Media Technology / Art / Media Mentality.
Pro@Contra – MachineMachy.

Alexey Isaev, Olga Shishko
May 11-14, 2000
(interdisciplinary international project)
Participants: Russia, Eastern and Western Europe, USA, Japan, Australia.
http://www.danet.ru8101/pro-contra/pro@contra.htm

The International Interdisciplinary Symposium "Pro & Contra" organised by Moscow MediaArtLab was initiated as an attempt to resolve pressing problems of the use of new technologies in cultural sphere, as well as to realise some practical goals and tasks. The most important thing for organisers was to accumulate open professional discussion in order to find and to examine new strategies of critical approach in practice and theory to the problem of appropriation of new media technologies in contemporary culture and art. We were glad to find big interest to the Symposium's concept and program from both international and Russian local communities. More than one hundred participants (artists, theorists, organisers, activists) from Eastern, Central, and Western Europe, America (30 foreigners in total), Russian regions, Saint Petersburg, and Moscow took part in the conference, debates, and presentations. Very diverse audience consisted of art practitioners, scientists, journalists, students, representatives of state organisations and some companies dealing with new media technologies. Different innovative and alternative to commercial use of media strategies as well as new research methods were represented and discussed during the Symposium. Among them there were presentations of such interesting new forms of art practice as "Art of Campaign" (projects that involve art ideas, activists tactics, and possibilities of new media technologies), Net Radio (initiated by Riga media centre "E-Lab" network of alternative radio stations that spread audio art content on the Internet), VRML ART (Internet art projects whose authors create 3D virtual environments online).

Idea to let representatives of different points of view, often opposite ones, give their arguments "pro" and "contra" the actual phenomena of current developments of interrelations between technical progress and culture resulted in debates during the conferences and the round tables. One of them was organised in collaboration with the Department of Government Information of Government of Russian Federation at the House of Government of Russian Federation under the title "State. Information. Internet". It was the first try to establish mutual beneficial dialogue between independent cultural community and official power, may be not so productive this time as we wished, but the same remarkable step. It demonstrated reciprocal desire of openness from both sides as well as will to move together towards collaborative resolving of the problem of freedom and methods regulations on the Internet.

During the symposium a lot of new contacts between participants were established, interesting ideas of joint and network projects appeared. The catalogue "Pro & Contra" with full texts of presentations and descriptions of projects will issue soon. The conference was translated via the Internet in Real Video format. Video archive will be available at the site of the project: http://www.procontra.danet.ru.

The principal practical goal of the project is to integrate, through the Internet, Russian scientific, theoretical, artistic and institutional experience into European community.

The task of the symposium is to promote professional open discussion on problems of use of media technologies in contemporary culture as well as to examine various innovative strategies and experiments within this sphere.

Principal Subject (Summary)

Total technologisation has embraced all life spheres of contemporary society.

The very logic of technological development directed to progress and innovation might seem to be pursuing and positively affecting culture and art that more and more often address technology services.

New technology bears a positive aspect of what we would call the progress. This notion embraces political, economic, social and cultural factors. On the other hand, we could witness that new technology development provokes the situation of devaluation. In this respect, technology becomes repressive towards traditional cultural, social, economic and political values. As a result, an active transformation of traditional culture into new representative forms occurs, evoking both well founded and not grounded criticism.

On the whole, this position is based on the state that technological progress does not affect essential and traditional interests of art and culture.

Thus, a dual evaluation of this problem contains both ‘pro’ and ‘contra’ opinions.

And theorists and activists expressing different opinions (positive and negative, pro@contra) on the problem will take part in discussions.

Please, mail your proposals to MediaArtLab (SCCA, Moscow)

E-mail(s): newart@aha.ru, or shishko@transts.ru

Venues: Russian State Humanitarian University (RSHU), Houses of the RF Government, Media Institute, Museum of the Cinema, other.

Directions and target groups:

inter = www = internet

  1. inter-information (electronic mass media, contemporary culture and art) - for specialists in information, electronic mass media theorists and journalists, editors, artists, etc.;
  2. inter-art (Internet and art) - for specialists in culture and art on the Internet, theorists, curators, critics, artists, students, and others;
  3. inter-technology (Internet and technology) - for Inter-technology specialists, directors, marketing staff, programmers, artists, students, etc.;
  4. inter-institution (Internet and institutions) – for institutional structures’ representatives, media lab and institute directors, professors (instructors, tutors), students.

Conference Highlights

  1. Art and Culture
  2. Art Beyond Definition?

    Problem of the new technology art research. Functional aspects of the role of art activity exploring new technology opportunities, and using them to beat artistic goals.

    Quality value problem, and evaluation criteria in regards to contemporary media-art. It’s place in art history, in correlation with idea, method and technique evolution.

  3. Art and Technology
  4. Technological Progress and Technical Regress?

    Progress and regress in the field of art. Problem of appropriating new technological devices in art culture. Actual methods and forms of putting aims and their realisation by artists using media (individual method and machine logic). Status of media-artist and his(her) methods: researcher, critic, activist, manipulator, or programmer.

