outline

The publication would hold the following information:

Time: by mid-october

• Introduction / background (1p)
• policy recommendation (2-3 p)
• detailed report on discussed topics in WG's (process, deeper going into the different points later on suggested) (2 pages each WG )
• 4 presentations descriptions (each around 500 words)

• Participants background + photo+ 3 questions (PLEASE, let us know if all of you agree to publish the 3 questions, anyway they are already on the blog. Or add input from Feedback answers. Or some sort of summary, alas difficult.)

• Result d'Art question (however, Sarah, only 5 governments responded to that...so, hard to take' conclusions'.

report

1 page 'report' - Time: 8 august

We are working on a one page small 'report' on the fact that the meeting was held. Rob is adding some additional sentences. Should be finished this week. This will be sent out by ASEF and IFFACA.                        

policy recommendation

2-3 pages maximum - Time: before end September

Rob would write the first draft, pulling together the 4 WG results (adam, can you send them to all of us, the link? Thanks!) and then get comments. It would be great to have an  asia-europe core group working on it, so we know who wants to be active and steering it. Would you want to drive it, Tapio and Sharan, as a continuum  after Dehli and Helsinki

input

Petko

As a follow up of the event I want to initiate a discussion about an Europe-Asian residence exchange program with focus on new media art that could be a great output of our event.

This idea come to my mind when I was introducing the call for 2009 of the residence exchange program EMARE in which InterSpace is taking part. It is aimed at new media artists but unfortunately only for those based in Europe.

Deadline is October 20th (post date) and the application form can be downloaded from here: http://www.werkleitz.de/projekte/emare/applicationform_emare09.pdf

I reminded that we haven't discussed on the Mini-Summit (at least in the open networks and new media labs workshop) the residence exchange networks that are probably one of the best opportunities for both artists and host organizations to exchange practices.

As a starting point I will give you one argument that will help for finding political and financial support for such exchange program. The exchange programs between West and East Europe were and still are one of the main factors of developing common artistic ground since the political changes started almost 20 years ago in Eastern Europe.

It is for sure that even the most intensive events like conferences and festivals are not enough for the practical experience that few-month-long residences can provide.

I really hope that some of you would find this idea interesting and we can start thinking how to implement it in practice.

Tapio

To second Petko, also in the Leonardo Educational Forum, support for media artistic research in residence funding was emphasized. It might indeed be important to start with Asia-Europe media art residency programme before suggesting one that in particular is focussed on media arts research.

I would like to suggest three layers on which to discuss the outcomes of the mini-summit:

1. A document or a collage of them on a Wiki, which reflects the discussions and backgrounds of the participants. As wide as needed.

2. List of goals and ideas that emerged from the event that we might want to develop further. More focus, refers to the wider context.

3. Policy recommendation document, which does not necessarily contain much from the two other documents, but which supports the practices and projects that we do want to do. VERY focussed, a separate document. Some quotes from 1+2.

Trying to realize all of the above in one document, as a mirror of what happened during the 2,5 days would be rather difficult. Also we do have the great opportunity to reach policy makers via IFFACA and ASEF, so we should really think about a few items that could in fact be pushed forward as a result of our meeting, in the form of policy recommendations.

To begin such a document, we should emphasize a few points on why media arts practices are important, and perhaps there is some urgency for funding or other policy actions right now. We need to impact particularly those who are not interested, not willing, to act. Secondly, those who are interested already in what we are saying, will read further anyhow.

If indeed our document is to be titled Singapore Agenda, I would suggest that the local arts council should be challenged to participate in funding media arts initiatives that exist locally, and collaborations that follow ISEA2008. Also it seems that the "media development" aspect was quite evident via keynote content for example, and perhaps to some degree also the exhibitions, if less so (their interest in funding ISEA should be recognized perhaps).

As most IFACCA policy makers deal with ARTS policy, we could emphasize the need to firstly include media arts in arts funding, to gurantee its artistic freedom. We could also recognize that media arts are an area of social, cultural as well as technological innovation, but the latter can only emerge from artistic practices and can be developed further with industry style funding, but not generated with such policy tools. And perhaps first and foremost, in the context of our event location, is to underline the urgency of freedom of expression of artists to produce, exhibit and screen publicly their work, and to participate in local and international networks.

Alas, should there be a separate deadline for a policy recommendation document, and to see a Wiki environment as an open collaborative platform? For any of this, we do need time as it is still holiday season, and the most effective time I would think to send any policy doc around would not be until mid September? What do you think Sarah?

Personally, It was great to get to know many of you - I wish there could have been more time to xchange on the level of collaboration from here onwards. Luckily had a chance to keep talking during later parts of ISEA with some. It was a pleasure! I said to someone that on the one hand these practice and policy meets are alwyas "restarts" as they involve new voices and new angles, but also contain a lot of repetition for those who have participated in such before. Refresh could be a better term... that said, it is important in my mind not to see this event as wanting to represent all types of practice and regions to third parties (impossible task as such), but to come up with few points that push policy makers to take some of our shared concerns on board.

Ship ahoy!

dyne.org hackers

PDF on http://dyne.org/first_dharma_dyne.pdf