Re: <nettime> ISEA 2011 fees

[Jean-Noël Montagné <jnm@rom.fr>]

Hi Nicholas


>  Student fees begin at EUR250, with non-student fees beginning at
> EUR300---and both jump to EUR400 if you don't register by Sunday.
> In comparison, fees for last year's ISEA were EUR100 to EUR150
> for non-VIP passes, and fees for ISEA 2008 ranged from 100 to 450
> Singapore dollars (translating to, if I remember the conversion
> rate correctly at the time, around US$70 to US$320), with the
> highest-priced pass for presenters rounding out at around US$250.

I know that this money is a month of food or more for an entire family
in some countries, but it's so cheap compared to the LIFT festival in
Marseille, France, the last years, 3/5 days conferences talking about
Open Source, Free Cultures, Ressource Sharing, Art & Science, Open
Knowledge, Sustainable Devl, Innovation, Recycling..... The first LIFT
entrance fee in Marseille was 900 euros per person only, and only 450
euros for students...this was obscene. The last year, it was around
200 euros for students...this year, it's (only) 990 euros for 2 days
conferences !!!! , and 100 euros for students, but 100 seats only for
students. Such thematics with such prices: they have no credibility.
But they have had a lot of protest against this cost. And only public
protests, in mailing lists for example, have an effect.

and now, some provocative text:

ISEA, like many big digital art or contemporary art events, is one
wheel in a financial market using art works as capital for an elit. In
contemporary art, a good financial product (more than 10% growth/year)
must be designed with a lot of attention on esthetics, with easy or
spectacular mediatization, good preservation in time, possibility
of reproduction and derivative products. The artistic aspect is
secondary.

ISEA like many big digital art or contemporary art events, is also a
zoo for gaming, software, entertainement companies looking for fresh
flesh: artists, developpers, ingeneers : they don't care about the
artworks, they only care about the technical abilities. The actors of
this market need such events to share the news, and the existence of
VIP-something in the programm is the sign of this elitism.

Only students in economy should go to those events...:-)


JN




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