Euro Bytes

This article originally appeared in the January/February 2000 issue of Afterimage.

New Media Culture in Europe presents detailed case studies and makes a convincing argument for locating the artist at the center of economic development in the digital age. It brings together diverse strands of cultural, political, economic and digital theories and practices through the documentation of groups and projects located across Europe. In the book's introduction, the authors state that "[g]rowing cultural activity testifies to the eagerness of artists, designers, musicians, performers and other cultural workers to engage and get their hands dirty in the emerging domain of digital and networked media. . . . Cultural workers of all sorts are influenced by - and in turn have an influence on - the process of technological transformation. This process redefines not only the 'materials' and 'tools' they work with, but also profoundly affects the economic and social structure of the societies they are part of."

New Media Culture in Europe focuses on the innovative work being done on the "fringes" of European culture and politics rather than from within mainstream research sites in academia and the computer industry. It points to new artist-initiated ways of thinking and working within the digital world that are now being heeded by enlightened government leaders in Europe. For instance, Maarten Asscher, Director for the Arts at The Netherlands Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, has encouraged the development of The Virtual Platform (an artist-based research and development group) with the conviction that it is important for the government to establish a nontraditional counterpart for the future development of innovation policy at national and local levels. He sees these groups as the "conscience" of the new media industry.

New Media Culture in Europe is divided into five sections. The first section, "The Culture of the Network Society," is an edited version of a lecture given by social scientist Manuel Castells, one of the gurus of the Information Age and author of a three-volume work called The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture (1996-98) in which he explains how the "Network Society" emphasizes the artist's vital role as communicator and translator of meaning in an increasingly meaningless electronic maze of signs and symbols. As art and technology become more connected, the role of artmaking as a form of research that explores new, humane uses for technology becomes central to the discussion of government and private support for the arts in the 21st Century.

In the second section, "Art Innovation Research," Michael Century, an independent media consultant based in Montréal, introduces the themes and issues surrounding a wide range of innovative European activities and initiatives that link the creative process in art, technology development and scientific research. He draws on the history of ground-breaking groups and artist centers in the United States, Canada and Europe in the 1960s and '70s such as Experiments in Art and Technology founded by Robert Rauschenberg and Billy Kluver in New York City, Gyorgy Kepes's Center for Advanced Visual Studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and Pierre Boulez's I.R.C.A.M. (Institut de Recherche et Coordination en Acoustique et Musique) in Paris.

Articles describing specific places, projects and practices follow, led by John Thackara's "The Edge Effect," which declares that "Europe's edge-based media culture can be interesting to business - as a source of wayward thinking, strange work practices and all-round interesting stuff." This section focuses on discovering the essence of how cultural R&D mixed with technology can affect everything from the economic growth of a region to the creative mutations of graphic design, communication technologies and performance art.

In section three, "Participation and the Public Domain," the big issues surrounding public space in cyberspace as well as access to technology by artists and the public sector are tackled. In "Frequently Asked Questions about the Public Domain" by Eric Kluitenberg, public domain is defined not in the American legal sense, but as "the future public space in a digital media environment. A space which is neither dominated by commercial interests (market-driven) nor monopolised by the State." Kluitenberg focuses on the crucial need for claiming and defining the public space in cyberspace as this era of global information and privately owned communication systems unfolds. Using a question-and-answer format, he responds to such queries as "Why is the right to communication necessary?" and "Who is going to pay for the public domain?"

Marleen Stikker, co-founder of the Digital City community computer network in Amsterdam and of the Society for Old and New Media of which she is now director, writes about the "European cultural backbone." Over the last few years, a series of meetings and events that she briefly summarizes have resulted in numerous key policy documents on the emerging new media culture. These efforts have culminated in, among other things, the publication that is reviewed here. The Virtual Platform, a group of 10 Dutch tactical media centers that include the Society for Old and New Media, is advocating for the construction of a system in Europe that will "not only consist of technical infrastructure, but which will also be a social and cultural infrastructure. … A technical infrastructure for cultural activity needs to be implemented along the same lines as the well-established frameworks of the scientific and academic networks. This requires public access to bandwidth and tools, and server capacity."

In section four, "Learning and Education," articles like "Art and Design Education in the Era of Techno Culture," "Internet in the Classroom" and "The Impact of Computing and Emergent Digital Media on Higher Education in the Visual Arts and Designing in the Netherlands" address questions, issues and discussions about arts education and technology. In "Art and Design Education in the Era of Techno Culture," David Garcia states that European educators are being pushed to teach only technical competence and ignore the tools of reflective thinking, fundamental research and development of critical discourse needed to help art students cope with long-term changes in the field. Garcia also compares European "digital artisans" to their medieval counterparts who anonymously built massive cathedrals that were the dominant locus of power. This comparison can also apply to U.S. Web designers and digital producers who are now erecting the corporate Web sites and portals of cyberspace.

The final section, "Practice to Policy," describes and documents the culmination of much of the recent scholarship done in Europe on the new media culture. Andreas Broeckmann, in his introductory article, "Policies for the New Media Culture in Europe," recognizes that "an exemplary media cultural practice is already in place which can serve as a model and guideline for the development of policy decisions in this field. Educational issues, public/private partnerships, networked organisational models, new aesthetic languages and forms of artistic productionóthese are only some of the fields where experiences have been accumulated over the past decades that can now play a vital role in the development of the Information Society." Broeckmann calls for the creation of spaces of "freedom" or "play" that enable culture to perform its unique role of creative educator that supports the evolution of societies. He sees the need for decentralized networks of small cultural organizations that have the freedom to self-organize and enter into an ongoing dialogue about future media policy with government leaders.

His article chronicles the development of discussions organized by the Council of Europe that began in Prague in 1996 and lead to a series of cultural policy documents. Those documents are all reprinted in the article, along with introductory commentary. Other articles delineate additional resources such as a listing of European Commission programs relating to new technologies and culture, and a who's who of digital culture in Europe.

The graphic layout of New Media Culture in Europe with its heavy-handed use of all-cap sans serif text, hard-to-follow narrative flow and lack of any illustrations to break up the dense design might be an initial barrier to some readers. The back of the book contains a CD-ROM, also over-designed but still informative, called The Hybrid Media Lounge database of European network culture (http://www.medialounge.net) developed by The Society for Old and New Media. Web links to European media culture from The Virtual Platform groups who collaborated on the book's contents and CD-ROM development are also provided.

New Media Culture in Europe exemplifies how effective use of networked media can bring together diverse ideas and actions by arts workers from across the globe to shape culturally focused economic policy. Its case studies and other documentations of applications of new media for learning and communicating demonstrate how converging technologies are breaking down the barriers between the arts and sciences, commercial and not-for-profit and producer and consumer. It is a timely blueprint to help develop increased economic support that may in turn encourage faster adaptation of digital media on the part of the arts community.

Robin Oppenheimer is currently Project Director of Open Studio at the Seattle Art Museum and is a 20-year veteran of the international media-arts community.

Original CAN/API publication: March 2000