Re: <nettime> [Peraicogram x3]: Re: [spectre] Klaudio Stefancic: New Media Art in Croatia

["Klaudio Stefancic" <kstefancic@gmail.com>]

dear ana,

please allow me several clarifications on my text 'New Media New Networks':

On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 6:04 PM, Ana Peraica <ana.peraica@st.htnet.hr> wrote:

>               [digested @ nettime -- mod(tb)]
>
> Ana Peraica <ana.peraica@st.htnet.hr>
>     Re: <nettime> [spectre] Klaudio Stefancic: New Media Art in Croatia
>     Re: <nettime> [spectre] Klaudio Stefancic: New Media Art in Croatia
>     Re: <nettime> [spectre] Klaudio Stefancic: New Media Art in Croatia
>
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> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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> Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:11:50 +0200
> From: Ana Peraica <ana.peraica@st.htnet.hr>
> Subject: Re: <nettime> [spectre] Klaudio Stefancic: New Media Art in Croatia
>
> Zeljko,
>
> reading your text I read out the authorial speech "write the text" (in
> about 10 places) /// quoting ///.
>
> Are you comissioning a text you already have a content by yourself?
> Well, i am not a secretary, but I might need one (any BA is ok)...
>
>> I think my interpretation of Klaudio's perspective was clear,
>> I am sorry if you fail to agree or comprehend.
>>
>>> Mentioned networks are actually only nationally funded... There are much
>>> more of places than mentioned and there are also events (previous to those
>>> mentioned) which are not under the Soros or Ministry of culture fund.
>>
>> maybe so - you are free to do so in your own way and your own summaries
>
> //q//
>
>> if I remember correctly you had significantly more appealing contexts to do so
>> in commisions to promote "Croatian" media art and culture
>> (at least through ECF's project, writing in Springerin, NSK/Inke's web
>> project...).
>
> Not a tourist agency, and also i cannot read any arts, especially not
> media, in the context of The Nation.

I would like to point out that Mi2, Arkzin, Media Scape or
International Festival of New Film in Split also qualify as
international ('glocal') networks: cofounder of Media Scape is German
artist Heiko Daxl; Dutch and German hackers are active members of BBS
by Zamir; Igor Markovi? participated at the meeting 'net.art per se'
in 1996 etc. Also, the networks are financed from international funds,
advisors and activists are participating in exchange programmes etc.
At least they are perceived as international by the dominant culture
of the period. In spite of that, these networks are not a part of
(european) newmedia 'mainstream'.

>>> There was a great exhibition Slike Prostora (Zvone was curating in Split),
>>> there is a great underwater production lab by Ivo Dekovic's on Rt Razanj
>>> merging each year students from Aachen and Split. And nearby there is also a
>>
>> I agree it is a great pitty that Zvone's work was not visible in Croatia and
>> that Ivo Dekovic did not work with curators/writers to promote those
>> experiments.
>
> there are annual exhibitions of works from the workshop in Razanj held
> in Zagreb and Zvone is regularly exhibiting in Split (Adria Art
> Annale...) his work was presented regularly especially Diocletian's
> palace he is working on for more than 15 years (magazine Dispet, various
> exhibitions)...
>
> So it reads nicely that the workshop exists since 1996 on the Island
> Razanj and has been shown in Zagreb:
> http://www.culturenet.hr/v1/hrvatski/infoservisread.asp?id=6561

I have pointed out precisely the activities of the mentioned networks
for two most important reasons. First of all, I think that it was
owing to their continuous activity over an extended period of time
that new media art and culture were promoted in Croatia. At one point,
however, their activities transcended organizing exhibitions and
therefore, along the lines of utopian 'promises of technology', the
networks involved into social and political activities of the broader
scope: Zamir offered an alternative line of communication; Arkzin
offered criticism of the regime; Mi2 started diagnosing social changes
caused by the appearance of digital technologies; Media Scape offered
a remedy for museum and gallery system and UMAS for art education and
International Festival of New Film, whereas the accompanying new media
exhibitions were a corrective for cinematic culture and art culture in
Split. This brings us to the second reason, which has to do with the
level of influence of individual networks on society. To express it in
terms of cultural theory, the circulation of production and
consumption circle of 'new media cultural objects' was in case of
these networks the most prominent.

> But the real problem might be that these two scenes (the capital and the
>  "summer international" city of Split are not connected.
>
> Indeed WHAT WOULD BE ZAGREB if it wouldn't be a CAPITAL of a 4 million
> people country??? A small administrative center without any particular
> culture or history...
>
> Initiatives as Otokultivator (cultivating an island?) and Splitconnect
> as well as presence of artists from Split are showing this...
>
> First of all "cultivating an island" that has a been cultivated since an
> ancient Greek times and was a city bigger than Zagreb during most of the
> history sounds really weird, second Zidar Betonsky/UZGON was already on
> the island installing the workshop, but as well there were workshops by
> Senko Karuza/.
>
> The second "making Split media literate" with Split Connect is also
> weird as it had international exhibitions of new media years in advance
> to the opening of MAMA, as well as labs around Zvone Bakotin, the first
> of which was connected to Feral Tribune.

As regards the artists I have left out, I should mention that it is
impossible, in reviews such as mine, not to leave somebody out.
However, omission of the artists you mentioned (Bakotin, Kuzmanovic)
is not an accidental one. For one, the method I have used, in order to
be at all able to produce consistent meaning, has to abstract its
subject to a certain level, which in this case means that I have
omitted the artists you mentioned for a reason. Namely, in my opinion,
their influence on the networks I tackled was not that significant.
Furthermore, since both of them were featured in an overview of media
art history in Croatia by Darko Fritz (oops, yet another national
overview of media art!), my aim was to bring the artists which were
left out in his overview into the spotlight.

Unfortunately, I am not very fond of polemics and therefore this is my
last contribution to this topic.

> But both have a sense of colonial relationship of The Capital towards
> its coast as a "summer place"...
 <...>

-- 
klaudio
www.galerijagalzenica.info
www.kiberdzezva.blogspot.com


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