Syndicate: discussion about a European Media Policy

[Andreas Broeckmann <abroeck@v2.nl>]

re: the Deep Europe - discussion about a European Media Policy


Dear Syndicalists,

Responding to a suggestion by the Culture Committee of the Council of
Europe, the Deep Europe workshop discussed the requirements and
opportunities for developing a European policy on the role of new
technologies in the field of art and culture. (3 August 1997, Hybrid
WorkSpace, dX Kassel)

Rather than formulating a general theoretical statement, we tried to come
up with a number of practical suggestions that would help to improve our
own and other people's work in the field of European media culture. The
following is a preliminary list which we need to discuss further and which
everybody is invited to add to, in order possibly to come to a joint,
Syndicate-based document that we can offer to the Council of Europe in the
next weeks.

Please, feel free to comment, add or delete from the following points. This
is not (yet) a manifesto, but a series of topics and problems that
individual members of the Deep Europe workshop are concerned about.

Greetings from Kassel,
-abroeck


1. The V2_East/Syndicate network
The V2_East/Syndicate that met in Kassel for the Deep Europe workshop is a
network of people. It is not an institution and has no immediate need for
support in itself. The network can, at this moment, best be supported by
increasing the number and strengthening its nodes, i.e. individuals, groups
and organisations in towns and cities all across Europe.

2. European cooperation
We are working both locally and translocally. Almost each of us is working
on a national as well as on an international, initially European scale. At
the present moment, we feel that there are hardly any organisational
structures on a European level that support our activities. We feel
insufficiently represented on the level of European politics which are very
much geared at large-scale operations run by the Information Technology
(IT) industrial sector. We would like to be able to identify political,
bureaucratic and organisational partners through which we can act and find
support for our small-scale operations on the European level. At the same
time, many people involved in the Syndicate network have a lot of
experience and expertise in European networking and cooperation on a
practical level, which they can offer to interested parties.

3. Inclusive Europe & Kaleidodrama
We have partners in Yugoslavia and Albania, beside many other European
countries. We want these people to be represented in the same international
institutional structures (like the Council of Europe, the European Union,
etc.) so that our co-operations will find support under these European
umbrella organisations. This year's 'Kaleidodrama' must not be repeated: in
January 97, only days before the deadline for applications to the
Kaleidoscope programme for cultural cooperation of the European Commission,
the EC decided that partners from East European countries did not qualify
because of a quarrel about the financial contributions of those countries
to the joint funds from which grants are paid. This meant that project
proposals that included East European partners - and thus realised the
desire for increased East-West cooperation - were universally turned down.
No proper reason was given for the rejection. Such unpredictability on the
part of the EC is unacceptable and truly disabling for our work.

4. The abolition of visa
The visa restrictions that still exist within Europe, as well as between
European and non-European countries, are stifling our work and are
sometimes making it impossible for people to meet, present their work or
develop projects together. We frequently experience the organisation of
visa as time-consuming, expensive and frustrating. Although we realise that
there are 'bigger issues' involved in this, we want to insist that in our
work the visa requirements for travelling to many, not only West European
countries, are a nuisance and a waste of time. We suggest that these travel
restrictions be rethought seriously. The actual encounter of people,
travels, mutual visits and shared experiences remain important for any
cultural cooperation even at a time of improved telecommunication
opportunities.

5. Media practice
New technologies are, for many of us, both a means of creative expression
and an essential means of communication. The over 160 people from 28
European and 3 non-European countries who are part of the Syndicate network
mainly stay in touch through an Internet mailing list, and as everybody
else they are therefore dependent on affordable, easy access to the Net and
sufficient bandwidth. We need affordable, independent production spaces for
analogue and digital video and sound production. In order to be able to
work properly and involve our local communities in cultural projects using
new technologies, we need independent spaces for public presentations and
meetings, workshops, studios and offices. Our individual projects, our
networks and the need to interface our translocal with the local
activities, depend on a good technical infrastructure.

6. Funding structures
We find that in many places the funding structures are at odds with the
practical conditions of our work in the field of new media culture. In many
East European countries, privatisation has made a lot of the formerly
public services very expensive. Here, perhaps most urgently, grant
programmes are needed that will cover daily and monthly expenses of running
a media project. It is rather ironic that it is now easier to get support
for an Internet server or other powerful computers, than for rent,
telephone costs, heating, electricity, or for the salary of the person who
will use the facilities. It is certainly in the interest of the IT industry
to sell their products to independent group, media art centres and
academies. However, while support for hardware is forthcoming, there is
very often little or no support for the teachers, technicians, designers,
and artists who will use the machines, - let alone for the realisation of
art or independent media projects. We also need more money for travel, the
exchange of people and their cooperation projects. The rule should be:
provide funding at a variety of scales. If one is interested in supporting
European cultural diversity, one should support it at the level where it
occurs.

7. Slaves of updating
We are faced with the problem of constantly having to learn and update the
hard- and software that we are using. The intense speed of technological
innovation in the field of media technologies makes it almost impossible to
establish a firm technological knowledge and begin to apply it in creative
ways - by that time, new versions and new products make it necessary to
learn again. To some degree, we make ourselves such slaves of technological
innovation. But at the same time, the funding bodies often require us to do
'new' things and use 'innovative' technologies to qualify for the necessary
support.

8. Grant applications
For smaller organisations, applications to many funds and grant programmes
are not realistic because of the way in which the money is payed out (often
after the completion of the project and thus far too late) or because of
the amount of time and energy that would be needed to complete the
application process. They frequently stand in no relation to the
possibilities and resources of the often small and under-staffed groups.
Nevertheless, many of us are now spending an important part of their time
researching and writing grant applications for projects. Ironically, the
projects themselves suffer from the need to produce ever more, ever more
detailed, ever different proposals and descriptions of projects past,
present and future.

9. Help Soros!
We also propose a help programme for the Soros Foundations in Eastern
Europe. This is only partly meant ironically. The wide-ranging dominance of
the Soros Foundations and SCCAs in the field of cultural sponsorship is not
so much a result of Soros' expansionism, but of the lack of action on the
part of other potential, large funding bodies. If the European Union or
some of its member states had developed equivalent, distributed networks of
local and regional offices that offer substantial support in a variety of
fields, then artists and cultural practitioners in Eastern Europe would not
be so exclusively dependent on support from the Soros Foundations. The
changes which are to be expected within the Soros network (like a growing
financial independence of the SCCAs from the New York office and the likely
need for them to raise funds from other sources) will make it necessary for
alternative, strong funding bodies to emerge, public and private, local,
national and international.

10. Public culture
In democratic states, cultural activities should continue to be supported
by the government and should not be given solely into the hands of private
sponsorship. Independent cultural activities are part of the life of a
civil society. They belong in the public domain and should be supported by
the body politic which democratically represents the community.


(transcribed by Andreas Broeckmann, V2_Organisation Rotterdam, Kassel,
4.8.1997)