From the Focal Point

Remembering the late Professor Aggrey Brown

Professor Aggrey Brown was among the first members of the Culturelink Network, since its foundation in 1989. His support and enthusiasm, his knowledge and experience were invaluable, not only to our starting efforts of establishing and developing communication with cultural networks and institutions worldwide, but also in our later work, when our research focused on changes influenced especially by the development of new information and communication technologies, and on dynamics of communication. New ways and new actors of global communication opened new possibilities of networking and promoting intercultural dialogue. In this context, the participation of Professor Brown in the Second World Culturelink Conference, held in 2005 in Zagreb, was of essential significance to all us at Culturelink.

Professor Aggrey Brown was Director of the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication (CARIMAC), Mona, Jamaica, from 1979 to 2002, and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education at the University of the West Indies, from 2002-2005. His main areas of research were the impact of culture on communication and the role of media and communication in development. His dedication to the issues of the diversity of cultural communication, his faith in the power of culture and communication, his sense of critical reflection, had an influence on many Culturelink members. Both we and Professor Brown regretted sincerely that he was not able to revisit Zagreb at the occasion of the Third World Culturelink Conference, dedicated to networks and the evolving aspects of culture in the 21st century.

We are proud that the proceedings of the Second World Culturelink Conference include an article by Professor Aggrey Brown, in which, with his finishing words, he addressed the Caribbean youth, which have the opportunity to link globally, but at the same time, prophetically, warned of the need for a less market-driven and more socially conscious use of the Internet.

"Web surfing, music, game playing, and chat - the most popular uses of the Internet by Caribbean youth, expose them to virtual worlds that are essentially not of their own making but which nonetheless, are communities of interest to which they have the opportunity to link globally, hampered only by language barriers and the perennial stultifying effects of illiteracy - two phenomena that can be overcome by a less market-driven and more socially conscious use of the Internet itself." (The Internet, Cultural Networks and Diversity of Cultural Communication: The Case of the Caribbean, in Dynamics of Communication: News Ways and New Actors, Biserka Cvjeticanin (ed.), Institute for International relations, Culturelink Joint Publications Series No. 10, Zagreb, 2006)

Culturelink Team

1.   Citizens, Communication, and Democracy in the New Digital World

The 30th EURICOM Colloquium on Communication and Culture, organized in honour of Professor Hanno Hardt and to be held in Piran, Slovenia, on 16-17 November 2012, will be focused on citizens' participation and representation in the media in the context of global processes of media digitalisation, concentration, and convergence. Suggestions for papers with abstracts are invited until 15 July 2012. >>>

2.   Transforming Conflict: Sharing Tools for Cross-Cultural Communication

At a time of rising turmoil and polarization - a time that calls for new thinking, new vision, new understanding, and new ways of relating in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world, Common Bond Institute is organising the 2nd Annual International Conference on Transforming Conflict: Sharing Tools for Cross-Cultural Communication, to be held in Amman, Jordan, on 20-23 June 2012. >>>

3.   Creative Encounters: Cultural Partnerships between Asia and Europe

The Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), in partnership with Trans Europe Halles (TEH) and Arts Network Asia (ANA), has launched a call for applications for the second edition of the programme Creative Encounters: Cultural Partnerships between Asia and Europe 2012-2013. Art and culture organisations/networks of Asia and Europe are invited to apply by 30 June 2012. >>>

4.   Artist in Residency Programme: Calling Africa's Artists

The Africa Centre, together with artist in residency programmes in Australia, Brazil, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, South Africa and the United States of America, have partnered to create the Artist in Residency (AIR) 2012 programme. The programme has been conceived to support artists from Africa. Application deadline is 15 June 2012. >>>

5.   MA Programme in Cultural Policy and Management

The University of Arts in Belgrade, in cooperation with the University Lyon 2, presents a joint MA programme in Cultural Policy and Management (Interculturalism and Mediation in the Balkans). For its excellence in the promotion of intercultural cooperation and mediating capacities of culture, the programme has been named UNESCO Chair in 2004. Application deadline for the academic year 2012/13 is 6 June 2012. >>>

6.   MASTER'S DEGREE CULTURES AND SOCIETY (16th-21st Centuries)

The master's degree Cultures and Society, linked to the Knowledge, Norms and Sensibilities programme of the Centre Georges Chevrier, aims to provide training of high quality delivered by teams of teachers and researchers whose work is authoritative in the two privileged fields of the center: Social History, Institutions and Conflict, and History of the Arts, Cultural Creation and Dissemination. >>>

