Re: <nettime> Ars Electronica and [boycotts]

[itch <cs@t0.or.at>]

On Wed, 6 Sep 2000, Carl Guderian wrote:

   dear nettimers,

> AE may be on a collision course with the Haider regime.

on a what..?

the major idea of the austrian government's cultural politics is to fight
arts with any political relevance--that explains why explicitly
unpolitical artists / art institutions are financially supported whereas
others like e.g. free radios, depot or public netbase have to face
dramatic cuts endangering their existance.

i think that the ae-festival doesn't have to fear such consequences: the
only explicitly political work presented this year was the grafity-robot
(other artist whose work might have a political dimension were invited in
a different context such as e.g. lo-ser). even this project could extract
its real political potential only by donating the reward to a former
winner of the prix ars elektronica, public netbase.

the question rises if ars or netbase have changed since 1995 to such an
extent that it was possible to create a scandal like this in 2k. maybe the
current political frame has changed both (institutions), i'd say: only
that public netbase decided not to cooperate with this (still
right-extreme) government whereas the ars tries / has to arrange with it.
(please don't get me wrong here, i'm concious that as head of an
institution like this there are plenty of responsibilities for employes,
artists, etc.). but it seems a bit like this, doesn't it?


unfortunatly i didn't follow the discussion in the beginning but i heard
that g stocker defended the program by argumenting that the ars organized
a *free speech camp* at least. free speech, but not too loud: the
participants were asked not to cause troubles to ensure that there will be
a free speech camp next year as well. but maybe this problem will be
solved next year anyway since the budgets for free radio projects such as
radio fro (in this case the organizer of the free speech camp) are cut
dramatically.  what an argument...

under these circumstances the best thing one could do was to participate
at the symposium on g p thomann at the free speech camp where his
installation *anteil 04* was compared with the *sperm race*. whereas
*sperm race* represents the *winners* of society (aren't we all winners of
a sperm race?; not to mention the sexist aspect of over-emphasising the
male part of that race for a rather poor marketing-gadget: next sexISM?),
freezing in the small tent next to the ars electronica center watching
THAT installation :) made it rather obvious that we were here to represent
the *other* side at the festival. Balance!

http://web.aec.at/nextsex/spermrace/
http://www.monochrom.at/arsindermanege/ars_anteil04.htm


so please tell me, how can i take this farce electronica serious any
longer?


   itch



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