LabforCulture Blog

Contribute to your Europe

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:16:25 GMT

From now until 16 May you can rewrite how Europe should tackle cultural diversity. Help shape the future by going online and responding to a paper produced by the 'Rainbow Platform' (Civil Society Platform for Intercultural Dialogue, an initiative of the ECF and Culture Action Europe (EFAH), facilitated by LabforCulture.

You can comment on the recommendations in the paper and even add your own submissions! Just go to the site http://rainbowplatform.labforculture.org, read Rainbow Paper II and contribute your comments/changes.

This paper brings many issues of intercultural dialogue to the fore. Should there be a system of monitoring and reporting on the practice of intercultural dialogue, and if so, who should do this? Is it right that the EU should 'mainstream' diversity policies in its various programmes? Can there be an agreed 'European standard' for supporting culture?

The set of recommendations is very much a work-in-progress. Your constructive feedback is absolutely vital. The results will be discussed at a plenary meeting of the Rainbow Platform in Brussels on June 4th 2008 - the same date on which the Platform becomes an officially recognised discussion partner with the EU institutions.

The Rainbow Paper process started in January 2008 at the launch of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue and the start of the Slovenian EU Presidency.

Let the platform know your thoughts. The Platform intends to present a set of standard-setting recommendations at the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008 closing colloquium.

To read the paper and contribute: http://rainbowplatform.labforculture.org

Victims’ Symptom goes live: join the online debate

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 10:10:09 GMT

Victims’ Symptom, commissioned by LabforCulture and curated by Ana Peraica (Croatia/The Netherlands), is live at http://victims.labforculture.org. The project explores the concept and image of ‘the victim’ as it is used in contemporary society.

Is the cultural production of victims preventing us from seeing the actual victims? Why does the mass media prefer to talk in terms of numbers? Are we losing our capacity for empathy? These are just some of the questions explored in the Victims’ Symptom project through critical texts, commissioned artworks, interviews and reflections by the curator and a number of renowned theorists and artists.

The new Victims’ Symptom online space features texts by: Sezgin Boynik (Kosovo), Adila Laidi-Hanieh (Palestine), Geert Lovink (The Netherlands) and Stevan Vukovic (Serbia). Victims’ Symptom also presents a series of online artworks specifically commissioned for this project by: Mauricio Arango (Colombia/USA), Alejandro Duque (Colombia/Switzerland), Andreja Kuluncic (Croatia), Marko Peljhan (Slovenia) and Martha Rosler (USA). The texts and artworks provide the framework for an open online debate from 17 - 23 May 2008 in which the public is invited to participate alongside the Victims’ Symptom artists and theorists.

Victims’ Symptom was commissioned in the summer of 2007 to mark LabforCulture’s first anniversary. Katherine Watson (Canada/Finland), Director of LabforCulture said, “it is an online experiment that set out to bring critical thinkers, artists and a wider public together and to encourage reflection, open dialogue and debate on a compelling global issue.”

Open Lines to Intercultural Dialogue: have your say!

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:11:21 GMT

LabforCulture launches an online participatory project which invites people from around the world to share their personal interpretations of intercultural dialogue, Open Lines to Intercultural Dialogue.

The project looks at visualising language and exploring the variations and similarities of people’s interpretations of intercultural dialogue. Everyone is invited to contribute in their original language and in English and even to add an audio interpretation. The site is designed to intuitively navigate through the submissions by following recurring words that appear in the individual submissions.

A Dutch student, living in Utrecht says, “according to me, intercultural dialogue is about being open to and having genuine respect for and interest in an unknown culture.” This submission links to all others that use the words: genuine, respect, culture or unknown.

LabforCulture produced Open Lines to Intercultural Dialogue to contribute to the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue and to experiment with using online tools to encourage debate and discourse across the cultural sector. The convergence of ideas, artistic perspectives and technologies is a key element of the work of LabforCulture in stimulating cultural collaboration and facilitating intercultural dialogue across Europe.

Go to: http://openlines.labforculture.org

To read more about culture and the web see our last newsletter.

Culture and the Web

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:01:48 GMT

The latest LabforCulture newsletter focuses on how cultural institutions and audiences can collaboratively engage with each other with the help of new online practices.

