Beauty and the East

Beauty and the East was a conference organised by Nettime, held on 22-23 May 1997 at Ljudmila, Ljubljana. Chair persons: Geert Lovink, Pit Schultz (day 1), Inke Arns, Oliver Marchart (day 2).

Programme

Sourced from the event website.

wednesday 21.05.
21.00 Galerija Kapelica
active presentation
22:30 Video Loop Program

22-XX - klub K4
Opening Party

thursday 22.05.
10.30 Ljudmila
net.art related presentations, reports, announcements and provocations (Alexei Shulgin, Heath Bunting, Andreas Broeckmann, Pit Schultz, Diana McCarty.).

13.00 break

14.00 Ljudmila
panel:On-Line Publishing: Push Media Planets, Collaborative Archives and Discourse Machines (David Bennahum, David Hudson, Paul Garrin, Matt Fuller ...)

The generation of content is context sensitive, people produce information out of signals, groups define what people can produce, tools make possible what groups can define and vice versa. A critique of the net must include a critical analysis of its 'matter' as a social and cultural product. With the rise of the web, the well developed group structures around bbs, moo, mud, usenet became almost invisible. Now, we are told that the web will vanish and only media with broadcasting qualities will survive. I push therefore I am. Surprisingly, the mailinglist was always a push media, as sucessful and cost-effecitive as e-mail. The coming social information architectures will need a more hybrid, time-based and conceptual working/leisure environment which maps electronic intersubjectivity based on our needs and not the imaginative, inherent will of technique.

It is time that intellectuals rethink the relevance of their tools in a wider radius than linguistics. The apperatus of discourse gets extended today by new networks of power/knowledge which are still, compared with the world of print, very unimportant. This makes place for all kinds of experiments and the renovation of historical concepts. In a mix of historical, empirical, and speculative analysis we will try to map a likely and liked future of 'online-publishing,' beyond the static model of the web magazine (or the preformatted net-radio on demand). How will our social interface look like and how do we continue with our gift-economy?

Chair persons: Geert Lovink, Pit Schultz.

21.00 club K4
Talk by Peter Lamborn Wilson

22.30 club K4
Another Party...

friday 23.05.
10.30 Ljudmila
activism related presentations, reports, announcements and provocations (Drazen Pantic, Branka Milicic Davic, Vuk Cosic.)

13.00 break

14.00
panel:
Power Politics: Virtual Europe, Ministate Thinking and the Construction of the Data East (Marina Grzinic, Tamas Bodoky, Alla Mitrofanova, Miran Mohar...)

Within the development of aesthetics and politics of electronic media since the late 80's 'East Europe' played a minor but spectacular role. Today, driven by unified market forces the topology of cultures in the east and west has to relate to new maps of global corporations and media networks, down to the local resistance of bureaucracies, institutions, and cultural initiatives. But it is not only 'the east' that is forced to adapt, but 'the west' also having to face an inner crisis within its imaginary cartographies. The construction of a media map of Europe becomes indistinguishable from the image of a chaotic, dangerous, and underdeveloped 'hinterland'. The fear of heterogenity and change locates and produces the zones of conflict at its periphery. Under the sign of ethnic and national cleansing grew a the multiplicity of borders and microstates. 'Balkanization' becomes the preferred horror scenario for all kinds of disintegration, and economic, social, cultural, and political difference. The dream of entering the EU-NATO zone is fading away. Is this the freedom people dreamt of?

Culture has yet no answer to this imminent crisis. The only thing institutions can come up with, is a weak and cheap remake of well known slogans, taken from yesterday's social movements and art groups (and their media). This includes the quasi-neutral, engaged but professional PC attitude of the NGOs that remained as political forces. The rest is popular revolt, armed despair or armchair criticism. Is an predefined 'open society' the best of all possible options? How long can we support minimal politics and the (justified) desire for conformity? What double role does 'The Net' plays within this configuration?

Chair persons: Inke Arns, Oliver Marchart.

21.00 club K4
Talk by CRITICAL ART ENSEMBLE

22:30 club K4
Random Logic (SI), live act, and KOTAI + MO, live act and DJ of ELEKTRO, Berlin, video loops by Daniel Pflumm + regular program (with B2MEN, Budapest)

saturday 24.05
go away
+
politburo meeting, day and a half

monday 26.05.
all go away 

Participants

Sourced from Nettime, 19 May 1997.

