[spectre] ICC and for the media art center of 21C

[Andreas Broeckmann]

dear friends,

i guess many of us are intrigued by this discussion, and by the 
implications of the cultural changes which can be observed but 
somehow not fully understood. so many questions have been asked in 
the messages of this thread! compared to the size of what is going on 
(after all, one of the three 'global players' of the 1990s media art 
field is threatened with closure), the discussion is quite muted. (is 
it because nobody wants to stick their head out and celebrate the 
demise of a dinosaur?) (or is it because for some years there was 
this clear sense of being a utopian avantgarde, and that somehow we 
had a chance to make the world a little better, and now we [that is 
some of those people who have been involved in network and media 
cultures for over ten years] have turned from pioneers - into 
veterans, watching resignedly as one of the evil battleships is 
sinking?)

there is an interesting tendency in what shu lea, sally, eric and 
yukiko have been writing, suggesting that there is a cultural change 
going on which repositions media culture, or digital culture, in a 
substantial way - eric has described how De Balie is trying to 
respond to that change.

i see a paradox (1/2) in the fact that (1) we are still talking about 
'exlaining what we are doing to a broader audience', countering a 
prevalent ignorance about the impact of new technologies on 
contemporary society with a more critical understanding and media 
competence - i agree with the analysis; yet (2) we also see a massive 
expansion of the field of digital culture, agrowing number of mainly 
young people who inhabit that space, who are 'of that tribe', who 
'live digital culture' - often even without a strong critical 
reflection, but more as a quasi-natural, techno-social environment in 
which they grow up - and swim like fish that don't see the water 
because they don't need to.

could it be that the power lines that run through the 'digital 
divisions' (there is not one digital divide, but many filiations of 
difference, differentiation, slopes and breaks) are shifting? and 
could it be that the way in which institutions like the ICC or the 
ZKM were set up was still very much following an 'old-style' cultural 
logic?

sally, eric and tom have all argued the need to connect to the wider 
audience - what if this was not the core task? i'm just thinking 
aloud, but i have a feeling that the didactical side of media 
cultural work is important, it must be pursued, workshops for kids, 
designing and hacking and linkering and all - very important, 
outreach programmes during media art exhibitions, tactical media 
workshops for migrants, you name it. while we are doing this, there 
is a wave of commercially driven (though not always commercially 
inspired) developments in the field of digital culture, for which 
file-sharing, blogging, gaming, texting, etc., are mere meagre 
descriptions.

i'm not trying to contradict anything that has been said here, i'm 
just trying to see whether we can move this train of thought a bit 
further, closer to where we are already, at least that's what it 
feels like. as shu lea said, we are already on the move...

yukiko writes:
>...now is a hard situation.. but i believe the problem we face would
>be a good chance for us to head for the media art center of 21C.

what would this place look like? personally, i don't believe that we 
can all be 'roaming residents', i believe in the creation of 
temporary sites where people can meet, talk, work and celebrate 
together - we are social animals, we need that. and if you go 
nomadic, someone will have to caary the tent, and someone will have 
to make sure that WLAN access will be open at our next camp site.

what would a place look like, that is a little bit slower than the 
technical and cultural development, that keeps open for change and is 
also open for taking in and digesting, meshing, all the different 
energies that people who identify with this digital culture, and want 
to share in shaping it, bring with them?

places like this have been talked about before. politics, funding 
structures, and the cultural ignorance of decision makers may be 
against them. but they may be a way out of what looks like the demise 
of 90s media culture.

greetings,
-a