Peter Mechant, a researcher at the Research Group for Media and ICT, Ghent University, recently published a text in the Virtueel Platform's Cultuur 2.0 publication that presents a particular perspective on developing these new relationships. LabforCulture asked two individuals working in the field - Marko Brumen (Pekarna magdalenske mreže cultural centre, Slovenia) and Annet Dekker (Virtueel Platform, NL) - to respond to Mechant's text with their own viewpoints and experiences.

Read their contributions here.

Be sure not to miss the next edition of the newsletter - subscribe now!

Open Call for Contributions

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 12:34:08 GMT

Victims’ Symptom, curated by Ana Peraica (Croatia/The Netherlands) and specially commissioned by LabforCulture to celebrate its first year anniversary in the summer of 2007, invites the public to join in the preparation for the Victims’ Symptom online debate to take place in April 2008.

Victims’ Symptom focuses on the concept of the victim as it is practically used in politics and journalism, but also as it is explored theoretically in victimology and in psychiatry and psychotherapy, as well as in the field of cultural studies. The project features critical texts, documentation, commissioned artworks and reflections by the curator and a number of other theorists and artists throughout the project.

The project focuses on the following questions:

Why does the mass media prefer to talk in terms of numbers of corpses, calculating them morbidly, with apparent disregard for the victims’ status? Do numbers matter? Or is each loss a single one? Does the number of victims reported by the media’s “truth speaking” make any real difference or is it perpetuating the media myth that cannot report on few?

Who profits from death? Is there a bureaucracy of death? What is the dominant exchange rate between civilians and soldiers, our victims and their victims?

Is the cultural production of victims preventing us from seeing the actual victims? Are we able to see what happened only after a sufficient number of movies, novels and theses published on massacres? Is earning a degree on a massacre ethical? Furthermore, how can denying a massacre lead to no consequences? Are we losing our capacity for empathy? Are we victimised ourselves? Is there a therapy for such a world?

We are inviting the public to send in their responses (artworks, comments, texts and debates) to these questions in the following ways:

1. Links to existing projects to be reviewed

Links should be accompanied by a short description (100 words max) explaining which particular curatorial question or questions they address. This description will subsequently accompany the selected links on the Victims’ Symptom website.

2. Full, published texts or interviews (html, blog, wiki…)

Texts should be summarised in a short description (200 words max) outlining the specific issues and questions they address. Texts that require users to login for access will not be considered.

3. Separate discussions on mailing lists, message boards and forums with public access

Moderators with proposals for discussions should send an email outlining the concept along with the names of the proposed participants. If the discussion is to take place on external mailing lists, message boards or discussion forums, the forums should be open access and, optionally, have an RSS feed. A one-line description of the location of the discussion should be provided, stating the URL, focus of the group / forum, year it was founded, number of members, etc.

Send an e-mail to victims_symptom@yahoo.com with your proposal for participation by 21 March 2008.

All contributions will be reviewed by Victims’ Symptom curator Ana Peraica and assistant Marko Stamenkovic. Selected material will be included in the online space and debate in April 2008.

More information on Victims’ Symptom.

More about the participating artists and theorists in the Victims’ Symptom project.

Victims' Symptom blog

Tools for Culture

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:49:37 GMT

LabforCulture.org's new Research in focus is dedicated to the use of online tools in the cultural sector. How do different cultural organisations collaborate online? Which tools do we use?

LabforCulture commissioned the Digital Methods Initiative to prepare a research mapping of the existing and ongoing research related to the use of tools for collaboration in culture as a first step in identifying what areas could benefit from more in-depth research and analysis. Specifically, LabforCulture also asked the Digital Methods Initiative to map out the actual use of tools in the sector, starting with LabforCulture.org’s online directory containing organisations working in the cultural sector in Europe.

Read the results of the mapping and literature search here.

Two freelance opportunities at LabforCulture: deadline 29 February 2008

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 11:41:32 GMT

LabforCulture is currently looking for two freelancers: a Freelance Editor and a Freelance Project Manager. Deadline for both applications: February 29, 2008.

