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CIRCLE and CULTURELINK Round
Table
eCulture: The European Perspective
Zagreb, Croatia, 24-27 April 2003
Cultural changes and prospects in the light of new
developments in the ICT sector the emerging information lag, and
the impact of new technologies on cultural policy-related issues,
especially the interaction between the creative forces and the new
media, are the overall themes of this Round Table, organized jointly
by CIRCLE and CULTURELINK.
The three-day meeting will address the issues related
to the term eCulture that have been in
the focus of general public and professional debates in the cultural
sector but still need a closer, in-depth look from the specifically
European perspective. The international keynote presentations are
expected from experts in the field, with the participation of both
practitioners and researchers. Special emphasis will be placed on
field-research initiatives and proposals, since the intention of
the organizers is to encourage and elaborate empirical activities
that would provide the basis for further analysis of the above issues.
The following themes are to be discussed:
- Theme A - European eCulture Logistics: The existing on-line
resources and ongoing activities
- Theme B - Cultural Policies and eCulture: The current and future
strategies for culture in the ICT environment
- Theme C - eCulture and New Economy: Inclusion or exclusion
in relation to the global market?
In order to contribute to the development of links
between theory and practice, or between virtual reality and real
life, a workshop will be organized with the participation of actors
in the eCulture-community.
For more information, please contact: CULTURELINK,
Pavle Schramadei at spavle@irmo.hr
or CIRCLE, Diane Dodd at diane.dodd@eresmas.net,
or visit this page or http://www.boekman.nl/circle/
NativeWeb
Resources for Indigenous Cultures around the World
NativeWeb Mission Statement
NativeWeb is an international,
non-profit educational organization dedicated to using telecommunications,
including computer technology and the Internet, to disseminate information
from and about indigenous nations, peoples, and organizations around
the world; to foster communication between native and non-native
peoples; to conduct research involving indigenous peoples' use of
technology and the Internet; and to provide resources, mentoring,
and services to facilitate indigenous peoples' use of this technology.
About NativeWeb
NativeWeb is a project of
many people. The purpose of this project is to provide a cyber-place
for the Earth's indigenous peoples. As access to the Web grows and
indigenous peoples reach out through the cyber-space, NativeWeb
will grow also. Through NativeWeb, indigenous people (and peoples)
become visible to each other and to themselves and organize actions
in a multitude of local, national, and international institutions.
The shape of indigenous social action changes as wider audiences
are created and especially as the means of creating audiences become
the means by which audiences become actors. From Chiapas to Nunavut
and from Samiland to Thailand, indigenous communities widen, coalesce,
and interact as they work, communicate, and organize via the Internet.
Indigenous peoples have much in common amidst great diversity: spiritual
practices celebrating inter-relatedness of all life on Earth and
historical suffering at the hands of industrialized nations and
corporate entities.
NativeWeb is concerned with all this: indigenous literature
and art, legal and economic issues, land claims, and new ventures
in self-determination. The purpose is not to 'preserve,' in a museum
fashion, some vestige of the past, but to foster communication among
peoples engaged in the present and looking towards a sustainable
future for those yet unborn.
For more information, please visit: http://www.nativeweb.org/resources/
The International Dance Council
(IDC)
With the encouragement and support of UNESCO, the
International Dance Council (IDC) (See
Culturelink no.
26/November 1998, p. 14.) was created in 1973 as an independent
organization. Its aims are to promote all that can be of benefit
to dance throughout the world, in accordance with the objectives
of UNESCO. In particular, the objectives of IDC are to:
- protect dance heritage;
- encourage the creation of dance documentation centres;
- promote creation and research;
- incite the setting up of international dance committees;
- promote the creation and dissemination of choreographic works;
- support the organization of congresses, festivals, dance competitions,
symposia, meetings and workshops;
- promote the knowledge of dance in general education;
- encourage the training of performers and choreographers; and
- act in close cooperation with UNESCO.
In order to carry out its aims, IDC relies on National
Committees and representatives on all five continents and its international
member and associate organizations. Membership in IDC insures influence
and dissemination on a national and international level.
