Syndicate: V2_East Newsletter 98/03-04

[abroeck@v2.nl (Andreas Broeckmann)]

V2_East / Syndicate Newsletter 98/03-04

- Introduction
- Dates of upcoming events
- Updates

- General info about the Syndicate list
- Subscription


* Introduction *

Dear friends,

I don't know how many of you noticed, but I skipped the March-newsletter
and make this one a March/April issue, just for archival consistency. Going
through last months postings on the list, selecting the info and editing it
always takes an evening, and last month that evening didn't happen.

Some of us are still scratching our heads about the recent conference in
Stockholm. Those of you who read Tapio's report and the Partnership for
Culture Plan (TM) will have got an idea about the atmosphere there. The
composition and the performance of the Plan (TM) came close to the euphoric
days of the Visa Department performance in Kassel last year, and Lisa has
remarked that the two actions are actually related on several levels. (I
don't see the Syndicate becoming a performance group, but it seems that,
when assembled in larger groups, we can develop interesting and challenging
performative statements.)

Never before have we, as far as I can recall, felt so much like a real
syndicate or, as our cousins from the Mediterranean said, like a Family. It
had a lot to do with the pressure that was exerted on the group by the
conference project leader from the Swedish foreign ministry, but I was
later thinking that it could also have something to do with the site,
Faergfabriken, which a couple of years ago created the Interpol incident.
Maybe it's the Swedish insistence to be nice and to avoid conflicts that
provokes?

Looks like we won't have *that* problem when we go to Tirana in four weeks
from now. There is a group of over ten people from the network who have
booked tickets to the Albanian capital to participate in the PiraMedia
event in which we will showcase media art for the local audience. Tirana
and neighbouring cities will, at the end of May, certainly also become the
venue of one very memorable Syndicate meeting. How much more 'Deer
European' can you get? If there is anybody of you who want to join the
illustrious group, just get in touch. Flights and visa seem to be easy to
get for most of us.

There is a growing number of more or less Syndicate-related projects
happening this summer which in some way prove that the network is working.
The Virtual Revolutions workshop series will get a large group of artists
to meet and work together in Sofia, Rotterdam, Tornio and Manchester,
Crossing Over 3 seems to be happening in Novi Sad, and a big international
group will meet on the second Polar Circuit.

Quite a few of us have been taken aback by the cost of the attendance fee
for the ISEA98 conference in Liverpool and Manchester in September. This
international forum for electronic art would be a great place to bring a
larger group together, but at GBP 315 per head that is pretty unrealistic.
There seems to be some pusing and shoving going on behind the scenes, and
it is possible that there will be partial grants available for some people
in a few weeks. But I wouldn't hold my breath.

More realistic is the Syndicate meeting that has been all but formally
announced for 2-4 October in Skopje, in the context of the SEAFair
exhibition (the call for the exhibition is included below). As we could see
again in Stockholm, such meetings are of great importance for the network,
and you should try and make an effort to participate in them in order to
meet your fellow syndicalists from time to time. Otherwise this is just
another mailing list and not a network of people who share an interest in
media culture and media art, and who are seeking cooperation and exchange
in this field, mainly within Europe.

The most impressive moment of the conference in Stockholm was probably when
the participants from Belarus expressed the urgency of their situation. The
political situation there is dire, with a growing level of pressure in the
cultural field and censorship in the press, and people are in desperate
need of support, not least in the form of texts, ideas, information and
contacts. If you have contacts or friends there, get them connected!

Stay in touch, and I hope to see you soon -

best wishes,

-a



* Dates of (some) upcoming events and exhibitions *
(check the archive at http://www.v2.nl/mail/v2east for postings about these
events)

