Syndicate: P2P - Press Releases

[eric@media-gn.nl (Eric Kluitenberg)]

Press Release

International Conference on European media culture in Rotterdam and Amsterdam


>From October 29th to November 1st, 1997, the Virtual Platform is organising the conference "Towards a European Media Culture - From Practice to Policy". This conference will bring together 22 European cultural institutions and initiatives, in order to formulate the contours of a European cultural policy for new media. The conference will be held under the auspices of the Council of Europe and is organised with the support of the Netherlands Ministries of Education, Culture and Sciences, and of Foreign Affairs.

The aim of the conference is to bring about a critical discussion of new technologies and their impact on art and culture. The participating organisations will develop suggestions for cultural policies in this area. These suggestions will be based on the actual practice of organisations and initiatives working in this field throughout Europe. The discussion will be centred around the vitality and diversity of Europe in this important emerging cultural area, and around the new relationships that have emerged between the cultural sector, industry and research.

On Friday October 31st, these proposals will be presented to a forum of policy makers on a national and European level, prominent representatives from the sectors of industry, education and research, the media, and the press. During the course of that day a debate will be held on the question how these suggestions can be translated into actual policies, and be put into practice.

The conference will bring together a unique group of large and small cultural organisations from Eastern and Western Europe. Together they will present a representative image of the strength and diversity of this new cultural area in Europe. This dynamics will form the core of a public manifestation, which will conclude the conference on Saturday, November 1st. All the participating organisations will present themselves and their work during that day, at five locations in the historical heart of Amsterdam, by means of presentations, exhibitions, performances, concerts and live events in physical space and the media. 

The Virtual Platform is a discussion platform for cultural policy issues. It embraces Dutch institutions involved in contemporary media culture in such diverse fields as art, design, music, art education, culture, politics, and society. The Virtual Platform consists of the following member organisations: Backbone -De Balie, Paradiso, The Society for Old and New Media-, Faculty of Image and Sound - The Royal Conservatory The Hague, MEDIA-GN, Montevideo TBA, The Netherlands Design Institute, STEIM, V2_Organisation.

For more information: www.dds.nl/p2p

or contact the conference secretariat:

p2p@dds.nl

Sandra van Vliet
Eric Kluitenberg

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Press Release

Work in Progress

New Media Culture in Europe

Work in Progress is a one-day festival that presents the vitality and diversity of the new media culture in Europe. 22 organisations working in the field of culture and new media-technology will present their 'work in progress' at five locations in the historical heart of Amsterdam, by means of performances, presentations, exhibitions, concerts and live events in physical space and the media. These five locations will be interconnected as a cultural walking route. Work in Progress is organised by the Virtual Platform as a conclusion of the conference 'Towards A European Media Culture - From Practice to Policy', which brings together a unique group of large and small cultural organisations

The encounter of culture with new media is a particularly interdisciplinary terrain. The organisations who participate in Work in Progress come from highly diverse backgrounds, such as design, visual arts, music, radio, television, or culture and politics. The scope ranges from the innovative research on interface design by Art+Com from Berlin, or the Ars Electronica festival from Linz, the largest festival for electronic art in Europe, to the revolutionary Radio B 92 from Belgrade that managed to mobilise the outside world with its presence in the Internet when it was threatened to be closed down by the Yugoslav authorities, or the tiny E-Lab artist organisation from Riga (Latvia), who are quickly developing into pioneers of Internet broadcast.

What these organisations share is the recognition that the rapid proliferation of digital media and computer networks will have a growing impact on culture and society. Cultural initiatives are also taking an increasingly prominent role in the innovation and application of this by origin technical terrain. 

Work in Progress presents Europe's cultural answer to the coming information society.

The program will run continuously at five locations and can be visited with a passe-partout of Ã? 15,- available at all locations.

The Virtual Platform

The Virtual Platform is a discussion platform for cultural policy issues. It embraces Dutch institutions involved in contemporary media culture in such diverse fields as art, design, music, art education, culture, politics, and society. The Virtual Platform consists of the following member organisations: Backbone -De Balie, Paradiso, The Society for Old and New Media-, Faculty of Image and Sound - The Royal Conservatory The Hague, MEDIA-GN, MonteVideo/TBA, The Netherlands Design Institute, STEIM, V2_Organisation. 

http://www.dds.nl/~virtplat/

P2P Web Journal

For the entire P2P conference, including 'Work in Progress' an on-line facility will be installed, which will be a special part of the P2P web site. The facility will contain a Web Journal with special reports, audio, video, and textual materials, interviews and other items relating to the conference and the Work in Progress public events.

For direct access to the Journal: http://www.dds.nl/p2p/journal

General Information: www.dds.l/p2p
p2p@dds.nl