• Robert Adrian (A/USA), artist - lots of different media - work with "art+telecommunications" since 1979.
• Irina Aktuganova (R), Curator, Gallery 21 in Saint Petersburg,
• Inke Arns (D), art historian, media activist, syndicate
• Bojan Azman (SLO), rave pirate, publisher, ljubljana
• Rachel Baker (UK), net.artist london
• Zvonimir Bakotin (NL), maker of vrml for DDS, awarded programer that is actually an artist, long hair.
• Richard Barbrook (UK), co-author of 'californian ideology', one of the nettime greatest hits, faculty professor
• Steve Barnes (USA), thinker, drinker and a techno tinker
• Sandra Basic (SLO), professor at the faculty for social sciences in LJ
• Tilman Baumgaertel (D), telepolis- film and net critic
• Domagoj Bebic (CRO), faculty of political sciences, zagreb
• Konrad Becker (A), head of famous public netbase, Vienna
• Lubor Benda (CZ), Czech net set
• David Bennahum (USA), writes for wired, and for us
• Michael Benson (SLO), expat, indipendent film maker nyc-lju, illegal immigrant
• Dunja Blazevic (BH), former yu art deep insider, now head of soros center for contemporary arts, sarajevo
• Tamas Bodoky (H), koz-hely, narancs list owner, hungarian net kingpin
• Wojtek Bogusz (PL), Net tech from
• Barbara Borcic (SLO), head of soros center for contemporary arts, ljubljana
• Josephine Bosma (NL), radio patapoe pirat, amsterdam
• Andreas Broeckmann (D), does magic at V2 rotterdam, runs great part of DEAF
• Pauline Broekman (UK/NL), co-runs Mute, london
• Federico Bucalossi, strano network, artist, writer
• Heath Bunting (UK), net.artist, we hear
• Dorian Burr, CAE+ performance artist
• Alex Campbell, Internet in Bulgaria
• Leon Cmielewski (AUS), artist, starr
• Vuk Cosic (SLO/YU), works in ljubljana digital media lab
• Calin Dan (NL/RO), media artist, writer
• Aco Dmitrovic, faculty of political sciences, zagreb
• Valentina Djordjevic (D), super techie at internationale stadt
• Peter Tomaz Dobrila (SLO), head of cyber media lab, maribor
• Mitja Doma (SLO), head of internet programs at soros, ljubljana
• Michael van Eeden (NL), factory.org, nettime archive
• Andor Fabian, radio ttt, zagreb
• Jennifer de Felice (CZ), an art american in brno
• Zlatan Filipovic (BH), student, does video, net, sarajevo
• Luka Frelih (SLO), webmaster at ljudmila
• Matt Fuller (UK), editor of underground, IOD, charmer
• Jaanis Garancs (LV), webmaster at elab riga
• David Garcia (NL), video activist, professor, co-organizier of N5M
• Gomma (I), dreaded editor of decoder magazine and shake publishing house, milano
• Heidi Grundmann (A), Vienna-radio scene
• Vladislava Gordic (YU), cultural theorist, professor of literature, novi sad
• Marina Grzinic (SLO), theorist and video artist, ljubljana
• David D'Heilly (JPN), co-founder of the japan-america society, archeologist and sneaker
• Chris Hill (USA-CZ), independent video theorist, teacher, artist, legal czech immigrant
• Christian Hoeller (A), springer verlag, vienna
• Lejla Hodzic (BH), cares for arts and international communications at soros, sarajevo
• Reni Hofmueller (A), radio person
• Willem Houwen (NL), media politician
• David Hudson (USA), does re-wired
• Kathy Rae Huffman (A/USA), video activist/net personality
• Villo Huszai (CH), the swiss guy, making a magazine
• Vesna Jankovic (CRO) ?, Editor of Arkzin, zagreb
• Jodi (NL/E), net.artists, emigrants
• Nebojsa Jovanovic (BA), radio zid's internet
• Marjan Kokot (SLO), editor in magazine for critique of science, publisher
• Aleksandra Kostic (SLO), curator at modern gallery, maribor
• Dejan Krsic (CRO) ?, graphic designer of arkzin, zagreb
• Steve Kurtz (USA), tinker, drinker and techno thinker
• Tomoko Kobayashi (JPN), video production
• Orlin Kozuov (BG), internet coordinator at soros, sofia
• Scott deLahunta (NL), dance and web, amsterdam
• Olia Lialina (R), net.artist from moscow
• Geert Lovink (NL), media related thinker, amsterdam
