Re: <nettime> ISEA 2011 fees

[Jean-Noël Montagné <jnm@rom.fr>]

Hi Nicholas

> Student fees begin at EUR250, with non-student fees beginning at
> EUR300---and both jump to EUR400 if you don't register by Sunday.  In
> comparison, fees for last year's ISEA were EUR100 to EUR150 for non-VIP
> passes, and fees for ISEA 2008 ranged from 100 to 450 Singapore dollars
> (translating to, if I remember the conversion rate correctly at the time,
> around US$70 to US$320), with the highest-priced pass for presenters
> rounding out at around US$250.

It reminds me the LIFT festival in Marseille, France, the last years, 
3/5 days conferences talking about Open Source, Free Cultures, 
Ressource Sharing, Art & Science, Open Knowledge, Sustainable Devl, 
Innovation, Recycling..... The first LIFT entrance fee in Marseille 
was 900 euros per person only, and only 450 euros for students...this 
is obscene. The last year, it was just 350/400 euros for 
students...this year, it's (only) 990 euros for 2 days conference, 
and 100 euros for students, but 100 seats only for students....

ISEA, like many big digital art or contemporary art events, is a wheel in a
financial market using art works as capital for an elit.  In contemporary
art, a good financial product (more than 10% growth/year) must be designed
with a lot of attention on esthetics, with easy or spectacular
mediatization, good preservation in time, possibility of reproduction and
derivative products. The artistic aspect is secondary.

The actors of this market need such events  to share the news, and the
existence of VIP-something in the programm is the sign of this elitism.
Only students in economy should go to those events...:-)

JN


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