V2_East / Syndicate Newsletter 96/05

[abroeck@v2.nl (Andreas Broeckmann)]

V2_East / Syndicate Newsletter 96/05

- Introduction
- Dates of upcoming events (new: Media and Ethics, Helsinki, 9/96)
- Updates (Documentation Meeting Rotterdam; Media Conference Kiev;
Transnacionala)
- Links (VPRO programme about Belgrade and Soros, Intermedia Budapest,
Artpool Budapest)

- General info about the Syndicate list
- Subscription


* Introduction *

Dear Syndicalists,
everybody seems to be busy with the preparations for the summer and autumn
activities, and from the list of upcoming events you can see that September
will be a very busy month for many of us. However, it might also give us
several opportunities to meet in Real Life and have some fun together. The
preparations for the Documentation Meeting are going well and it could now
turn into a substantial meeting on the history and present  of media art in
Eastern Europe. (More info on the current state of things below.)
Please, continue using the list <syndicate@aec.at> for posting info that is
of interest to the media art community in East and West Europe. And once
again: Some of you have promised info about their institutions and
activities, and I would like to encourage you to write a few sentences -
there are a lot of curious people in this growing network who might be
future partners for your projects.

Best wishes, and see you soon,
Andreas Broeckmann (V2_East)


* Dates of (some) upcoming events (info below/in Newsletter 96/..)*

- June 1996 (6-9) 5Cyberconf, Madrid/ES (96/03)
- June 1996 (7/8) Biosport Inc., Riga/LV
- June 1996 (13- July 28) Fototriennale, Graz/AT (96/04)
- June 1996 (16-21) International Media Conference, Kiev/Ukraine (96/04)
- September 1996 (2-7) Ars Electronica Festival, Linz/AT (96/02)
- September 1996 (4-8) Film-Video-Forum/Passagen, Freiburg/DE (96/02)
- September 1996 (5-9) Cluster Images, Werkleitz/DE (96/02)
- September 1996 (11-15) European Media Art Festival, Osnabrueck/DE (96/02)
- September 1996 (12-14) Media and Ethics (Helsinki/FI)
- September 1996 (16-20) Inter-Society of Electronic Arts, 7th Conf.,
Rotterdam/NL (96/02)
- September 1996 (17-22) Dutch Electronic Art Festival, Rotterdam/NL (96/02)
(incl. V2_East/Syndicate Archive and Documentation Meeting) (96/03)
- October 1996 (11-13) Metaforum 3, Budapest/HU (96/03)
- October 1996 (15-25) Ars Digitalis, Berlin/D (96/03)
- November 1996 (28-1.12.) Circles of Confusion Film&Video Festival,
Berlin/D (96/04)
- February 1997 (10-14) WSCG'97, Plzen/CZ (96/02)
- April-May 1997 WRO 97, Wroclaw/PL (96/02)
- June 1997 - Medienbiennale, Leipzig/DE (96/02)



* "BIOSPORT Inc."
31 May, 1 June, 7 June, 8 June, 1996. Riga, Latvia,
organized by SOUNDS OPEN SYSTEMS (management DUO in collaboration with E-L@b).

Contact e-mail: rasa@parks.lv

The project "BIOSPORT Inc." - a colorful and widely accessible public event
- is being conceived as a string of art exhibition, environmental
installations and musical events and will take place in Riga, Latvia from
the 31st of May to 9th of June. The aim of the project is to demonstrate
particular parallels that exist between contemporary, dance music
tendencies, current fashion and industrial design as well as  individual
video art directions. This is the second largest art-project organized by
non-profit art-management-bureau "DUO future + art" after the music and
environmental installation project "OPEN", which took place in Riga last
autumn and engage a high level of attention between those having interest in
contemporary art and rave-culture tendencies.

