Chill out with a cappuccino, drape yourself across a sumptuous sofa or have a spell surfin' the Internet.

Just a few things to do (as well as check out the visuals) at Lancaster's new look arthouse.

Re-launched (or re-branded?), the Folly propelled itself into 2003 with director Taylor Nuttall's vision of developing a centre for excellence for what he calls "emergent contemporary arts practice in the North West" and he's dead keen too on crossing the Lancashire/Cumbria border to link up with other ground-breaking arts centres such as Grizedale and Kendal's Brewery.

So, it was no surprise to see a computer sitting in the Folly caf as the innovative Mr Nuttall, who, when we first meet in 1997, was a lecturer in fine art and digital imaging at Lancaster and Morecambe College.

Then he was researching the implications of computer technologies in the contemporary art field and exhibiting some of the results at Kendal's Brewery Arts Centre.

A year earlier he was instrumental in setting up the art and design college's own web pages bringing students' work to the information super highway.

The Folly's eatery is not a cyber caf but a great way to tantalize the taste buds for a foray into the contemporary. Gracing the caf walls are photographs taken by residents of Lancaster's Marsh Estate, encouraged by local lensman Sean Cousins who sold the idea of showing the images to Taylor.

Marsh Living is part of the Bridges Project, aimed at building a record of the lives of young people on the city's estate using disposable cameras. "Self representation rather than representation, and referencing the photographic work of artists such as Richard Billingham and Nan Golding," adds prince of polariods, Sean, who is behind http://www.polarama.co.uk and a major player in snap-shot aesthetic.'

Upstairs, Folly's old kitchen is getting a hi tech makeover. Out go ancient fridges and musty catering equipment, paving the way for a new media room.

In the adjoining gallery space, running until April 26, is Tony Kempen's Encyclopaedia Mundi, inspired by the medieval Wunderkammer or Cabinet of Curiosity (the forerunner of the museum) of Ferdinand II of Bavaria, which featured 18 coloured vessels from Ferdie's various sorties across the globe.

Items were classified and Tony likens the Wunderkammer process to the modern day marvel of the worldwide web. Tony's Mundi has discarded holiday souvenirs on the one hand; computer monitors linked to the Internet on the other.

Travellers' treasures, collected in charity shops in Lancaster, Derby and Leeds, rest on 18 differently coloured cabinets forming an interactive installation as CCTV captures the items, downloads them to computers using each image to start a translating process: "Picture to sound, sounds to text, text to images via the Internet.

"It uses the worldwide web and search engines as the computer equivalent of medieval collectors, who would send out their envoys," imparts Tony, who leads a double life - GP by day, contemporary artist by twilight.

He tells me it wasn't until his late 20s that art really grabbed his attention, following inspirational visits to Paris and Amsterdam, firing his imagination and eventually leading to a fine art degree at Sheffield's Hallam College in 1995.

So what is Folly exactly?

A stone's throw away from Lancaster Castle, it's a cutting-edge, non-profit arts organisation, promoting photographic, video and new media work.

In brief, its roots go back more than 20 years. The name was taken from Folly Farm, the home of Dr Philip Henman, a successful businessman and photographer, and a charitable fellow of the region, who died in 1982 and left money to his grandsons Dave and Andrew Clark.

They officially registered the trust in 1989, although its development started in 1983 with its first home at Hill House, Thurnham, Lancaster.

Andrew was a London accountant and Dave was a former Lancaster University student, particularly active in the arts world. He ran the Nazareth Youth Theatre and was big on photography.

Moving to the Castle Park venue in 1995/96, it now sports two galleries, a public studio, video editing, digital imaging and darkroom facilities.

Future advances include funding from Lancaster City Council and North West Arts to create an arts and mental health project in collaboration with a local drop-in centre for people with mental health problems, and an exciting, and no doubt boundary-pushing, two-day film and new media festival with screenings at both Folly and The Dukes.

Folly feels right and fits in well with Lancaster's growing cultural landscape.

So it's onwards and upwards for Taylor and his team.

Folly is open Monday-Friday 11am-5pm. Late-night Wednesdays 11am-9pm. Saturdays 11am-4pm.

Further details contact 01524-388550 or log on to http://www.folly.co.uk

April 16, 2003 15:30