• Alessandro Ludovico (I) ?, editor of neural, publisher, bari
• Oliver Marchart (A), theorist, philosopher, vienna
• Igor Markovic (CRO), editor of arkzin, zagreb
• Tomaz Mastnak (SLO), philosopher, accurate targeting
• Diana McCarty (H/USA), net related activist, budapest
• Suzy Mezsoly (H) ?, head of center for culture and communication, budapest
• Borislav Mikulic (CRO), semiologist, essayist
• Dragan Miletic (YU), apsolutno group, novi sad
• Branka Milicic-Davic (YU), designer, organizer, performer, novi sad
• Alla Mitrofanova (R), cultural theorist, a real person on the scene
• Raskto Mocnik (SLO), sociologist, head of soros ljubljana
• Miran Mohar (SLO), artist, part of irwin, nsk
• Daniel Molnar (b2men) (H), east edge, too young to be the net.oldtimer that he is in hungary
• Eduard Muka (AL), works at the art academy, tirana
• Gerbrand Oudenaarden (NL), nettime-enthusiast
• Zoran Pantelic (YU), member of apsolutno art group
• Melentie Pandilovski (MK), soros center for contemporary arts, skopje
• Drazen Pantic (YU), head of internet activities of radio b92, belgrade
• Katerina Pavlickova (CZ), art soros prague new force
• Marko Peljhan (SLO), artist, thinker, ljudmila, projekt atol
• Benjamin Perasovic (CRO), theorist of mass culture, rave theory-practicioner, amsterdam
• Alenka Pirman (SLO), soros center for contemporary arts, ljubljana
• Helena Pivec (SLO), arts and culture person, soros ljubljana
• Patrice Riemens (NL), a person behind many things, thinker, amsterdam
• Marie Ringler (A), Miss M of public netbase!!
• Branko Sarkanjac, philosopher, skopje
• Florian Schneider, filmmaker, media activist, made a film on marokko, munich
• Jeremiah Schell, aka eye scratcha a dgital domain sweep
• Martin Schitter (A), audio artist and programer, thinker
• Gereon Schmitz (D), films and internationale stadt
• Christa Schneebauer (A), webmaster at ars electronica center
• Pit Schultz (D), media and net related artist and thinker
• Nebojsa Seric (BA), legend, artist, singer, sarajevo
• Alexei Shulgin (R), net.artist form moscow wwwart center
• Andrej Skerlep (SLO), professor at faculty for social studys, ljubljana
• Raitis Smits (LV), male e-lab riga net culture activist artist
• Rasa Smite (LV), female e-lab riga net culture activist artist
• Cornelia Sollfrank (D), artist, part of innen, hamburg* cyberfeminist
• Dejan Sretenovic (YU), head of soros center for contemporary arts, belgrade
• Josephine Starrs (D/AUS), artist, teacher, dangerous, part of VNS matrix *cyberfeminist
• Janez Strehovec (SLO), free lance thinker
• Marleen Stikker (NL), mairess of digital amsterdam, co-head of society for old and new media
• Igor Stromajer (SLO), theatre net.artist
• Paul Stubbs (CRO/NL), ngo zagreb
• Janos Sugar (H), artist, professor at intermedia department at art academy budapest, founder of media research
• Marek Tuszinski (PL), head of scca network, warsaw
• Tommasso Tozzi (I), pioneer of cmc discourse and activism, bologna
• Dejan Vekic (BH), does foto and video, sarajevo
• Michaela Vlkova (CZ), czech electro.net scene
• Joze Vogrinc (SLO), profesor of media studies ljubljana
• Peter Lamborn Wilson (USA), thinker, publisher, pirate
• Ventsislav Zankov (BG), dangerous, artist, works with weapons (yield)
• Melita Zajc (SLO), essayist, media theorist, ljubljana
• Enes Zlatar (BH), soros center for contemporary arts sarajevo

Publication

• (ZKP4) The Beauty and the East, eds. Pit Schultz, Diana McCarty, Geert Lovink, and Vuk Cosic, Ljubljana, May 1997. See also "The Piran Nettime Manifesto", [1]. (English)

On Beauty and the East

• David Hudson, "Netzkritik: Alptraum Wunscherfüllung", Spiegel, 2 June 1997. [2] (German)

• Tilman Baumgärtel, "'Beauty and the East' - Nettime-Treffen in Ljubljana", Telepolis, 5 June 1997. [3] (German)

• Marina Grzinic, "An Insider's Report from the Nettime Squad Meeting in Ljubljana, 22 & 23 June 1997", Telepolis, 19 June 1997. [4]

Links

• Event website
• Audio materials