7.   Summer School in Fashion Management

The Department of Management/Cultural Management at the University of Antwerp is organizing its summer school for the second time, focusing this year on management competences in the fashion industry. The summer school will take place from 27-31 August 2012. >>>

8.   Next Step - Putting Culture on the Agenda for the Future of Europe

An International Culture Conference under the Danish EU Presidency entitled Next Step - Putting Culture on the Agenda for the Future of Europe will take place at HEART - Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Herning, Denmark, from 7-8 June 2012. The conference will debate the decisions to be made in regard to the EU 2014-2020 policies and budget, and the impact of these decisions on the cultural landscape of Europe in the future. >>>

9.   A Commonality That Cannot Speak: Europe in Translation

The international conference A Commonality That Cannot Speak: Europe in Translation organised by the eipcp in the framework the project Europe as a Translational Space: The Politics of Heterolinguality, funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), will take place in Vienna, Austria, from 8-9 June 2012. >>>

10.   La Rencontre d'Avignon - European Capitals of Culture: Before and After 2020

The meeting of Les Rencontres, the Association of European Cities and Regions for Culture, will be held in Avignon, France, from 19-21 July 2012, dealing with the current issues and the future of the European Capitals of Culture (ECoC). EcoC cities will have the possibility to work together in order to exchange ideas and experiences. >>>

11.   The Best in Heritage

Conceived as the world's only annual survey of museum, heritage and conservation projects awarded in the previous year, the Best in Heritage conference, organised in partnership with Europa Nostra, will take place in Dubrovnik, Croatia, on 27-29 September 2012, featuring 25 projects coming from 20 countries. >>>

12.   8th EURO-AMERICAN CAMPUS ON CULTURAL COOPERATION

The Euro-American Campus on Cultural Cooperation is an Interarts' initiative which will reach its eighth edition in 2012. To be held in Cuenca, Ecuador, from 28-30 November 2012, the 8th Campus will focus on new strategies that cooperation should implement in order to adapt itself to new human development processes. >>>

13.   The Network Society

In its third edition, The Network Society, written by Jan van Dijk, remains an accessible, comprehensive, must-read introduction to how new media function in contemporary society. The publication is aimed at upper-level undergraduate and postgraduate students of media studies, new media, media and cultural policy/economics, digital culture, and sociology modules dealing with the Internet and mass media. >>>

14.   L'œuvre commune. Affaire d'art et de citoyen

In its sociological approach to new artistic practices in public commissioning, the book Artwork in Common. Matter of Art and Citizen does not concern itself with artworks already made, but rather with "artworks to be done". The creation of a 'common work' is underlined by a long series of associations, intrigues, controversies and dynamic negotiations between artists, mediators, and the patron citizens. >>>

15.   ON-AiR: Reflecting on the Mobility of Artists in Europe

A final publication, entitled Reflecting on the Mobility of Artists in Europe, presents the outcomes of the ON-AiR project (workshops on mobility and artist-in-residence opportunities and regional information on mobility from the 18 ON-AiR partners) as well as ten essays about cultural mobility and three interviews with artists who experienced mobility in different ways. >>>

16.   Mobility & Touring in East Africa

Art Moves Africa (AMA) has published Mobility &Touring in East Africa, a research commissioned in 2011 and implemented by Hildegard Kiel on the performing arts sector in East Africa. The objective of the research was to identify the main actors of the performing arts field in East Africa and to analyse the relevance and frequency of artistic mobility from that geographical area towards the whole African continent. >>>

17.   A Handbook on Tolerance and Cultural Diversity in Europe

This complete, comprehensive and responsive handbook has been published by the European University Institute, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, Florence and prepared under the auspices of the Accept Pluralism research project "Tolerance, Pluralism and Social Cohesion: Responding to the Challenges of the 21st Century in Europe". >>>

18.   Localizador de Residencias y Espacios para la Producción Artística en Europa

This online Inventory of Residencies and Spaces for Arts Production in Europe features a list of residencies and spaces for artistic creation in the visual arts sector in over 30 European countries. >>>

19.   HERITO

HERITO is a fully bilingual Polish-English magazine on culture and heritage, published by the International Cultural Centre, Krakow, Poland. Focusing on contemporary Central-European subjects, the quarterly aims to build cultural bridges, not only in the domain of ideas, but also in the practical sphere of heritage as seen in the context of the economy and the development of social potential. >>>

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