1 - LabforCulture is seeking a Freelance Editor to join our Editorial Group and develop and maintain the Funding section of LabforCulture.org

2 - LabforCulture is seeking a Freelance Project Manager for its 2008 Region in focus: Adriatic Euroregion

Victims' Symptom Interview Series

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 10:05:46 GMT

Before the official start of the Victims' Symptom project commissioned by LabforCulture and curated by Ana Peraica, planned for early this year, a series of interviews with renowned specialists are being published on the Victims’ Symptom blog, addressing a number of key questions from Peraica’s curatorial statement:

Why does the mass media prefer to talk in terms of numbers of corpses, calculating them morbidly, with apparent disregard for the victims’ status? Do numbers matter? Or is each loss a single one?

Does the number of victims reported by the media’s “truth speaking” make any real difference or is it self-feeding the spectacle that cannot report on few? Who earns on death? Is there a bureaucracy of death? What is the dominant exchange rate between civilians and soldiers, our victims and their victims?

Is the cultural production of victims preventing us from seeing the actual victims? Are we going to really see what happened only after a sufficient number of movies, novels and theses are published on massacres? Is earning a degree on a massacre ethical? How can denying one lead to no consequence?

Are we losing our capacity for empathy? Are we victimised ourselves? Is there a therapy for such a world?

So far, interviews with the following theorists, artists and specialists have been published:

Sue Golding (aka Johnny de Philo)

The series will continue with more interviews with key figures such as as Alfredo Jaar, Ariella Azoulay, and Agricola de Cologne. Interviews are conducted by curator Ana Peraica and assistant Marko Stamenkovic and are published weekly.

Besides commenting, we invite you to send your proposals with questions or full interviews to shape the upcoming discussions.

Blog reports on LabforCulture

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 10:49:52 GMT

Follow our blogging columnists as they explore issues that connect and challenge the cultural sector across Europe. LabforCulture currently features two regularly updated blogs, "Passing in Proximity" by Nat Muller and "Blue Monday" by Jelena Vesic, that can be followed here.

LabforCulture also features occasional reporting and views from key European cultural events. Check out the blogs from the events covered in 2007 (documenta 12 magazines workshops, Istanbul Biennial, EFAH conference) and check back for more to come in 2008.

And be sure to follow Victims' Symptom curated by Ana Peraica through her blog on LabforCulture.

Subscribe to the RSS feed to get all blog posts on LabforCulture delivered straight to your newsreader.

Happy New Year !

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:10:16 GMT

The LabforCulture team wishes you wonderful holidays and a connected 2008 !

Cultural Cooperation in a Wireless World

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:47:25 GMT

LabforCulture set out its vision for 2008-2012 at its 3rd Annual Assembly in Lisbon, at the prestigious Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation on 27 November. The online platform for European culture and arts with edited information in five languages and social networking space is now emerging from its pilot phase and urged the cultural sector to become more experimental with online technologies. Keynote speakers Jarmo Eskelinen from Forum Virium Helsinki and Nokia’s Riitta Vänskä described vividly the ‘no strings attached’ potential of cultural cooperation through new digital services and capabilities. A panel discussion, moderated by Kathinka Dittrich von Weringh and featuring Kathrin Deventer (EFA), Adam Jeanes and GiannaLia Cogliandro (ENCATC), probed the practical issues of extending the impact and reach of LabforCulture. Several participants called for EU member states and institutions to back LabforCulture as strongly as Europe’s foundations sector has been doing.

The Business Plan for 2008-2012 was presented by LabforCulture Director, Katherine Watson. This described the plans for developing LabforCulture’s resources and its community of users as well as raising the profile and coverage of the platform in and beyond Europe, always with a view to the added value it can bring to the sector.

The Assembly was joined by participants from 21 countries including ministries, the foundation sector and members of the network of European Cultural Foundation’s Fora, with the clear aim of helping to spread the word among Europe’s nations and regions and gather new support. The LabforCulture Steering Committee also convened on the eve of the Assembly, discussing the future plans in detail.

The latest on LabforCulture.org

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:03:01 GMT

Check out a recent interview with Istanbul-based critic and curator Erden Kosova by Nat Muller in her blog on LabforCulture.org in the context of the 10th International Istanbul Biennial.