Major current projects include the:
- World Dance Directory, by far the
largest dance directory ever compiled, updated with the help of
IDC members all over the world, freely listing schools, organizations
and individuals active in dance at the IDC web site http://www.cid-unesco.org/;
- Dance-Mobility, promoting the
crossing of national borders by ensembles, choreographers, teachers
and researchers, in order to show their work and promote peace
and understanding among peoples, within UNESCO's objectives;
- Cultural Olympics 2001-2004 participation;
- Dance for Children in Need (Latin
America); and
- International Festival of African Dance,
including the symposium on Dance, Healing and the Sacred in Africa.
For more information, please contact: IDC/UNESCO,
1 rue Miollis, F-75732 Paris Cedex 15, France, tel.: +33-1-45 68
49 53; fax: +33-1-45 68 49 31; e-mail: cid@unesco.org;
http://www.unesco.org/ngo/cid/
The Research Institute for Austrian
and International Literature and Cultural Studies (INST)
Since the last General Assembly of INST (For more
information on INST see Culturelink
no. 28/August 1999, pp. 15-16.)
in September 2000, the title of the INST Research Programme has
been The Unifying Aspects of Cultures.
The high point of this programme will be a conference on the same
topic to be held in Vienna, 7-9 November 2003. Preparations for
this large-scale conference have already started and will continue
at the conferences on Multilingualism, Transnationality,
Cultural Sciences, held in Vienna, 6-9 December 2001, and
The Simultaneity of the Unsimultaneous,
also to be held in Vienna, 6-8 December 2002.
For this project, a portal will be opened, which will
also integrate several other elements:
- The Encyclopaedia of Multilingual Cultural Sciences
(http://www.inst.at/ausstellung/enzy/index.htm);
- The Online Research Cooperation (ORC) in International
Cultural Sciences (http://www.inst.at/studies.htm);
A major project within this framework is The
Names of the Mountains.
INST also continues to expand its Book Series and
to organize cultural seminars for other institutions. Co-sponsorship
is another of INST's activities (http://www.vienna-thinktank.at).
For more information, please contact: INST,
P.O. Box 74, A-1112 Vienna, Austria, tel.: +43 1 748 1633; +43 1
748 1611; fax: +43 1 748 1515; e-mail: arlt@adis.at;
http://www.inst.at
The Red House Centre for Culture
and Debate
The Red House Centre for Culture
and Debate is a project of the Gulliver Clearing House Foundation,
Sofia, organized with the Ministry of Culture of Republic of Bulgaria,
the National Gallery of Fine Arts, and De Balie - Amsterdam. The
project is supported by the MATRA Programme of the Netherlands Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),
Sofia Municipality, the Open Society Foundation - Sofia, and Prins
Bernhards Fonds.
The mission of The Red House Centre for Culture and
Debate is to act as a catalyst for the transformation of the Bulgarian
public space into a functioning civil society - a society where
individuals and their formal/informal associations actively contribute
to the ongoing process of improving social, cultural and economic
conditions. With its public debates on socio-political topics, the
Red House Centre for Culture and Debate provides a neutral platform
for the free expression of different segments of Bulgarian society
and evolves a new form of participatory culture which started to
develop in Bulgaria recently. With its artistic and cultural programmes,
the Red House Centre for Culture and Debate provides a shelter for
independent groups of artists, giving them an opportunity to demonstrate
their creativity and question prevailing perceptions.
The Red House also cultivates a culture of life-long
learning by offering training courses and programmes and by maintaining
a comprehensive resource centre and library, which can be used by
the general public.
