Syndicate: Independent media culture in Canada

[Andreas Broeckmann <abroeck@v2.nl>]

[this is an excerpt from a longer text, Culture and New Technologies in
Canada -  Recent Background and Present Initiatives by Michael Century]


The culture and communications policy environment in Canada

Until 1993, Canada had a federal department of Communications, responsible
for both arts and culture, telecommunications, and related research and
development.   The department, founded in the 1960s, was in today's light a
visionary one, since it handled culture and information/communications
technologies within a single integrated policy framework.  A departmental
reorganization took place in 1993 which shut down the Communications
Department and established a new department of Canadian Heritage
(http://www.pch.gc.ca), responsible for arts, broadcasting, cultural
industries, museums, libraries, as well national parks, multiculturalism,
and citizenship.  Information technology and telecommunications research
were extracted and transferred to the Department of Industry
(http://www.ic.gc.ca).  In the wake of this separation, the field of"new
media" or "digital content" became a contested ground, with Industry Canada
establishing its own directorates for so called "new media and
entertainment"  and "information highway applications" (the names
themselves being indicative).

Independent media culture

The Canada Council (http://www.canadacouncil.ca), an agency of Canadian
Heritage, finances a network of independent artist-run-centres, which span
the visual arts, computer-based media, experimental music and cinema.  This
well- established, though quite modestly financed network was developed in
the 1970s and 1980s, and many of the centres have long histories of
interdisciplinary practice which include early experiments in social action
media, telecommunications art, telematics and interactive art.   Yet the
grass-roots practice which the artist-run-centres foster has had difficulty
in "keeping up" with changing technologies, particularly with the budget
cuts of the 1990s.  Little funding is available to them for capital
investments, nor can these small-scale centres afford the kind of skilled
technical staff needed to support high-end environments. Yet they remain a
vital component of Canadian 'media culture'.  I can't do justice to the
breadth of practices in this network, but will refer you to Mix  -
http://www.web.net/~mix/ - the journal of artist-run culture - for details.
The Canada Council was also very early to recognize computer-based or
"media art" as a separate practice, and has financed production and
research in this area through its Media Arts department since the mid
1980s.

In terms of specialized centres, The Banff Centre for the Arts, in Alberta,
became internationally known for its emphasis on media arts research and
production, mainly through a program of artists-in-residence.  From 1988 to
1994, it sponsored longer term research programs, notably the Art and
Virtual Environments Project http://www.banffcentre.ab.ca/mva.  This work
was made possible by a three-way collaboration, between state cultural
funding, university research, and private sector contributions of
equipment/software. Treated by public officials as an exemplary project,
the Banff Centre in 1992 became the flagship node in a national grouping of
so-called "multimedia research centres",  through a federal financing
scheme which ran until 1995. The other centres were located in Vancouver,
Toronto, and Montreal.  The Banff Centre now runs a program of training
workshops and hosts conferences about art, media industries, and new
technologies.

Notable university based centres which bridge the arts and design and
information technology include the McLuhan Centre in Toronto
(http://www.mcluhan.utoronto.ca), the Knowledge Media Design  Institute
(http://www.kmdi.org) both at Toronto, and the MAGIC lab at Vancouver
(http://www.magic.ubc.ca).