- 4 - 10 May 1998: BREAK 21, Ljubljana/SI
- 6 - 10 May 1998: EMAF - European Media Art Festival 1998, Osnabrueck/D
- 10 - 15 May 1998: Gioconda's Smile, Chisinau/MD
- 13 - 17 May 1998: 9th Impakt Festival, Utrecht/NL
- 19 - 24 May 1998: VIPER, Lucerne/CH
- 28 - 31 May 1998: PiraMedia, Tirana/AL
- 29 May - 14 June 1998: Avatar, Amsterdam/NL
- 18 - 20 June 1998: SONAR 98, Barcelona/ES
- 23 - 24 June 1998: Sub Rosa III, Plasy/CZ
- 26 - 28 June 1998: festival limbo, Plasy/CZ
- 26 - 28 June 1998: 3rd International Lesbian/Gay Film Festival, Budapest/HU
- June - July 1998: Polar Circuit 2, Tornio/Lapland/FI
- September 1998: Videonale 8 , Bonn/D
- 2 - 7 September 1998: ISEA98, Liverpool&Manchester/UK
- 3 - 6 September 1998: Subfiction - 3. Werkleitz Biennale, Werkleitz/D
- 4 - 13 September 1998: pictures of (e)motion, Bonn/D
- 7 - 12 September 1998: ars electronica, Linz/AT
- 18 - 23 September 1998: World Wide Video Festival, Amsterdam/NL
- 2 - 9 October 1998: SEAFair - COMMUNING, Skopje/MK
- 2 - 10 October 1998: L'Immagine Leggera, Palermo/IT
- 8 - 18 October 1998: MuuMediaFestival, Helsinki/Fi
- 9 - 11 October 1998: ROOT, Hull/UK
- 15 - 25 October 1998: Nouveau Cinema/Nouveaux Medias, Montreal/CA
- 16 - 25 October 1998: Pandaemonium, London/UK
- 17 - 22 November 1998: DEAF98, Rotterdam/NL


* EUROPEAN MEDIA ART FESTIVAL
6-10 May 1998, Osnabrueck/D

http://www.emaf.de

Between 6th & 10th May, the 11th European Media Art Festival
(EMAF) will again be presenting innovative works from the
world of film, video, installation, performance, CD-Rom and
the Internet.

This year we have received a total of 845 entries from 33
different countries for the various sections of the
festival. Next to Germany, both the USA and Canada, as well
as Great Britain and the Netherlands are traditionally well
represented. In addition, and among entries from other
countries, productions from Brazil, France and Russia will
be seen, all representing a broad spectrum of creative ideas
and visual aesthetics.

Retrospective

Over the course of the last 25 years, Pat O'Neill (USA) has
made a name for himself in Hollywood as a leading specialist
for visual effects and animation techniques (POLTERGEIST,
RETURN OF THE JEDI etc.). However, he sees his own artistic
focus moreso in the development of a personal visual
language, the expressive power of which is created through
the composition and layering of the broadest variety of
image planes. In Osnabrueck, O'Neill will be presenting a
complete show of his artistic works.

Electronic Lounge

New CD-Roms, Internet projects and technologically advanced
productions are to be presented in this section of the
festival. With THE LAST COWBOY from Nomad Productions
(Potsdam), the CD-Roms KYBERKUR, LOKI and KRYPTIC, VIBRATORS OF THE HOUSE
OF BRODSKY (Suzanne Treister).

David Blair (USA), one of the pioneers of the interactive
media will be presenting his new project THE TELEPATIC
MOTION PICTURE OF THE LAST TRIBES, which tells the bizarre
story of the Manchu Edison Film Studios in Shinkyo
(China), which planned the production of telepathic cinema
films.

2B OR NOT 3D is the title of a new time+motion Production
(Berlin) for the cultural television channel arte. On a trip
through chosen virtual worlds, the innovative 3D
visualisation technique INVISIBLE SHAPE from art+com
(Berlin) is brought into action.

InterNetworks
Faces: grrl power
In an open workshop, Kathy Rae Huffmann (Vienna), Diana
McCarty (Budapest), Sabine Seymore (NY), Margarete Jahrmann
(Vienna) and Vali Djordjevic (Berlin) will be offering
guided technical information, organising Web tours,
initiating Chats and providing information about a wide
variety of female Web environments, including: the
fe.mail.data-set; a server theory in the form of a
SUperFEMper4MANce from Margarete Jahrmann (A), to take place
at the festival as a live event.

Special: Sweden
In a country-specific special, filmmaker and curator Claes
Soderquist will be presenting experimental Swedish films
from between 1950 and 1990. Recent film and video works will
be presented by Monica Nickels, professor for video at the
Stockholm Art Academy.