For more information, please contact: The Red
House Centre for Culture and Debate, 70, Neofit Rilski St., Sofia
1000, Bulgaria, tel/fax: +359 2 986 3188; +359 2 986 4416, e-mail:
info@redhouse-sofia.org;
http://www.redhouse-sofia.org
The Foundation for Arts and Creative
Technologies (FACT)
The Foundation for Arts and Creative
Technologies (FACT) is one of Europe's arts organisations
specializing in the commissioning, presentation and support of film,
video and new media projects. It was established in 1988 and has
so far commissioned more than 120 projects by British and international
artists. Many of these projects have been showcased within the biennial
Video Positive event, the UK's largest international electronic
arts festival, and other major exhibitions organised by FACT, introducing
North-West and UK audiences to high quality projects from across
the globe.
In addition to its activities as a commissioning agency,
FACT has developed several other initiatives. The Fact Collaboration
Programme has established creative partnerships between artists
and hundreds of individuals and groups throughout Liverpool and
the North-West. This programme has launched a broad range of projects,
including live Internet broadcasts, video and film shorts, critical
publications, conferences, and public art works.
MITES, The Moving Image Touring and Exhibition Service
established by FACT in 1992, provides specialist resources and support
for artists and exhibitors working with the moving image and new
media technologies. In 1999 MITES launched DVD-Video authoring facility
that has enabled dozens of UK galleries to present work of the highest
possible standard and upgrade the exhibition experience of their
audiences.
The New Tools training programme offers expert tuition
and professional development opportunities to a wide range of artists
and individuals working in the new media and visual culture.
In early 2003, the FACT Centre, a major new centre
for film, art and creative technology, will open in Liverpool. An
arts project for the digital age, the FACT Centre will comprise
cinemas and exhibition spaces for film, video and new media projects,
alongside a set of resources, spaces, programmes and partnerships
dedicated to the development of new and emerging forms of creativity.
For more information, please contact: Ms. Alison
Edbury, FACT, P.O. Box 911, Liverpool L69 1AR, United Kingdom, tel.:
+44 (0)151 709 2663; fax: +44 (0)151 707 2150; e-mail: edbury@fact.co.uk;
http://www.fact.co.uk
The Croatian-Japanese Institute
for Art and Spiritual Heritage
A project that aims to present the traditional approach
to the arts and to cultivate universal values in artistic and spiritual
expression has been initiated by Jomyo Tanaka, the top-rated Japanese
calligrapher and lecturer at Waseda University in Tokyo, together
with a group of Croatians: Diego Sobol, translator and publisher;
Mario Varšić, academic painter, and Majda
Jurić, teacher of Croatian language and literature.
The underlying idea of the project is the recognition
of the fundamental human condition in significantly different cultures,
such as Japanese and Croatian. Art is a medium with a great potential
for such an understanding, which can lead to mutual support and
stimulate the development of universal spiritual and artistic values.
Such a 'meeting of the minds' may give rise to a critical evaluation
of one's own heritage, giving one a chance to re-interpret the very
mode of perception/conception/expression and spiritual sensitivity.
The first steps towards the establishment of the Croatian-Japanese
Institute were made in 2001. The institute was started with
an idea of creative exchange between the Far East and the West -
in this case Croatia and Japan - hosting the representatives of
different arts and skills (such as calligraphy, painting, dance,
performing arts, etc.) from both regions, providing also for the
transfer of knowledge to the participants.
Several years of collaboration and meetings of the
steering committee, organized by the Mandala Society in Croatia
and the International Mandala Association in Japan, produced valuable
events in Croatia, when traditional Japanese calligraphy (shôdô)
was presented to Croatian painters and graphic artists. A lively
and rich exchange continued with a series of such events and other
participatory programmes.
The most recent event, a workshop in calligraphy,
was held in Zagreb in co-operation with the Croatian Academy of
Fine Arts in March 2002.
Such work yields various benefits, such as
- affirming common values and experiences through of the Far
Eastern and Western cultural discourse,
- recognizing Croatia's position in the Central European artistic
and cultural setting,
- providing a meeting point for more general Croatian-Japanese
contacts and deepening the exchange between the two countries,
- offering a model experience for other projects in inter-cultural
dialogue.
For more information, please contact: Mario
Varšić, Goljak 10A, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia,
tel.: 01 4823 193, or 098 469 772; e-mail: mario.varsic@zg.hinet.hr
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