LabforCulture

Cultural cooperation online: changing boundaries?

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Autor Nachricht

Violeta Vojvodic

Beigetreten:
08 Feb 2006

Freitag, 22. September 2006 10:08:55

Cultural cooperation online: changing boundaries?



Violeta Vojvodic

Beigetreten:
08 Feb 2006

Freitag, 22. September 2006 13:16:38

Cultural cooperation online: changing boundaries?

Cross border (trans-national) interaction among artists and cultural operators transcends physical and political boundaries. Today, this process is intensified even more due to the impact of Internet and development of online communication tools. Virtual spaces enable us to overcome physical barriers to cooperate and enhance the visibility of cultural communities and initiatives-even those who are isolated and in the peripheries. Our cultural practice, artistic exchange and mobility, our means and tools for cooperation across Europe also change as a result of this process. What do you think? Share your opinions online.

Andreas Wiesand

Beigetreten:
17 Dez 2005

Mittwoch, 11. Oktober 2006 14:02:40

What changes?

Yes, you are right: there have definitely been some changes in "cultural co-operation" processes due to the impact of Internet and other communication tools. Question is, what happened exactly? Let's not forget: the establishment of many important European networks in the cultural field such as EFAH, IETM or CIRCLE happened in times were electronic communication was not existing or at least not commonly used - for example, the origins of CIRCLE date back to 1980! What we can see now is, that the “networking” exercises of the 1980s and early 1990s may have been a necessary interim phase where a notion of basic trust had to be created and potential partners for trans-national activities could be identified. However, these networking practises were, for the most part, less successful when it came to actually carry out concrete projects and programmes in practice (which contributes to the crisis, some of the networks face today). To achieve this goal, more firm structures, new transnational institutions and even contracts were needed, on the one hand, and also the new communication tools, on the other. The latter enabled individuals - crucial for artists or researchers - to set up trans-national project groups and professional bodies for specific purposes on their own in a fast and economical way, thus passing by national authorities and other "official" or traditional gatekeepeers as well as networks. By the way, this circumvention of gatekeepers is one of the reasons why women have been able, within just a decade, to finally mark their place in professional life and in European cultural co-operation (cf. recent studies of ERICarts such as "Culture-Gates" and "Culture-Biz". Of course, all of this does not diminish the value of activities carried out in more restricted territories, particularly as concerns the local and regional levels or special constituencies, but it puts them, almost automatically, into a wider framework and thus potentially contributes to enhancing transborder dialogue.

Jordi Pascual

Beigetreten:
08 Feb 2006

Donnerstag, 12. Oktober 2006 15:05:56

On boundaries

Let me ask, who set the boundaries? Political boundaries are the product of a specific part of history, that of the exacerbation of the nation-state homogeneity (a monster created by a dream of the reason). Today political boundaries melt, with explicit agreements between these nation-states (which cannot survive without those agreements; such as the European Union project illustrates very well) or thanks to scientific/technical progress (technologies of information and communication). The artistic and cultural commnunities find a wonderful field of cooperation. New agents appear, like cities, local governments, regions... but also private foundations. And artistic and cultural commnunities feel more free to build their own instancies, based on long-term cooperation (like networks, or transnational more formal organisations / institutes), or in short term partnerships and projects. The floor is more open. My final remark. The long-term cultural cooperation needs to be transparent and accountable. Boards of networks, transnational organisations or partnerships need to explain what, how and why they do what they do, not only to members but also to external people. International cooperation is more difficult than national cooperation: risks of missunderstanding are higher. The opportunity to create an alliance between international cooperation and democracy is here.

Violeta Vojvodic

Beigetreten:
08 Feb 2006

Freitag, 13. Oktober 2006 17:35:22

Re: What changes?

Good remark Andreas: "the establishment of many important European networks in the cultural field... happened in times were electronic communication was not existing or at least not commonly used"... But today, due to the impact of "information society" and Internet, situation is quite different. By using online communication tools we have possibility to overcome socio-political borders and to hack the "Official" gatekeepers. Thus a lot of the artistic practice - research - transborder cooperation happens trough informal networks/ or project based task groups where communication/cooperation is more vivid and efficient (since it's based on the intrinsic cultural significance of the values that are circulating within the group).
The role of (formal) cultural networks and permeability of their boundaries towards environment can be discussed both in the terms of members circulation (e.g. new member accessibility) and the demand for a free flow of information (e.g. a lot of networks have members only accessible information/resources, so they are not available to wider community - which is not very fruitfull for developement of transdisciplinary practice and research; and some networks have information "poor" web sites which are not connected - linked to other sites, etc.). According to the "power low" (Barabasi), "Web structure is dominated by a few, highly connected sites", those "hubs" has a large number of connections and tend to become even more connected - so it's said that the rich (sites) get richer / poor (sites) get poorer... And when we are talking about the cultural networks in the virtual environment, Internet, it is an important question weather and how their boundaries will have to be modified in the future? ... (if cultural networks still want to consider themselves as "hubs" for culture)...

Violeta Vojvodic

Beigetreten:
08 Feb 2006

Freitag, 13. Oktober 2006 17:56:35

Re: On boundaries

"who set the boundaries?"... Jordi, quite difficult question since boundaries are generated by the people. They share elements and events, but don't have to share relationships. It's usually up to the gatekeepers which brings up to rhetorical question "who shell guard the guardians?"... (both in virtual and real environment)...

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