Performances
Floating Memories - Keiko Ichii
The Dante Organ - Hot Hardware - Erik Hobijn (NL)
Cut to the chase - multimedia performance - knob-twiddler and composer
Steve Gibson (CDN)

Lectures
Net-Culture
Moderation: the curator and telepolis editor Armin Medosch
(Munich/London). Participants: the artist Cornelia Sollfrank
(Hamburg), sociologist Frank Hartmann (Vienna), and the
Networkers Rena Tangens and padeluun (Bielefeld).

Media Bodies
The role of the body in a world defined by the media is the
subject of lectures by Gerhard Johann Lischka (CH) and
Hartmut Winkler (D) respectively titled Everybody is a
Mediator and Pain, Perception, Experience, Peasure. Here
they examine developments in a society increasingly governed
by the media in an art historical and media critical manner.

With the presentation of their project 3 ROUBLES AND 62
KOPEKS, Tanya Moguilevska (RUS) and Gilles Morel (F) will
provide us with information on and an insight into the
development of the art and media scene in Russia, the
Ukraine and Moldavia.

International Student Forum - THRUST, TECHNOLOGY, TARTS

Festival TV
With his programme LOOP UND LITANEI, Egon Bunne - video
artist and professor at the media academy in Cologne - and
his team will be reporting daily from the European Media Art
Festival. His 'paticipatory' TV event will provide up to the
minute insights into the happenings at the festival.

Exhibition
From 6th - 24th May at the art gallery in the Dominican
church, kinetic art objects, interactive installations, and
works of art employing light, video and computers can be
experienced inviting observation, touch and consciousness.

Simon Penny (AUS) - THE FUGITIVE
Peter Bogers (NL) - RITUAL 1&2
Anne Quirynen, Peter Misotten and An Marie Lambrechts (B) - EVERYTHING WILL
BE ALLRIGHT
Peter Svedberg - PILLAR and GLASS OBJECT

In addition to the installations mentioned here, Thomas
Bartels (D), Dalibor Martinis (CRO), Candela2 (D) and Nigel
Johnson (GB) will be presenting their most recent works.

More information and updates in our programm, which will be
published by April 20th or on our website.

European Media Art Festival
Postfach 1861
Lohstrasse 45A
D-49008 Osnabrueck
Tel: +49/(0)541-21658 /25779
Fax: +49/(0)541-28327
Internet:http://www.emaf.de
e-mail:emaf@bionic.zerberus.de


* AVATAR
Of postmodern times and multiple identities
Oude Kerk, Amsterdam
29 May - 14 June 1998
opening 28 May

Participating artists
Hamish Buchanan (CDN), Jake & Dinos Chapman (GB), Susan Collins (GB), Luc
Courchesne (CDN), Yael Davids (NL), Ken Feingold (USA), Lynn Hershman (USA),
Merel Mirage (NL), Tony Oursler (USA), Ine Poppe/Jetty Verhoeff (NL), David
Rasmus (CDN), Cindy Sherman (USA),  Debra Solomon (NL),
Vibeke Tandberg (N), Bea de Visser (NL)

Info
Axis
Oudezijdsvoorburgwal 72
1012 GE Amsterdam
T +31 (0)20 4655530
F          -         4654290
E axisvm@xs4all.nl


* f e s t i v a l   l i m b o  o f  unconventional art
26 - 28 June 1998
Plasy Monastery, Czech Republic

With LIMBO we hope to evoke those "folk" summer celebrations of the recent
and distant past, if only because of late they have appeared so rarely. The
festival program will be diverse and out-of-the-ordinary, both "light" and
"challenging": concerts of experimental, festive, and unexpected music;
circus acts; inventive amateur theater & contemporary performance; video
projections and outdoor movies . . . . All in all, we hope that LIMBO will
hark back to (and towards) those old and new traditions and forms of art
that sweep boredom and mediocrity aside.

