[spectre] late fwd: media art future funding debate on ::fibreculture::

[Andreas Broeckmann]

(this forward comes a little late, yet it follows on from our thread 
in september... for all i know, there is still no official news about 
the ICC. we are also considering how to continue this discussion at 
transmediale.06 in february - suggestions are welcome! greetings, -a)



>  From: s|a|m <sam at myspinach.org>
>  Date: 28 September 2005 1:24:26 AM
>  To: fibreculture at lists.myspinach.org
>  Subject: ::fibreculture:: OzCo more ...
>
>  Hi,
>
>  It's great to see some talk on FC about the OzCo.
>
>  I just wanted to quickly reflect on something David Teh said in a
>  recent post about reflecting about the Vital Signs gathering.
>  At one of the presentations I mentioned something along the lines of:
>  "let's begin to imagine a world without the Australia Council". I just
>  wanted to clarify that I wasn't advocating the wiping out of the OzCo
>  - but rather - my point was within the context of new media arts
>  funding, perhaps the OzCo was now of lower priority.
>
>  What I was hoping for was people being excited with the possibility of
>  imagining a new fund and a new support environment for 'new media'
>  art/culture practioners, based on principles and values that are
>  relevant to a 21st century.
>
>  Reflecting very quickly of Keith's 'ecosystem' metaphor - I think we
>  must also ask ourselves where we belong in that ecosystem ... Let's
>  remember the cockroaches, vultures, peacocks and other 'animals' that
>  exist within the system... But it's definitely a good start to
>  re-think the OzCo ... and let's hope it doesn't simply remain in essay
>  form :-)
>
>  The last thing I'd like to leave with is the Herald Sun report about
>  City of Melbourne's Art/Culture funding round... It's a predictable
>  story that pops up after each funding round:   " Melbourne City
>  Council is under fire for funding a grab-bag of fringe art projects
>  while ignoring many with mainstream appeal or community benefit."
>  http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/
>  0,5478,16733681%255E2862,00.html
>
>  Definitions: "experimental art" = "new media art" = "fringe art"
>
>  Luckily, we are still in the early stages ...  We need to think along
>  the lines of preventive (pre-emptive) detention ...
>
>  Best wishes, Sam
>
>
>
>
>
>
>  Julianne Pierce wrote:
>
>>  Hi David and FC.
>>>  From last Friday's SMH, some further elaboration on Keith Gallasch's
>>  'slime mould' metaphor. For the full mould, make sure to read Keith's
>>  essay 'Art in a Cold Climate: Rethinking the Australia Council'
>>  published by Currency Press and released next week.
>>  cheers Jules
>>
>>  +++++++
>>
>>  Critic blasts Australia Council for leaving too many artists out in
>>  the cold
>>
>>  By Lauren Martin
>>  September 23, 2005
>>
>>  The arts are an ecosystem and artists are like slime mould, says the
>>  cultural critic Keith Gallasch.
>>
>>  This, science confirms, is good, because slime moulds can turn
>>  themselves into new shapes for survival.
>>
>>  But Gallasch believes there's a new omnivore threatening the
>>  ecosystem: the Australia Council for the arts.
>>
>>  Critiquing the council's continuing re-organisation, Gallasch says it
>>  is winding back evolution, leaving "clients" (as the council calls
>>  artists) and "stakeholders" out in the cold.
>>
>>  The council is in danger of dedicating too many of its resources to
>>  keeping itself alive, he says.
>>
>>  In this ecosystem, Gallasch says, some long-lived species, such as the
>>  major performing arts organisations, are protected but others are in
>>  need of protection.
>>
>>  "The restructured Australia Council positions itself above the arts
>>  ecosystem of which it has long been a part," he says. With its funding
>>  essentially frozen and its roles multiplying, it is less responsive to
>>  the emergence of ideas and forms that regenerate the arts, he says.
>>
>>  Gallasch outlines some radical suggestions for the way forward in his
>>  essay Art in a Cold Climate: Rethinking the Australia Council, the
>>  latest in Currency Press's Platform Papers essays on the performing
>>  arts.
>>
>>  The Major Performing Arts Board, which handles 29 established
>>  companies and accounts for $77 million (more than half) of the
>>  council's grants, should be run independently of the council and
>>  directly funded by the Federal Government, he says. This would
>>  invigorate the board's work and challenge its members to be more
>>  innovative.
>>
>>  The council's manager, Jennifer Bott, counters Gallasch's suggestion
>>  by pointing out these companies have gone from producing 75 Australian
>>  works in 1999 to 207 in 2004: "That's playing a fairly major role in
>>  creating our culture."
>>
>>  Gallasch says the council's audience and market development section
>>  should become autonomous, too, and focus more on promoting Australian
>>  arts companies internationally. Under the current restructure it is
>>  absorbing the more grassroots community cultural development board.
>>
>>  Simplifying the council's broader structure would make it more
>>  efficient at its tasks, Gallash says. "If the Australia Council starts
>>  representing everything, monolithically, you're much better off with
>>  ... different organisations talking to each other."
>>
>>  The council's challenge is to rediscover its capacity for innovation,
>>  he believes. He calls the existing restructure - which includes
>>  folding the experimental boards, New Media Arts and Community Cultural
>>  Development, into other areas - regressive.
>>
>>  The council contends the idea is to spread the focus on innovation
>>  through all the art form boards (music, dance, theatre, visual arts).
>>  But Gallasch believes it will just leave experimental works
>>  marginalised.
>>
>>  He's particularly distressed at the council's plan to take $9 million
>>  in strategic funds and use it for its own large-scale projects. "These
>>  are big one-offs that will drink up millions, and they may or may not
>>  work. If they don't really come from the arts themselves, what are
>>  they going to be?" The move suggests the council "thinks it can do
>>  better than artists", he says.
>>
>>  But Gallasch is not fatalistic. "I'd like the Australia Council to
>>  come back into the ecology rather than trying to shape it."
>>
>>  Bott believes it is Gallasch's proposals that are turning back the
>>  clock, and that the council is showing leadership. "We should be on
>>  the front foot, with a vision of our own future and the future for
>>  Australian arts ... otherwise we're just a chequebook."
>>
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