Victims' Symptom (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Culture), curated by Ana Peraica (Croatia) and commissioned by LabforCulture as a special initiave in the context of its first anniversary, has been launched, featuring an in-depth curatorial statement and a dynamic visual interface through which to access the project over the next months. Join the lively discussions on Ana's blog.

Read the reports from Inside Out 2007, the 15th EFAH (European Forum for the Arts and Heritage) Conference and Annual General Assembly, which took place November 8-10, 2007 in Warsaw. A post-conference summary by bloggers Iwona Wyżga, Ania Stępniewska and Jacek Drozda has just recently been posted in English and Polish on their blog.

To keep you up-to-date, LabforCulture.org offers several RSS feeds that bring the latest content from the site straight to you. Interested in new additions to a particular section of LabforCulture.org? Subscribe to the feed from that section and have all of the new items sent immediately to your newsreader. And subscribe to the LabforCulture.org Newsletter here.

Blogging from the EFAH Conference in Warsaw

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 19:50:54 GMT

Inside Out 2007: Re-imagining cultural action in Europe, the 15th EFAH (European Forum for the Arts and Heritage) Conference and Annual General Assembly, is taking place in Warsaw, Poland, at the Fabryka Trzciny, from November 8-10, 2007.

This year's conference will feature sessions such as "Cultural activism today: democracy, cultural rights and civic participation", "Culture and Arts in the new coalitions of concerns" (around the themes of climate change, migration and cultural diversity) and much more.

LabforCulture is pleased to feature reporting and reflections from the conference, in Polish and in English, by Iwona Wyżga, Ania Stępniewska and Jacek Drozda on their blog on LabforCulture.org. Follow their reports over the weekend and join in the debates!

Launch of VICTIMS' SYMPTOM

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:33:46 GMT

Debate on VICTIMS’ SYMPTOM at the MutaMorphosis conference (celebrating 40 years of Leonardo) in Prague

In celebration of 40 years of the MIT Press journal Leonardo, founded by the scientist and artist Frank J. Malina, the conference MutaMorphosis will be held in Prague from 8-10 November 2007.

One of the topics of debate that will be showcased at MutaMorphosis is around the project Victims’ Symptom (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Culture), curated by Ana Peraica (Croatia) and commissioned by LabforCulture.org. An introduction to the Victims’ Symptom project has been launched on LabforCulture.org, featuring an in-depth curatorial statement by curator Ana Peraica, as well as a blog and a unique visual interface through which to access the project over the next months.

Victims’ Symptom (PTSD and Culture) attempts to move forward the notion of PTSD from psycho-traumatic diagnosis to a symptomatic term in media studies. The project will analyse the meaning of a victim who has survived a traumatic event, becoming both a witness and a suffering subject. Commissioned as a special initiative to mark LabforCulture’s one-year anniversary, the full project, accompanied by critical texts, documentation, commissioned artworks and reflections by the curator and a number of other theorists and artists throughout the project, will go live on LabforCulture.org in early 2008.

The Victims’ Symptom project is based on Ana Peraica's text War profiteers in art, which was a critique of the biennialisation and commodification of images of victims in response to Robert Storr’s exhibition at the Venice Biennale this year. Peraica’s text engendered discussions in the summer of 2007 on two large media culture list servs: Nettime and Yasmin.

A first discussion around the themes of Victims’ Symptom will take place at a roundtable discussion on the notion of the “extreme” at Mutamorphosis. The debate, moderated by Ana Peraica and including participation by sound artist Peter Cusack, professor Susan Elisabeth Ryan from Louisiana State University and Murat Germen from the Sabanci University in Istanbul, will be held on Friday, November 9, 2007 from 17:35 to 18:30 (GMT+1) in the debate room of the municipal library of Prague. Everyone is also invited to follow the debate and join in the discussion in the Victims’ Symptom blog at LabforCulture.org.

The participants will focus on the notion of “extreme” as a physical consequence of high levels of adrenaline, popularly named “the strongest drug”. In the context of war psychology, high adrenaline levels in the blood during pregnancy are known to produce problems in unborn babies (including extreme cases where stress is produced intentionally, such as by rape in war, for example in Bosnia). Namely, a generation of babies who were in their mothers’ uterus’ during periods of extreme conditions paradoxically feel “safe” in situations of extreme risk.

