i've attended a few "new media festivals" in britain over the last few years and on the whole they are pretty unrewarding experiences, offering little to anyone other than the cliques already in the know; knetting circles aplenty of course but ....
kit often doesn't work and even when it does, the work is usually self-referential and derivative, reflective of little other than the obsessive insular mindset that working with the tools on offer currently fosters - having spent 12 years in front of the tormenting cyclops i know such traps all too well this is no more or less so than "art" festivals per se, or even exhibitions writ large, attendance of which can be equated with being a football fan (apart from the obvious class differences) - you dutifully plod along time after time to what is a usually less than edifying and often wholly disheartening experience, but, occasionally, you have your heart and breath taken away by moments of grace, beauty, courage and if you're really lucky, outright poetic genius "new media" is i think now a ghetto shaped by the evermore compart-mental-ised existence we as (sic) citizens are increasingly faced with. it's a ghetto that has fared relatively well in recent years sure, for obvious socio-technological reasons but a ghetto nevertheless and as such one that will rarely see beyond it's own walls to me one of the biggest failings of art in britain - new media or otherwise - is the, at best piecemeal and half-arsed attempts to broaden the levels of participation/attendance and this is a problem that begins in schools. with art, as with most things, our kids are not taught how to learn, only what they should know, and an awareness of art has not historically figured too much as a priority for those deemed to be destined to pack boxes, or perpetually answer phones. indeed patronisation of the masses, in the worst possible sense, has become increasingly critical in recent years since the birth of the platitudinous mantras 'creative industries' and 'social inclusion' arose. these hollow devices offer little other than facile yet powerful means to mould the public consciousness, whilst controlling potential channels of critique of the establishment of the day. they certainly do little to broaden an appreciation of, engagement with, or understanding of 'art' and neither have they done much to tangibly democratise accessibility to tools in this light, yet another festival would be useful only if it was exceptionally good, if it had something to say, if it actually challenged something - not a project priority that has been at the top of the arts agenda in this country for a long time particularly since the-woman-who-shall-remain-unnamed' bulldozed the socio-political landscape into a consumerist wonder-lend how about a festival promoting a new engagement with art altogether, a festival that left a legacy greater than a few more business cards being circulated how about, instead of a static festival, a new media circus that toured around taking inspiration to people who would probably never cross the threshold of a gallery ? how about planting some seeds whilst showing off our wares ? perhaps we could employ some of gair's new shovel art to help with the task peace mark ps which sub audience are you actually from cavan ? ------------------------------------------------- a m b i t : networking media arts in scotland post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] info: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and write "info ambit" in the message body -------------------------------------------------