All events, performances, acts will be held on the grounds of the Plasy
Monastery ... a whole range of spaces is available - outdoor & indoor,
gorgeous & rotting, huge & intimate. Have a look at photos on the web site
("The Space" page under Center for Metamedia ... beware - the site
sometimes downloads slowly).

All participants will be housed at the monastery. Food & per diem will also
be thrown into the deal. If a modest honorarium is really needed on top of
all the fun you'll have participating, we can talk . . . international
travel costs will have to covered from other sources - we can help with
applications.

The Sub Rosa III meeting is connected with the "Limbo Festival". The
meeting's program will be held from June 23-24. Thursday will be a "open
day" and the music and performance festival will run June 26 - 28. All will
be invited with accommodations, etc. June 22-28.

W h e r e
letters/questions can come by email to -  hermit@pvtnet.cz - or fax - 00
420-182 2909
other materials by post - Center for Metamedia, P.O. Box 25, 331 01 Plasy,
Czech Repubic
questions can also be directed to - 00 420-182 2909 or 00 420-2 827 8815

We will be looking for your responses each and every day!
Milos Vojtechovsky, Jo Williams, Karel Sidorjak, Martina Tomaskova - Center
for Metamedia

Nadace Hermit / Spolecnost pratel umeni Plasy / Centrum pro Metamedia
Hermit Foundation / Society of Friends of Art-Plasy / Center for Metamedia
Klaster, PO Box 25, 331 01  Plasy, Czech Republic
tel./fax +420-182 2909
http://www.hermit.cz



* POLAR CIRCUIT 2
Rovaniemi, Tornio, Haparanda June/July 1998

(application deadline was April 21st)

Polar Circuit media art workshop was organised for the first time in 1997,
at the College of Art and Media in Tornio, South-West part of Finnish
Lapland. 52 artists, writers and students gathered there to work on
projects, discuss and enjoy the 24 hour access to sunlight and media labs.
The response from those who visited was very positive. I am glad to release
this call for Polar Circuit 2.

This year´s event starts in June in Rovaniemi, even closer to the Arctic
Circle. Two workshops are hosted by New media research lab at the
University of Lapland. The workshops are given by Steve Bradley and Darij
Kreuh. Between and during the workshops the lab is offered for the use of
Polar participants as a "free space". The environment is a new Silicon
Graphics lab, where Olli Mannerkoski and Lassi Immonen will assist in
technical issues. All together 15 participants will be accepted to this
starting phase of Polar Circuit 2. (see the program for more details).

The second part of Polar Circuit 2 takes place in Tornio and Haparanda.
This session is hosted by the College of Art and Media in Tornio and the
Swedish-Finnish vocational institute in Haparanda, Sweden. (It is just a 10
minute walk across the border). This is the main event of the Polar
Circuit, bringing together 70 artists, writers and students from
approximately 15 different countries.

pc2@tornio includes, like last year, the free space where each artist or
student may work on their own projects either together or individually. The
workshop program is splendid: many artists have volunteered to exchange
their ideas with a group of likely motivated guests. There are worksohps
given by Adrianne Wortzel, Ken Gregory, Owen Kelly, Steven Bradley, Rasa
Smite and Raitis Smits, and others. Topics range from Sound art to on-line
drama, real audio to using Director on the Internet. One thing is common
with all workshops: bringing together a brainstorm to create new ideas.

Tapio Makela
<tapio@projekt.net>

for more information please approach Olli Mannerkoski <omannerk@levi.urova.fi>


* pictures of (e)motion
international festival for dance, film and new media
4 - 13 September 1998
Bonn, Kunst- und Austellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland

info:
Madeline Ritter
Tanz Performance Koeln
Melchiorstr.3
D-50670 Koeln
tel. +49-221-722133
fax. +49-221-7392030
e-mail: <tpkoeln@aol.com>


* Skopje Electronic Arts Fair '98

COMMUNING

V.R., WWW, Net-Linked, and CD-ROM Art Exhibition
Venue: Skopje Museum of Contemporary Art
October 02 - 09, 1998 Skopje, Republic of Macedonia

An international call for V.R., WWW, Net-Linked, and CD ROM Art projects.
The exhibition Communing addresses the theme of the visions of the artists
including the
processes of Imagining, Meditation, Dreaming, Reflection and Visualization,
during the process of art creation.
The exhibition will feature the result of the Communing i.e. the digital
language of different
international artists that express themselves in V.R., the WWW, Net  -Linked
Installations, and CD-ROM.
The exhibition is conceived as an encounter of artists, technologies and
visionaries.
Communing is especially interested in original innovative projects.
The exhibition welcomes all projects using information technology and
different multi-media
applications, hypertext, vrml.

