Dear All,
I'm Charles Esche and was invited to join in by Trebor after we met at an
island conference in Suomenlinna, Helsinki. As a brief introduction, I run
an art space called Rooseum contemporary art center in Malmö, Sweden and
live in Copenhagen and occasionally in Edinburgh. From 1993-99 I worked on
and off for Foundation for Art and Creative Technology in Liverpool,
including co-curating at ISEA conference in 1998. I also edit a semi-annual
art journal called Afterall and I co-curated the Gwangju Biennale last year
which featured artists' groups and independent art spaces from Europe and
Asia.
My interests are beginning to return to questions of art's engagement with
technology after a longish period of disillusionment after ISEA '98. This
was mainly brought on by a depair at the fascination with (affirmative)
tools and effects over content and critique - something which I sense from
Trebor and Geert has been much undermined by the dot.com crash. As a
curator, I am interested in how the art field can be used to further
emancipatory, critical culture - how it can effect the political field
without becoming it.
As far as conferences are concerned I think one vital task is to define
objectives - who is it we are trying to reach and what results would we like
to emerge? Not to be proscriptive but to give us an idea how to structure it
- of course, many unthought of spin-offs should result anyway but often
these are helped rather than hindered by a transparent, clear structure. If
nothing else it gives the participants something to kick against.
Secondly, I think the architecture of the space is important to creating the
kind of open exchange that leads to new possibilities. This means everything
from the acoustics to the placement of chairs, cushions, chaises longues,
tables, writing pads, food service, coffee etc. Geert and I were in a
conference in San Sebastian in the spring that largely got all these things
wrong.
I agree about the idea to send out papers-in-progress early, though it is
often hard to get people to read in advance! I think introductory statements
rather than papers are useful (with the written texts as background for
bedtime reading) - especially if the conference consists of participants
rather than speakers and an audience. Within the structure, such 10 min
statements can be given real weight by the organisation.
Anyway, I look forward to contributing in any way I can (but mainly to
learning). Thanks very much for the invitation to join.