Eurocities AGM 2002, Barcelona
Workshop
1 / knowledge-based cities
Proposal for a best practice presentation
Background
The city of Dortmund has under gone a radical structural metamorphosis
during the last 15 years. It has transformed from a region dominated by
heavy industry to a North Rhine Westphalia center for new information
and communication technology. Parallel to these developments, Dortmund’s
cultural landscape has been engaged in the area of media art. In addition
to a large number of international exhibitions dedicated to various forms
of media and new media art, infrastructures such as the hartware medien
kunst verein have been established. The hartware medien kunst verein is
an independent and non-commercial association for the production and presentation
of media art and the various discourses involved. Also several collections
of media and interactive art had been set-up. The Museum am Ostwall collection
includes for example 11 interactive art works from media artists, such
as Jeffrey Shaw, Jill Scott, Studio Azzuro, Perry Hoberman, Doug Hall,
Bill Seaman or Graham Weinbren. The University of Dortmund recently received
the archive of the Department of Intermedia and Video Art from the University
of Iowa, which contains approximately 400 documents dealing with early
media art.
In this context media_art_net dortmund was initiated in 2001 as
an interdisciplinary platform for the production, presentation and preservation
of media/new media art. media_art_net dortmund operates as both a local
institution as well as a decentralized operational unit. The initiators
of this platform are hartware medien kunst verein, the Museum am Ostwall
and the Department of Culture of the City of Dortmund.
One of the central aims of media_art_net dortmund is to establish interdisciplinary
infrastructures, which allow – taking onto account production and
presentation considerations – the development of strategies, methods
and facilities for the documentation and preservation of media/new media
art.
Examples for Workshop 1 / knowledge-based cities
art.net.dortmund.de
"art.net.dortmund.de," the online platform that was initiated
by the city of Dortmund in 2001, is devoted to the presentation and production
as well as the exploration and dissemination of net art. This platform
is special insofar, as it is an institutional, city-supported forum for
net.art and was developed from the very beginning in close cooperation
with net artists and net theorists.
art.net.dortmund.de
is directed at international artists and art lovers as well as local communities
from the areas of art, media, music and new technologies. Further more,
the online platform regularly engages in interaction with the activities
of hartware medien kunst verein. This interaction should especially encourage
and manifest the desired transfer of knowledge and creativity.
Media artists – especially in the area of network and software
art– not only use new technologies for their own purposes; they also
give considerable impetus for the further interdisciplinary development
of new technologies. For example, artists have learned how to use and
create open source software, which, compared to commercial software, is
developed in a flexible, open, participatory environment based on the
exchange of information (instead of a monopolization of knowledge).
programme for young people
One of medien_kunst_netz dortmund’s main cultural and educational
concerns is teaching creative and autonomous contact with new information
and communication technologies to a wide audience and especially to young
people.
The very first youth programme was a student workshop on how to develop
an Internet radio station using the Linux operating system and open source
software. The results of the workshop, which took place in April 2002,
resulted in the interactive net radio LowLive,
which was set up on the net art platform "art.net.dortmund.de"
and will be run by young people in the long term, as well as various other
projects that are being planned in cooperation with local radio stations,
in other words transfer projects between "on line" and "on
air" or "new" and "old" media.
The next project planned is a 72-hour serverfestival,
which will be taking place in September 2002. Media artists, DJ's and
theorists will be working with young people to test different technologies
in a collaborative work based on new technologies. The highlight of the
event will be an electronic jam session that will be broadcast live over
the Internet and interact with different servers around the world as well
as local radio stations.
Dissemination strategies for contemporary art with new technologies
with regard to different audiences
(local/international; culture/academia; experts / public at large, adults/youth)
presented by examples like exhibitions such as Kontrollfelder:
Programmieren als künstlerische Praxis (Control fields: programming
as an artistic experience), an international software art exhibit.
The above-mentioned examples will be illustrated using visual, multimedia
talks as well as through online presentations as part of Workshop 1 /
knowledge-based cities.