The mediated experience, becoming more and more real, will also be taken into account. How much can media representations of violence and adrenaline rising in the mediated experience produce similar symptoms? Are we already dealing with the collateral media victims of wars, even with computer games or reports that are beyond our understanding?

Blogging from Art Futura

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 10:13:15 GMT

LabforCulture is in Barcelona for the 18th edition of Art Futura. Check back here over the next few days to read more about the festival and its theme "The Next Web".

If you are also attending Art Futura, let us know on this blog and share your experiences of the festival!

At Home in Europe

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 14:12:58 GMT

The latest edition of LabforCulture's newsletter asks what it means to be 'at home in Europe'. Guest edited by Clymene Christoforou, Co-Director of ISIS Arts in the UK, the lead partner of the project At Home in Europe, the newsletter features contributions from some of the artists and organisations involved in the project and invites you to join in the debate.

Subscribe to the LabforCulture newsletter here and check out the previous editions in our archive.

The Partner Section of the EYID 2008 website

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 15:48:58 GMT

In the run-up to the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008, part of its future website has been launched in a preliminary version: the partner section – developed in cooperation with civil society. It offers a unique networking platform for all people already involved and the ones interested in this event: it increases visibility and permits the exchange of good practices.

For more details on EYID 2008, please see the European Commission, DG for Education and Culture website.

http://www.interculturaldialogue2008.eu

Blogging from the Istanbul Biennial

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 09:33:59 GMT

This weekend marked the opening of the 10th International Istanbul Biennial curated by Hou Hanrou under the theme 'Not Only Possible, But Also Necessary: Optimism in the Age of Global War'.

LabforCulture has invited Rotterdam-based curator and critic Nat Muller to report live from the opening days as well as further explore the impact of the event in a series of interviews and reports after her return from Istanbul. Check back here regularly to read Nat's latest blog posts and add your impressions.

Mobility of Imagination: A companion guide to international cultural cooperation

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 14:46:14 GMT

The new book of Dragan Klaic is a systematic guide to the purpose, instruments, models, benefits, success factors, risks and strategic issues in international cultural cooperation. It offers to emerging and experienced cultural practitioners some basic instruments for cross-border international project management and perspectives on strategic thinking in “practicing” cultural cooperation internationally, within the context of bridging Eastern and Western Europe and creating an “European cultural space”. As the discussions around international cultural cooperation have been traditionally conceived as a matter of national governments, national cultural and foreign policies, the book aims at offering the point of view of real “doers”- cultural managers, producers, intermediaries.
Dr. Dragan Klaic, a Permanent Fellow of Felix Meritis in Amsterdam, a theater scholar, cultural analyst and author of several books and many articles, teaches arts and cultural policy at the Leiden University. He is the initiator and Chair of the European Festivals Research Project, an international consortium, and a frequent speaker, lecturer and trainer across Europe.
The book is published in September 2007 by the Center of Arts and Culture, Central European University Budapest, with the support of Amsterdam, Budapest Observatory and Euclid, Liverpool.SICA.

ISBN-10: 9639776068; ISBN-13: 978-9639776067

Validation and Certification in the field of cultural cooperation project management

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 17:21:42 GMT

The “Vania seminar”, organised in partnership with ENCATC (with the support of the European programme Leonardo da Vinci), was an opportunity to present the results of the two-years research work, and to debate key issues it raises with professionals of the sector (August 26 - 27th 2007, European Cultural Centre of Delphi, Greece). The topics addressed during the seminar were:
- the innovative training methods and tools in the field of European cultural cooperation
- the skills and competencies needed to develop this specific kind of project
- the possibilty to implement a validation and certification process of training courses in the field European Cultural Cooperation Project Management

Vania research project aims to identify the key competencies needed by cultural managers and operators in the field of European cultural cooperation. Vania is a project coordinated by the Marcel Hicter Foundation (Brussels), Cupore (Helsinki), Evremathia (Athens) and International Intelligence on Culture (London).