press, French contemporary art magazine), and a teacher at the Art School of Aix-en-Provence, as well as Paris’s ENSCI (National School for for Industrial Creation).

In the beginning of 1999, Ms. Bureaud lectured overseas at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and gave a seminar two years later at the University of Quebec in Montreal.

On a personal level, she has challenged herself to see all the rooms and art works in the Louvre Museum, in chronological order, no less. She has achieved the ambitious undertaking that she embarked on in August 2000, gaining great pleasure and satisfaction in the process. Her goal for 2002 is to complete her various publishing projects, both offline and online.