The Lux Centre in east London shut its doors last month, seemingly for good. The news that the beleaguered digital arts venue had "suspended all operations until further notice" came as a blow to the new media designers, independent filmmakers and digital artists who had made it their home.
But away from Hoxton Square the outlook is not so grim. One option remains for those short of a showcase for their work - they could always move up north.
No less than nine digital arts festivals will take place in the north of England this autumn. Collectively, the loose network of festivals is creating a cultural climate that the capital cannot match. Although the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is attempting to redress the imbalance with its own digital festival in December - entitled So What Do You Want to Do With It? - London no longer has the space or funding to compete when it comes to the digital arts.
The reason for these digital divides between London and the regions is political. For at least three years, the regional development agencies and the EU have been ploughing cash into digital arts and media in the north of England. Both bodies hope to stimulate a new media culture that will, in turn, regenerate former industrial Goliaths such as Manchester, Sheffield and the west midlands.
"Five years ago, when digital media was first exploding, you couldn't get any money for it," explains Andy Stamp, co-director of Sheffield's Bastard TV festival. "The national funding system was based on old-fashioned arts like theatre and opera. Now the cultural agencies like the Arts Council, the Film Council and the Regional Arts Board have woken up to digital media, and that has all changed.
"But more importantly, one of the things going on [in the arts] in Britain is a copying of the European political system, which is based on regional rather than national government. The major regional development organisations like the Yorkshire Development Agency and Scottish Enterprise, which usually deal with industries such as coal and steel, have all started to work with IT and computers."
But it is not just public money that is keeping new media culture alive in the north. Many digital media practitioners earn their keep in the north's large computer games industry, while the lively club scene - in Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester - offers enough work to keep others in Mac PowerBooks and digital cameras for years to come.
With so many festivals to choose from, what is the work actually like? As you might expect from nine separate festivals, it is incredibly mixed. Work ranges from the ultra-futuristic visions of Stelarc, an Australian performance artist who quite literally fuses himself with machines. His new work, Hexapod, features a large "intelligent" insect-like robot and will be premiered at the Now Festival, a three-week-long digital extravaganza in Nottingham.
At the other extreme there is Bong! Smack!, a massive sound installation that last weekend dominated the ancient city of York. The work made use of five of the cities' bell towers, including the Minster, each joined by an array of sound created by people from York and from around the world via the net.
Other works of note includeForty Part Motet, a sound installation from Janet Cardiff, also at the Now Festival; electronic music experiments at Futuresonic in Manchester; and pioneering work with mobile phones at Metapod in Wolverhampton.
"There is very little happening in London [in the digital arts] outside the commercial sector," says Andrew Chetty. He should know, Chetty is director of Nottingham's Now Festival and the ICA's director of digital arts. "What you don't want is the commercial sector to be the only representative of new media work. I think the capital needs a more mixed ecology.
"With the demise of the Lux, London is in danger of becoming a desert for the digital arts. Which is bizarre because so many artists are based in London. The trouble is, so few cultural institutions are interested in supporting them."
Next year looks even rosier for digital arts festivals in the north. Next spring, Newcastle will open its Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, which will feature a designated digital department. Liverpool's Foundation of Arts and Creative Technology will also get its own purpose-built centre for digital arts, which is believed to be closely modelled on the groundbreaking V2 media lab in Rotterdam.
And it is not just the large, urban centres that are benefiting from government and EU investment in digital culture. Smaller centres such as Huddersfield, Hull and York each have festivals of their own this autumn.
"There is something regenerative about digital technology," says Kit Monkman of York's Sight Sonic festival. "It is cheaper to set up in the north than it is in London. There is also an abundance of old buildings that have lost their original purpose. We work, for example, in a converted 17th-century building. More and more people are becoming attracted to the quality of life up here.
"Eventually I think you will see the creation of a tighter network of festivals in the north of England. You could run them simultaneously over a two-week period. We would not only attract more people from the south, but also visitors from the US and Europe."
So if you want to catch cutting-edge digital work this autumn, it's high time to hit the road north.
Festival highlights
Now Festival, Nottingham Oct 22-Nov 11.
www.nowfestival.org.uk
Metapod, Wolverhampton Oct 31-Nov 3.
www.metapod.com
Two Cultures, Bradford Nov 7-8
www.theculturecompany.co.uk/pages/twocultures/tc_set.html
Futuresonic, Manchester Nov 13-18.
www.futuresonic.com
Bastard TV , Sheffield Nov 30-Dec 1
www.convergence-arts.com