"BIOSPORT Inc." will include both a contemporary art exhibition and
non-traditional video events in conjunction with electronic mass media,
fashion shows, multimedia rave-parties featuring well known European DJs,
ambient and easy-listening-music chill-out rooms. The project's basic
structural principle is to present contemporary art with the temperament and
dynamics of current life style and within the context of trend-culture
actualities.

The invited artists, video directors, fashion designers and DJs from Riga,
Moscow, St. Petersburg, Stockholm and London are either individual
forerunners or foremost representatives of spicy sub-, trend, club- or other
socio-cultural movements. Especially worthy of note are "Novije Compositori"
- the best known Russian techno-band from St. Petersburg, Vladik
Mamishev-Monro - the leading "drag-queen" and performance artist of Moscow`s
club-culture, environmental installation artists Olegs Tilbergs (the winner
of ARS FENNICA award in 1994) and Mikelis Fishers (well known after his
solo-exhibition "Sex`n`SpaceShips" in 1995, Riga), the "Ptjuch-club" DJs
Maksim Zorkin and Ivan Salmaksov, DJ Janis Krauklis from Riga - the "first
Soviet techno DJ" and a participant of the first rave-party in Soviet Union
"Gagarin party".

All events connected with the project will take place in the center of the
city in a five store building, which was formerly the workshop of the
cosmetics company "Dzintars" (41, Lacplesu Street) and is vacant now.

The opening times of the exhibition as well as the beginning of all the
special events are similar to those of the rave-parties.
The visitors of the project are welcome Fridays' and Saturdays' nights on
the 31st of May and 1st, 7th, 8th of June starting from 10.30. p.m.
For more information e-mail: rasa@parks.lv


* MEDIA AND ETHICS
of the contemporary critique

A SYMPOSIUM AND GATHERING FOR CRITICS AND ARTISTS
in the field of photography, multimedia, video, installation and performance
Helsinki,  September 12th-14th, 1996

Organisers:  Arts Council of Finland, MAP (Media-Art-Photography) Project
Programme Coordinator:  Tapio Makela  <director@kaapeli.fi>
Producer:  Adele Eisenstein  <adele@caesar.elte.hu>

CONCEPT
The symposium in Helsinki will be a gathering of critics and artists from
the Baltic Sea countries and the surrounding region. The main topic under
discussion is new media as a twofold challenge. The first challenge focuses
on the potentialities of emerging art spaces, such as www, cd-rom and
telematics. The second challenge is to discuss these media as critical
forums and dialogical spaces. How do traditional museums, galleries,
newspapers and other mainstream media react to these changes? What types of
alternatives have been developed?
Discussion of ethics in the new media culture is a central theme of the
symposium. If defined as one's personal politics, ethics of the
contemporary critique deals with choices, which for the artist are
questions of inclusion and exclusion. As ethical discourse is dangerously
close to moralistic discourse, the symposium foregrounds questions of free
speech and free artistic expression.

SUBTOPICS (1) Media: Space;  (2) Media: Theory and Tradition;  (3) Ethics;
and (4) Artists and Critics I/O

(1) Media:Space
Medialization, art becoming communication and vice versa, is a challenge
for tradtional ways of making and evaluating art. How are museums and
galleries suited for media art - or for performance? What are the new
characteristics of space that cd-rom, interactive installations, world wide
web, or art in the city space create? How should critics view, feel, smell,
and listen to these spaces and rewrite them?
Workshops: (a) Theories of space;  (b) Museums and galleries: ruins or new
methods?;  (c) From infocult to critical strategies

(2) Media: Theory and Tradition
Artists using new media are combining techniques of visual arts, cinema,
video and performing arts, yet their theoretical background may be from one
genre. These complex situations require awareness on the part of the critic
to use multiple interpretive strategies. Are such new genres as cd-rom
production, interactive theatre and computer animation suited for film
critics, visual art critics - or do we need media art critics?
Workshops: (a) Research as media critique (with particular attention to
different traditions of art history, cinema studies, cultural studies and
aesthetics);  (b) Art work as research and theory;  (c) A dialogue between
critics and performance artists