Deadline for submission: July 15, 1998

Notification of acceptance: July 25, 1998

The web site of CefCA [Center for Computer Arts]
which acts within the frameworks of the
Soros Center for Contemporary Arts - Skopje
[http://www.scca.org.mk]
will be updated frequently and will contain full information on these events.
Also see SEFair '97 on:
http://www.soros.org.mk/scca/seafair

Submit  proposals for the event to:
Melentie Pandilovski, Curator of SEAFair '98
Soros Center for Contemporary Arts - Skopje, Macedonia
Orce Nikolov 109, 91000 Skopje
mpandil@soros.org.mk
scca@soros.org.mk
http://www.scca.org.mk
tel/fax:	389.91.133.541


* Updates *

* Oleg Kireev <radek@glasnet.ru> writes from Moscow:
short info about our radical theory magazine magazine, Radek, is at:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Coffeehouse/1457


* egon march institute:<paparapapa> writes:

we are glad to announce you that emi had finaly opened a home page
http://www.iflugs.hdk-berlin.de/emi (mirror:
http://www.radiostudent.si/~march ), where, at this very moment, at
least the basic information is served about the institute, to announce
the latest event, paparapapa, which is synchronised web-cast performance
going on in kapelica gallery since april 20 till 24. you can observe the
cu-see-me communication bridge ljubljana-frankfurt-paris on reflector
kapelica 194.249.168.2 and/or live video-audio webcast at
http://www.kapelica.org/live (when announced).
welcome, in any media, we prefer flash (flesh?)
marko kosnik


*French magazine CRASH

On a recent trip to Paris I picked up a new French magazine called CRASH
(no.2, march-april 1998) which is a bit like a French equivalent of the
British MUTE <www.metamute.com>. It has a mix of news and short articles
about various aspects of cyber- and pop-culture, and is possibly the best
source for getting an idea about the French scene and perspective. They can
be contacted at <crash@crash.fr>, the website is at http://www.crash.fr.
(abroeck)


* The European Forum for Arts & Heritage (EFAH) serves as an umbrella for
arts and heritage organisations in Europe. It exists to debate and to give
a voice to the cultural sector on issues related to European cultural
policy. Created in 1992, EFAH has over 50 member organisations across
Europe ranging from national artists' organisations to European-wide
performing arts or heritage networks and has established itself as one of
Europe's leading multi-disciplinary NGOs.

Christina Sleszynska
EFAH Coordinator
European Forum for Arts and Heritage
Fax : 32-2-514 2265
e-mail : efah@innet.be



* General Info *

V2_East is an initiative of V2_Organisation Rotterdam, which is aimed at
creating a network of people and institutions who are involved with or
interested in media art in Eastern Europe and which wants to create an
infrastructure that facilitates cooperations between partners in East and
West. With its 'Syndicate' mailing list, website <http://www.v2.nl/east>
and regular meetings, V2_East is becoming an important tool for fostering
ties within the media art community in Europe which makes it increasingly
obsolete to think in term of 'East' and 'West', and which will eventually
make the V2_East initiative itself redundant.

The V2_East/Syndicate is a no-budget network initiative rather than an
institution. <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. A
Syndicate-mail archive for messages that are coming in over the list (since
April 97) can be found at: http://www.v2.nl/mail/v2east/
The list members include more than 240 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. During the DEAF96 festival
in September, we held a V2_East Meeting in which around 30 people from 12
different countries participated. Other meetings were held in Liverpool
(LEAF97, April 1997), Kassel (Deep Europe workshop, August 1997), Linz
(Syndicate Net.Shop, September 1997), and Dessau (Ostranenie 97, November
1997).


* 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: 30 May 98) to: abroeck@v2.nl.