Re: <nettime> ISEA 2011 fees

[Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>]

Interesting.

Like Eric I felt tempted to contribute. I have been to ISEAs in 94,  
95, 96 and 04, so I can't say that I am a regular vistor, nor that I  
have got nothing to do with it either. I can also relate to what  
Andreas and Armin wrote. The thread obviously goes much further than  
the question about the death of new media arts due to it insular  
existence.
I have experienced ISEA first and foremost as a place for  
institutionalized practices, that is, academic. The whole debate over  
fees is about those who are outside vs. inside, and the idea of ISEA  
as an implicit 'professional association'. The preassumption is  
simple: your boss or program/university will pay for this. If you are  
freelance, young, precarious etc. too bad for you. The artist is no  
longer supposed to be an autonomous, free-floating figure.
Eric is right here. Perhaps the early ISEA model in which fees were  
low was based on public/state funding made available for large, non- 
specific arts festivals. There is a decline of large, general  
supermarket-based events. As you all might know we at the Institute of  
Network Cultures here in Amsterdam have responded to this situation  
with specific, focussed research networks, events and publications  
that deal with specific topics and interventions such as urban  
screens, online video, Wikipedia, search etc. The largest project INC  
ever did was to invite 120 people to work for a week in Amsterdam on  
their own stuff. It was called Wintercamp (March 2009). I also  
sometimes feel that there is a need to discuss the general situation,  
strategic matters, theory and criticism that transcends the specific  
platforms and latest waves, but it is damned hard to find the money  
for such open-ended general agendas.
The question discussed here is larger than ISEA. The question thus  
becomes how we can come together, with people from different  
backgrounds, like artists, activists, programmers, designers, etc. in  
order to create new connections, to go beyond the fragments, as it was  
called in the past. What we might need are cheap temporary autonomous  
zones and a broadly shared urgent need that it is VITAL to meet. NOW.  
This can only be driven when a movement is in the ear and we all feel  
that we share so much, that there is so much to discuss, to see, to  
hear, to experience, that we simply HAVE TO BE THERE. Once that  
feeling is there, and it is shared, we will all meet, I am absolutely  
confident about that. And money problems will be solved then, it will  
still exist, but will be dealt with differently, yes. Many nettimers  
have already moved on from the ISEA-related fee frustration. Let's  
indeed be alert and create that TAZ. Look, the Spanish energy is  
there! Let's be inspired what is happening right now around us.
Best from Geert




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