  5. Art and Institutions

New Tactics and Strategies?

Initiatives and local communities. Estimation criteria of media-art. Museums: pro and contra. Essential aspect of communicative functions of media-art.

Principal questions within ‘Media-culture and the Internet’ direction

Priority directions of the event: Information, Institutions, Technology, Art

Open discussions, seminars, presentations and workshops on:

1. Information.

The Power and the Internet (The State and the Internet)

(meetings of Russian Government representatives, electronic mass media, and journalists)

Official and Independent Mass Media and Media-culture

(meetings of Russian leaders of electronic mass media and critics with Western specialists experienced in presenting culture and art on the Net)

Art Servers

(content providers, theorists, artists, critics, journalists, Net activists)

Art of Companies

(artists, art activists, critics, theorists in media-culture)

2. Institutions.

New institutions in culture and education. Creation of Net communities and co-ordination of their activities

(meetings of official educational institutions with representatives of regional Internet centres, activists, theorists, students)

Analyses of experience in creating and co-ordinating of Net communities, discussions on new projects and possible strategies of their realisation.

Ideology of the seminar is directed on formation of methodological support of public initiatives on creating new cultural and educational projects.

Suggested directions:

Media-art. New educational models

(Western and Russian tutors (professors) of digital art, education program curators, students, etc.)

Institutional developing strategies. The role of media centres in formation of cultural policy.

(presentation of art media-labs from ex-UIS countries and Eastern Europe, discussions on projects and possible ways of future co-operation, experience exchange with Western media institutions)

3. Technology.

Modern technology development strategies, and creative methods of their use.

ART’n’SOFT

VRML

(meeting of company-designers’ representatives, media-culture content providers).

  1. Culture.

Media centres. Institutional development strategies. Official structures and media-culture. Forms of support.

(presentation of art media-labs from ex-UIS countries and Eastern Europe)

Presentation of Western and Russian media-festivals

(festival curators and moderators. Artists, critics, journalists)

Presentation of Western and Russian exhibition art projects (using media technologies):

Guelman Gallery – Net-art,

TV Gallery ArtMediaCentre – media-installations.

Art project presentation on the following direction:

* Net-art

* Video-art

* CD-ROM and DVD

Video-shows: ‘Riot against Machines; Australian alternative cinema; Russian video-art; retrospective show of East European video-art.

Alexey Isaev - Academician, Member of the Cinematograph’s Union Media artist, theorist, art director of the MediaArtLab, director of “Pro&Contra” Symposium, curator of the art resource ‘Da-Da-Net’ festival in the Runet (http://www.da-da-net.ru), organiser of the first International Festival of Experimental Video, Computer Animation and Projective Synthesis. Author of the following projects: ‘Underground Land’ (Estonia, Tallinn), 'Labyrinthology' (Moscow), net project ‘My Revolution’ (www.aha.ru/~newart). Author of the project of International ‘Trash-Art’ Festival, e-mail: newart@aha.ru. Selected events: International Festival ISEA-98 REVOLUTION London–Manchester (1998), ‘It’s a better world’ in Secession Museum, Vienna, Austria; Art Forum Gallery in Mirano, Italy (1997); European Contemporary Art Biennale ‘Manifesta 1’, Rotterdam, Holland; video-installation ‘S.Eisenstein’s Pavilion’, together with V. Podoroga (1996); one-man show in the ‘Ptuch’ video Gallery, Moscow (1995); International exhibition project (curator – Jean Franc ois Taidei), France, Saint-Naser; Annual Exhibition of the Soros Centre of Contemporary Art ‘New MediaTopia’, video-installation, Moscow (1994); International project of Komar and Melamid ‘What to do with monumental propaganda?’, New York–Moscow–Tallinn (1993); ‘Avant-garde and Traditions. Books of Russian Artists of the 19th Century’, Museum of the Book, Moscow–Paris, National Library (1993).

Olga Shishko - art expert, curator, specialist in new technology art, graduated from the Moscow State University (art history and theory department), member of the AICA since 1997. Curator of the ‘MediaArtLab’ programme in the SCCA, Moscow; curator and co-ordinator of the first Russian art resources ‘Da-Da-Net’ Festival; member of the expert council of the ‘Electronic publishing’ programme (Soros Foundation); curator of the ‘Contemporary Art on the Internet’ programme (EVA-Moscow).

Selected projects: member of the international jury of the ‘Art on the Net’ Internet festival (Japan, curator – Tetsuo Kogawa, 1998–99), editor of the ‘NewMediaLogia – NewMediaTopia’ catalogue (1996); curator of the multimedia studio ‘Cross-media’ (SCCA and ‘Termen Center’, Moscow Conservatory, 1995–96), co-ordinator of the project ‘Art Laboratory of New Media’, educational curator for history and theory of new technologies (1993–94).

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