“The Art of Tomorrow”: Workshop

“The Art of Tomorrow”: Workshop Oct.18th

On the basis of projects and experiences this workshop discussed how to scale up through cooperation. Which role will networks play in the sphere of art? And should networks increase globally or root more locally? Problems that restrain scaling up were named as well as the question what power curating has and if networks have to be opened or closed to people.

Projects:

ikono TV – art channel
transmediale – festival for media art
reSource for transmedial culture
trampoline – agency of art and media
arte creative – network for contemporary culture
Upgrade International – international network
Sapporo Media Arts Lab
Sapporo International Art Festival

General questions

– What to expect of the future in terms of networking in art? i.e. surfaces, surroundings
– How will format and content change?
– Can machines create our content? Is this art?
– How to network/connect with the public/audience?
– What could be the network of the future? What does networking mean today and tomorrow?
– What is art in post-digital era?
– How do you broadcast the right content to the right people?
– Do we have to conserve digital art and how?
– How to scale up through cooperation?
– Will the art change by the need of networking?

Input by Tatiana Bazzichelli (transmediale)

Background:
– 90‘s in Rome: independent hacker labs, DIY, art and development of social practices
– her understanding of network: it is a long art tradition (postal art, fluxus), sharing and collaboration
– Berlin: easy to network but difficult to build up real projects

Aims of transmediale/reSource for transmedial culture:
– creating collaborations by reflecting critically about networking
– networking is becoming a more corporate activity
– addressing a more local structure with the festival
– integrating different genres and communities (queer people, hackers, …)
– topics: problem of spaces in Berlin, gentrification, queer shift, post privacy („Spackeria“)
– connect local with international discourse
– bringing groups together that would never work together (i.e. hackers and queer scene)
– problem of a strong curatorial approach: group independence is low and vice versa

Question:
– What does curating mean? Creating mutual contexts of collaboration = art -> Yes, because producing relations, space for topics and art -> question of power by curating

Input by Elena Veljanowska (Upgrade International):

Network „upgrade international“:
– idea in 1999: broader connection of culture and technology
– physical part: locally, organizing monthly events in Skopje, Macedonia
– online part: update about activities
– became a huge community
– good impact in Skopje: opening of a discussion about new media, nonformal education exchange
-> local audience felt connected

Problem:
– network had (by decision) no structure and no replacement of structure, worked out until it grew
funding to make annual international conferences abroad was missing
– now: upgrade is not dead but asleep

Questions:
– How to sustain when networks stops functioning?
– Was it a failure or a transition to a different level?
– the idea of the network is maybe to much associated with the 90s -> does it need an update?
-> life cycle of networks: becomes bigger, networks have to rethink their structures
BUT: sometimes it is not necessary anymore to go further with a network when it doesn‘t work anymore

Theory of invisible networks:
– invisible networks = parallel to big network, other connections that aren‘t registered
– invisible networks still exist while big network don‘t work anymore

Input by Mitsuhiro Takemura (Sapporo International Art Festival):
– Sapporo International Art Festival in Sapporo 2014 organised by Japan Media Arts Lab every 2 years
– Mitsuhiro‘s teacher was Nam June Pike
– art + communication is crossing
– DIY is just arriving in Japan: economy is shifting
– festival wants to make the whole city a festival stage
– topic: „A city and Nature“: Art of Reprocity Society

Discussion

Difference between digital natives and last generation:
– new generation just uses media, they don’t reflect
– different level: natural approach with contents without filters
– What will be the digital approaches to art? Art made by young artists who do not reflect on the medium?
– distances are not existing anymore: perception changes
– Youtube: Artists who i.e. sample and who who don‘t see themselves as artists
– Digital natives: born after 1994
– generation before hardly had internet access: built it up by themselves

Problems/questions in terms of networking and scaling up:
– We cannot lead a general discussion about funding in Europe because it is completely different in every region, problems are different
– question of sustainability
– scaling up in a global or in a local sense?
– Networking in Berlin: many different islands, collaboration doesn‘t work because everyone is busy with its own stuff
– we need structure
– open or closed networks?
– one big or many small networks?
– open structures: they grow and reform
– points of connection do not always happen
– art networks as economy: sustainability, sense of ownership, power structures

Another strategy:
– there are still many people living outside of any network (internet)
– idea of putting places without any networks/internet (rural areas, villages) in networks (example of an art festival taking place in Italian villages)
– how to connect local/rural places?
– local vs. global networks
– globalized world: attention from „we want“ to „I need“ -> world becomes local again

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