Syndicate: A short comment on the identity of the syndicate list

[Eric Kluitenberg <epk@xs4all.nl>]

dear syndicalists,

In recent times it has become increasingly unclear for me what the value
was of continuing the syndicate list. In my experience this project was
started in the aftermath of the many social, political and cultural changes
in Europe after the fall of the iron curtain and the berlin wall. Syndicate
was established to promote east <> west exchange and co-operation in the
fields of media art and media culture. The specific nature of the syndicate
list was to take into account the regional specificities and the defining
characteristics of the political and social context of media art and media
culture in the countries that were formerly ruled by socialist / communist
regimes in one form or another.

One of the really important questions on the table was how to formulate an
alternative discourse to the traditional capitalist / anti-capitalist
narratives that pervaded social, political and cultural debates about the
*east/west* relationship. The next was to get away from the East / West
dichotomy altogether and find new connecting threads to talk about art,
culture, politics and society in Europe after the revolutionary changes of
the late eighties and beginning nineties.

Media play an essential role in defining, appropriating and proliferating
these discourses, narratives and cliches. The worst one no doubt is the
discourse of *transition, assuming the victory of the capitalist world and
seeing the neo-liberal ideology as the only possible outcome, yes indeed
the end, of history. Instead we saw the inevitable return of history,
throughout the countries and regions represented on the list, and we lived
through hope and tragedy in a tiny little community. Meetings felt like
family gatherings, and the nucleus that syndicate offered to start new
pan-European discourses about media, art, culture and politics and society
for a long time seemed invaluable to me.

In the last year or so I saw the essence of the list get lost in a cloud of
confused autistic ascii experiments that had really nothing to do with the
initial character of the list. Of course things can change and move in a
different direction. I was ready to leave the list and consider it a
beautiful, productive and enriching period of my life, when syndicate was
one of the most inspiring fora of debate in Europe about all these topics
in relation to media culture and media art, but which at long last had come
to an end.

Perhaps this is the moment when things can take a new turn again, and
something of the list's original character may be redeemed. Not for
nostalgia, but simply because I believe that questioning the construction
of new cultural, social and political discourses around "Project Europe",
in particular in relation to contemporary media culture and media art is as
urgent as ever.

If syndicate can once again become a forum where the contradictions of the
european project can be made visible, and where alternative media
discourses and practices can germinate, I will be a very happy member of
it. If not, I will just have to find other more productive contexts to work
in, because these questions are simply too urgent to leave them
unaddressed.

For now I am not ready to give up syndicate and still have some hope for
the future of the syndicate list and network.

warmest greetings,
eric


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