(3) Ethics
In the days of personal satellite tracking devices, it is possible to tell
one's precise geographical location. What do you do with that kind of
information in media culture? What kind of borderlines are drawn in
cyberspace? On whose terms can one do art work using communication
technologies? Media culture allows cultural remapping and both painful and
pleasurable dislocations. As national borders dissolve (if they do) and
modernist states make room for post-industrial societies (if they do),
there is a desire for fresh ideas and points of view (if there is). What
kind of ethics will influence the future critique? How are artists and
critics dealing with censorship and conservative ethics?
Workshops: (a) Social and environmental changes, crises and critique;
(b) Ethics and politics of critique

(4) Access and Interactive Critique
The question of access to the media for artists, potential audiences and
critics is crucial. Are you I/O (In or Out)? How does high technology in
the arts affect artists in the post-communist countries. After access - can
there be interactive critique, where critics' texts are criticized by the
artists? Will criticism transform into cultural dialogue in the next
millenium?
Workshops: (a) How to use www and other Internet tools for critical
discussion: a hands-on introduction;  (b) Interactive and independent
critique: a dialogical space;  (c) Cultural difference and national
politics in the age of optic fibre


* IV. St. Petersburg Biennale, October 1996

ELECTRONIC PAGE - Exhibition of art with new technologies

The problem of the quest for new territories is one of the real and urgent
problems of contemporary art; it is associated with the crisis in
traditional display of work in museums, with material problems arising from
the physical realization of projects, and, in the final analysis, with the
finiteness of space on this earth.

We can only hope and look for a new dimension or for new strategies. One
such strategy is that offered by Internet, which provides opportunities
capable of reflecting the changes in consciousness which have undeniably
taken place over the last three decades.

ElectronicPage will present the artistic and theoretical network of Eastern
Europe in interraction with the network of other countries and parts of the
world. New technologies will be demonstrated in their applied sense as means
or, to be more exact, instruments making it possible to feel and approach an
understanding of the creative space being formed under our very eyes.

Curator: Irina Aktuganova
E-mail: abc@cyberun.spb.su
http://www.spb.su/biennale/index.html (general info)
http://www.spb.su/biennale/electronic.html (Electronic Page info)


*Update*

*Meeting on Archives and Documentation of Media Art*

The Meeting will take place during the DEAF96 festival and the ISEA
conference in Rotterdam.
The description can be found on the website at:
http://www.v2.nl/east/events/docmeeting9609.html

The *dates* will be Wednesday 18 Sept for the public session during which
there will be presentations on the history of media art in different
Eastern European countries (this will be part of the evening programmes of
DEAF96) and Friday 20 Sept for the specialist meeting about archives and
documentation sources, about access and the compatibility of data bases
which already exist or are being created.

*Programme*
Quite a number of people have confirmed that they want to participate, and
some have sent proposals for presentations. More people have been asked to
make proposals who we hereby want to invite again to make suggestions, and
we have probably also missed a few important contacts - please, let us know
if you also want to participate, or if you know further people who we
should get in touch with.

*Funding* We have been looking at possible sources for funding and it seems
that it should be possible to get travel grants either from the European
Cultural Foundation or through the City of Rotterdam. I have also applied
for a grant from the Dutch Foreign Ministry. The ECF has an APEX programme
through which individuals can apply for travel grants, while the City of
R'dam has a programme that supports contacts with the partner cities
(Gdansk/Gdynia, St. Petersburg, Constanza, Burgas, Prague, Bratislava,
Budapest).

*Applications/Invitations* In order to be able to process the applications,
I need confirmations from you that you want to participate, and proposals
for presentations etc. I can then also send invitations for visa etc. These
invitations should also be useful for those of you who have the possibility
of applying for money from local sources. It is unlikely that we will be
able to invite many people on the Dutch grants, so it will be important
that we pool resources.

For anything relating to the Doc Meeting, please, get in touch with either
Inke Arns <inke@contrib.de> or Andreas Broeckmann <abroeck@v2.nl>


*Kiev*
Vladimir Muzhesky informed me that the International Media Conference
organised by the group setting up a new intermedia lab in Kiev/Ukraine will
take place from 16 - 21 June. For further info, please contact "vladimir
muzhesky"  <n_fabrik@euronet.nl>.


* TRANSNACIONALA
A Journey from the East to the West initiated by Irwin

Irwin and Eda Cufer, together with some guests artists and curators from the
USA and Russia (Alexander Brener, Goran  -or-evia, Vadim Fishkin, Mary Jane
Jacob, Mark Pauline, Yuri Liederman, Viktor Misiano), will in July 1996 make a
one-month journey from Atlanta to the West Coast of the United States in two
equipped vans.
In the course of this journey they will organize about five events in
different parts of the USA (Atlanta, Richmond, Chicago, San Francisco,
Seattle). The Transnacionala project will focus on communication among
entities from different cultural, social and political backgrounds. These
events will be in the form of one- or two-day shows, discussions, lectures,
screenings, etc., at various locations:, private houses, galleries, parking
lofts... The topics of the discussions will be prepared in advance.
During the trip reports including the most important parts of the events and
discussions will be sent through a computer link to the location of the
"Conversations" project in Atlanta and video letters will also be sent to
"Manifesta" in Rotterdam.

contact: nsk@mordor.kud-fp.si
You can follow the journey on: http://www.heck.com/nsk.html (from June 15)


*Links*

* http://www.scca.hu/WWWdev/intermedia/intermed.html
The homepage of the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts Intermedia Department
(Magyar Képzõmûvészeti Fõiskola Intermedia Tanszék)
H-1062 Budapest Andrássy út 69-71.
Tel.:(36-1)3427918,3421738/15 Fax:(36-1)3421563

* http://www.artpool.hu/
Artpool Art Research Center
located at: Budapest VI, Liszt Ferenc tér 10., first floor
postal address: 1277 Budapest 23, Pf/Box 52, Hungary
tel.: (+36-1) 268-01-14, fax: (+36-1) 121-08-33
e-mail: artpool@artpool.hu

* The Dutch TV channel VPRO did a programme about B92 in Belgrade and about
George Soros recently. There is a report by the researchers about their
trip to Belgrade on the web at:
http://www.vpro.nl/htbin/scan/www/vpro-digitaal/laat-map/027-map/materiaal.h
tml.
The report is in Dutch but has some links which make it worthwhile also for
non-Dutch speakers.



* General info about the Syndicate list *

<syndicate@AEC.at> is the address of a mailing list which is dedicated to
an exchange of information and ideas relating to the situation and future
development of electronic and media art in Eastern Europe. The list members
include artists, curators, networkers, writers, festival organisers, etc.,
from East as well as West European countries and beyond, who, through the
'Syndicate', are trying to improve the communication and cooperation
between artists and organisations in East and West. The list was first
installed following the initial meeting of the V2_East initiative at
V2_Organisation in Rotterdam on January 21, 1996, at the end of the second
Next 5 Minutes conference.


* Subscription *

To subscribe to the syndicate list, please, send a message to
<syndicate-request@aec.at> with the following text in the body of the
message: 'subscribe [email-address]'
For more information about the Syndicate, please, contact <abroeck@v2.nl>
(Andreas Broeckmann).



*Please, send information that you feel should appear in the next edition
of this newsletter (deadline: 28 June 96) to: <abroeck@v2.nl>.



............................................................................
..........................................................
V2_Organisatie * Andreas Broeckmann * abroeck@v2.nl
Eendrachtsstr.10 * NL-3012XL Rotterdam * t.+31.10.4046427 * fx.4128562
<www.v2.nl> <www.dds.nl/n5m> <www.v2.nl/east>

coming up:
DEAF96, the Dutch Electronic Arts Festival, 17 - 22 Sept 1996 <www.v2.nl/DEAF/>